Banned Books Week 2009
Banned Books Week 2009 has officially started. This year's spree of fighting the fears perpetrated by intellectually and emotionally lazy people runs from September 26 - October 3.
Why are books banned and "challenged?" On what grounds? And who are the people who do the challenging? What are they afraid of? The answers to these questions can be found on the American Library Association's site.
The short answer, according to me: Most banned and challenged books are children's books, YA (young adult) books, or adult books that kids read (mostly because they're being asked to read them for a class at school). Parents end up horrified about something or other in the book -- curse words, sex scenes, a religious viewpoint (or lack of one, or seeming lack of one) that doesn't jive with their own, racism, violence, and other not-very-nice things that all happen in the real world, and not just in books.
The short solution, according to me: Parents should read the "questionable" books themselves -- start to finish, not just the dirty bits -- and think about important things like the historical, social, and/or literary context of the offending material. Nothing pisses me off more than somebody who wants to ban To Kill a Mockingbird because the "n-word" is in it. People, DUH. Get some sense of context.
Also, by way of a solution, how about talking to one's children about the potentially offensive material. Open the door instead of closing it. What's so awful about asking one's child, "What did you think about that book? Does our family talk to people that way? Do we treat people that way? Why do you think the author put that stuff in the book?" instead of saying, "Don't read that book, ever. It's got nasty stuff in it."
Of course, the former is more difficult because it requires that parents A. read the book and B. actually give a crap about truly relating to their kids and helping them to grow as human beings with fully-formed sensitivities and thinking skills. Ha.
The ALA's site has a page with links to various banned book lists here. There's a link on that page that will take to you a link for PDFs (foo. can't copy & paste the PDF) to the most banned/challenged books by year. I haven't read a whole lot of the books on the 2008-2009 list (which includes the reasons why the books were banned, and where they were banned) and frankly, this year's books don't sound very interesting to me. I should probably read some of them anyway.
I'm not finding the usual Big List of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books updated for this year, so instead I will post a different Big List this year. A list of 100 Banned and Challenged classics.
Bold the ones you've read. My comments are in italics.
1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding Got this one on my bedside table, waiting in the queue, so to speak.
9. 1984 by George Orwell I haven't read this since 1984. Gotta reread.
10. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
11. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
13. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
21. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
22. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
23. Their Eyes are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
31. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
32. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
34. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
35. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
37. The World According to Garp by John Irving
38. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
39. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
40. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
41. Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
42. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
43. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
44. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
45. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
46. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
48. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
51. My Antonia by Willa Cather
52. Howards End by E. M. Forster Technically, I have read this -- for a class in grad school -- but it was so boring I ended up skimming most of it.
53. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
54. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
55. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
56. Jazz by Toni Morrison
57. Sophie's Choice by William Styron
58. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
59. A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
60. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton I had to read this in college and I remember it kicked butt. I should reread it.
61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
62. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
63. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
64. Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence
65. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
66. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
68. Light in August by William Faulkner
69. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
70. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
71. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
72. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
73. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
76. Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe To be truthful, I didn't finish this. It is very long, very dense, etc. etc. blah blah.
77. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
78. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
79. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
80. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
81. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
82. White Noise by Don DeLillo
83. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
84. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
85. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells Fabulous. Ahead of its time.
86. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
87. The Bostonians by Henry James
88. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
89. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
90. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
91. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
92. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
93. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
94. Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
95. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
96. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
97. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
98. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster
99. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
100. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
I haven't read a lot of these, as you can see. Time to pick a few out and read them in honor of Banned Books Week 2009. Go thou and do likewise. Fight fear and ignorance one page at a time!
Why are books banned and "challenged?" On what grounds? And who are the people who do the challenging? What are they afraid of? The answers to these questions can be found on the American Library Association's site.
The short answer, according to me: Most banned and challenged books are children's books, YA (young adult) books, or adult books that kids read (mostly because they're being asked to read them for a class at school). Parents end up horrified about something or other in the book -- curse words, sex scenes, a religious viewpoint (or lack of one, or seeming lack of one) that doesn't jive with their own, racism, violence, and other not-very-nice things that all happen in the real world, and not just in books.
The short solution, according to me: Parents should read the "questionable" books themselves -- start to finish, not just the dirty bits -- and think about important things like the historical, social, and/or literary context of the offending material. Nothing pisses me off more than somebody who wants to ban To Kill a Mockingbird because the "n-word" is in it. People, DUH. Get some sense of context.
Also, by way of a solution, how about talking to one's children about the potentially offensive material. Open the door instead of closing it. What's so awful about asking one's child, "What did you think about that book? Does our family talk to people that way? Do we treat people that way? Why do you think the author put that stuff in the book?" instead of saying, "Don't read that book, ever. It's got nasty stuff in it."
Of course, the former is more difficult because it requires that parents A. read the book and B. actually give a crap about truly relating to their kids and helping them to grow as human beings with fully-formed sensitivities and thinking skills. Ha.
The ALA's site has a page with links to various banned book lists here. There's a link on that page that will take to you a link for PDFs (foo. can't copy & paste the PDF) to the most banned/challenged books by year. I haven't read a whole lot of the books on the 2008-2009 list (which includes the reasons why the books were banned, and where they were banned) and frankly, this year's books don't sound very interesting to me. I should probably read some of them anyway.
I'm not finding the usual Big List of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books updated for this year, so instead I will post a different Big List this year. A list of 100 Banned and Challenged classics.
Bold the ones you've read. My comments are in italics.
1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding Got this one on my bedside table, waiting in the queue, so to speak.
9. 1984 by George Orwell I haven't read this since 1984. Gotta reread.
10. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
11. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
13. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
21. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
22. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
23. Their Eyes are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
31. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
32. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
34. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
35. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
37. The World According to Garp by John Irving
38. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
39. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
40. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
41. Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
42. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
43. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
44. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
45. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
46. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
48. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
51. My Antonia by Willa Cather
52. Howards End by E. M. Forster Technically, I have read this -- for a class in grad school -- but it was so boring I ended up skimming most of it.
53. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
54. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
55. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
56. Jazz by Toni Morrison
57. Sophie's Choice by William Styron
58. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
59. A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
60. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton I had to read this in college and I remember it kicked butt. I should reread it.
61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
62. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
63. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
64. Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence
65. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
66. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
68. Light in August by William Faulkner
69. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
70. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
71. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
72. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
73. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
76. Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe To be truthful, I didn't finish this. It is very long, very dense, etc. etc. blah blah.
77. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
78. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
79. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
80. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
81. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
82. White Noise by Don DeLillo
83. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
84. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
85. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells Fabulous. Ahead of its time.
86. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
87. The Bostonians by Henry James
88. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
89. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
90. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
91. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
92. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
93. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
94. Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
95. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
96. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
97. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
98. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster
99. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
100. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
I haven't read a lot of these, as you can see. Time to pick a few out and read them in honor of Banned Books Week 2009. Go thou and do likewise. Fight fear and ignorance one page at a time!