Banning Books is Never a Good Look

By SAM URETSKY

A sentence uttered makes a world appear
Where all things happen as it says they do;
We doubt the speaker, not the tongue we hear:
Words have no word for words that are not true. — (W.H. Auden “Words”

Book banning is in the news. It’s a bit early since Banned Books Week won’t be until Sept. 18-24, but it feels as if the engine is just starting to warm up, while most of the attention seems to be focused on  Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel about the Holocaust, “Maus.”

The winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize was deleted from the McMinn County curriculum by unanimous decision of the school board on the grounds that it contained inappropriate language and illustrations of female nudity. According to the school board minutes, “Maus” was going to be the “anchor” text for a module on the Holocaust which also included interviews from Holocaust survivors, articles from the BBC, the Los Angeles Times and The Guardian, as well as excerpts from other books as teaching material.

Probably the school board should be given recognition for allowing lessons about the Holocaust, but it’s hard to see how any lessons about the Holocaust, the murder of six million innocents, can be taught without introducing inappropriate subjects. According to the Museum of the Holocaust “While the majority of victims of the Holocaust were Jews, many other minority groups were targeted as well. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, people with disabilities, and others were imprisoned in concentration camps or killed...”

The attention drawn to “Maus” has resulted in increased sales of the books, part 1, part 2, and “The Complete Maus,” which includes both parts. At the same time, the New York Times reported (Jan. 30) “Parents, activists, school board officials and lawmakers around the country are challenging books at a pace not seen in decades. The American Library Association said in a preliminary report that it received an “unprecedented” 330 reports of book challenges, each of which can include multiple books, last fall.”

The Times noted that while book banning has a long history, both the nature and tactics have changed. In the past the arguments for dropping a text from school curricula or libraries often came from parents who felt that their children weren’t ready for “adult” themes. The argument routinely focused on parental rights – who should decide what ideas children are exposed to and at what age. More recently Conservative groups in particular, fueled by social media, are now pushing the challenges into statehouses, law enforcement and political races. Facebook groups provide lists of books that have been considered inappropriate by some group, and these lists have been presented for opposition in other school districts, or even states.

Of course books aren’t the only works of art that have been subject to censorship. The web site Musicoholics (musicoholics.com) has a list of popular songs that were protested, including “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”, “Puff the Magic Dragon,” “ I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” and even John Lernnon’s “Imagine.”

The notion that some books, songs, or ideas should consider the appropriate age for exposure isn’t unreasonable. In Plato’s “Republic,” he calls for the Philosopher King to have spent 50 years of preparation, while the Constitution sets age minimums for representative (25), senator (30) and president (35). We set minimum drinking ages, voting ages, and ages for occupations – but we’re also being asked to ban some ideas totally. NBC News compiled a list of books, some of which had been objected to because they spoke well of Black Lives Matter. The Library and Information Science Network, (LISBDnet.com) even has a discussion of efforts to ban Ray Bradbury’s classic novel about book burning “Fahrenheit 451” – banning a book about banning books. Perhaps there should be some restriction on proposing restrictions on ideas.

Sam Uretsky is a writer and pharmacist living in Louisville, Ky. Email sdu01@outlook.com.

From The Progressive Populist, March 1, 2022

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