Vixenwriter

“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.” –Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, “The One Un-American Act.” Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.

THIRTEEN BOOKS THAT CHALLENGED MY PERCEPTIONS

1. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.

2. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines

3. My Son’s Story by Nadine Gordimer (or really, every Gordimer novel I’ve read)

4. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (I love Atwood’s writing. I find everything she writes has a deep, personal intensity so it always gets to me with an intimacy few other authors can achieve)

5. Grass by Sheri Tepper

6. Gate To Women’s Country by Sheri Tepper

7. Surfacing by Margaret Atwood. This is a short novel, not political, but intimate and filled with metaphor and a lot of truly raw moments. It’s one of those books you have to work for, because the book isn’t on the surface, it’s layered beneath.

8. Mists of Avalon by Marian Zimmer Bradley - I was in college when I read this and I remember staying up all night, fascinated by the pagan version of Arturian mythos. I love the idea of stories being told from an unfamiliar perspective. It shook me up and opened another world for me.

9. Oranges Aren’t The Only Fruit by Jeannette Winterson

10. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

11. Living In Truth by Vaclav Havel

12. Letter From The Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.

13. The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper - this book, of all of the things I read as a kid, sticks with me because I think it was the first one that opened the world of epic fantasy to me. It’s still one of the best books I’ve ever read.

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CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF; OR ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR OF THE PRESS; OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES.

The Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on December 15, 1791

So this morning I’ve been looking around the internet at articles on book burning and I’m slightly nauseated by the horrible similarity between pictures from book burnings in Nazi Germany and parking lots here in the US just two years ago so I’m going to do some quotes today…

“You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.”
John Morley

“You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. Yet in their hearts there is unspoken - unspeakable! - fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts! Words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home, all the more powerful because they are forbidden. These terrify them. A little mouse - a little tiny mouse! - of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

Winston Churchill

“Without free speech no search for truth is possible… no discovery of truth is useful… Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race.”
– Charles Bradlaugh

“Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there.”
– Clare Booth Luce

“Children deprived of words become school dropouts; dropouts deprived of hope behave delinquently. Amateur censors blame delinquency on reading immoral books and magazines, when in fact, the inability to read anything is the basic trouble.”
– Peter S. Jennison

“What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.”
– Salman Rushdie

“Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.”
– George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and critic (1856-1950)

“All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values. Well, as an old poop I can remember back to when we had those old-fashioned values, and I say let’s get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States — and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death!”
– Kurt Vonnegut, author

It’s interesting to ponder just why some books are challenged. Today I want to take a single one of the pack - a book that I can still remember reading for the first time back in the 10th grade - John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors of all time. In my opinion, he’s one of the greatest novelists who ever lived and certainly in the top five great American novelists. Grapes of Wrath (my personal favorite Steinbeck novel) is one of the finest views of American history from the viewpoint of the downtrodden ever written. But Of Mice and Men is more intimate and the impact is greater for different reasons.

If you read closely, you’ll see challenges from pretty much all sides of the political spectrum from Steinbeck’s patriotism being questioned to his use of what is now inappropriate racial language.

Here from the ALA site is a list of challenges and bannings of this great American novel:

Banned in Ireland (1953); Syracuse, Ind. (1974); Oil City, Pa. (I 977); Grand Blanc, Mich. (1979); Continental, Ohio (1980) and other communities. Challenged in Greenville, S.C. (1977) by the Fourth Province of the Knights of the Ku Klux KIan;VernonVerona Sherill, N.Y School District (1980); St. David, Ariz. (1981) and Tell City, Ind. (1982) due to “profanity and using God’s name in vain:” Banned from classroom use at the Scottsboro, Ala. Skyline High School (1983) due to “profanity.” The Knoxville, Tenn. School Board chairman vowed to have “filthy books” removed from Knoxville’s public schools (1984) and picked Steinbeck’s novel as the first target due to “its vulgar language:” Reinstated at the Christian County, Ky. school libraries and English classes (1987) after being challenged as vulgar and offensive. Challenged in the Marion County, WVa. schools (1988), at the Wheaton Warrenville, III. Middle School (1988), and at the Berrien Springs, Mich. High School (1988) because the book contains profanity. Removed from the Northside High School in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (1989) because the book “has profane use of God’s name.” Challenged as a summer youth program reading assignment in Chattanooga, Tenn. (1989) because “Steinbeck is known to have had an anti business attitude:” In addition, “he was very questionable as to his patriotism:’ Removed from all reading lists and collected at the White Chapel High School in Pine Bluff, Ark (1989) because of objections to language. Challenged as appropriate for high school reading lists in the Shelby County, Tenn. school system (1989) because the novel contained “offensive language.” Challenged, but retained in a Salinas, Kans. (1990) tenth grade English class despite concerns that it contained “profanity” and “takes the Lord’s name in vain.” Challenged by a Fresno, Calif (1991) parent as a tenth grade English college preparatory curriculum assignment, citing “profanity” and “racial slurs.” The book was retained, and the child of the objecting parent was provided with an alternative reading assignment. Challenged in the Riveria, Tex. schools (1990) because it contains profanity. Challenged as curriculum material at the Ringgold High School in Carroll Township, Pa. (1991) because the novel contains terminology offensive to blacks. Removed and later returned to the Suwannee, Fla. High School library (1991) because the book is “indecent” Challenged at the Jacksboro, Tenn. High School (1991) because the novel contains “blasphemous” language, excessive cursing, and sexual overtones. Challenged as required reading in the Buckingham County, Va. schools (1991) because of profanity. In 1992 a coalition of community members and clergy in Mobile, Ala., requested that local school officials form a special textbook screening committee to “weed out objectionable things:” Steinbeck’s novel was the first target because it contained “profanity” and “morbid and depressing themes: ‘Temporarily removed from the Hamilton, Ohio High School reading list (1992) after a parent complained about its vulgarity and racial slurs. Challenged in the Waterloo, Iowa schools (1992) and the Duval County, Fla. public school libraries (1992) because of profanity, lurid passages about sex, and statements defamatory to minorities, God, women, and the disabled. Challenged at the Modesto, Calif. High School as recommended reading (1992) because of “offensive and racist language.” The word “nigger” appears in the book. Challenged at the Oak Hill High School in Alexandria, La. (1992) because of profanity. Challenged as an appropriate English curriculum assignment at the Mingus, Ariz.Union High School (1993) because of “profane language, moral statement, treatment of the retarded, and the violent ending.” Pulled from a classroom by Putnam County, Tenn. school superintendent (1994) “due to the language:’ Later, after discussions with the school district counsel, it was reinstated. The book was challenged in the Loganville, Ga. High School (1994) because of its “vulgar language throughout” Challenged in the Galena, Kans. school library (1995) because of the book’s language and social implications. Retained in the Bemidji, Minn. schools (1995) after challenges to the book’s “objectionable” language. Challenged at the Stephens County High School library in Toccoa, Ga. (I 995) because of “curse words: ‘The book was retained. Challenged, but retained in a Warm Springs, VA. High School (1995) English class. Banned from the Washington Junior High School curriculum in Peru, III. (1997) because it was deemed “age inappropriate:” Challenged, but retained, in the Louisville, Ohio high school English classes (1997) because of profanity. Removed, restored, restricted, and eventually retained at the Bay County schools in Panama City, Fla. (1997). A citizen group, the 100 Black United, Inc., requested the novel’s removal and “any other inadmissible literary books that have racial slurs in them, such as the using of the word ‘Nigger: ” Challenged as a reading list assignment for a ninth grade literature class, but retained at the Sauk Rapids Rice High School in St. Cloud, Minn. (1997). A parent complained that the book’s use of racist language led to racist behavior and racial harassment. Challenged in O’Hara Park Middle School classrooms in Oakley, Calif. (1998) because it contains racial epithets. Challenged, but retained, in the Bryant, Ark. school library (1998) because of a parent’s complaint that the book “takes God’s name in vain 15 times and uses Jesus’s name lightly.” Challenged at the Barron, Wis. School District (1998). Challenged, but retained in the sophomore curriculum at West Middlesex, Pa. High School (1999) despite objections to the novel’s profanity. Challenged in the Tomah, Wis. School District (1999) because the novel is violent and contains obscenities. Challenged as required reading at the high school in Grandville, Mich. (2002) because the book “is full of racism, profanity, and foul language.” Banned from the George County, Miss. schools (2002) because of profanity. Challenged in the Normal, Ill. Community High Schools (2003) because the books contains “racial slurs, profanity, violence, and does not represent traditional values.” An alternative book, Steinbeck’s The Pearl, was offered but rejected by the family challenging the novel. Source: 2004 Banned Books Resource Guide, by Robert P. Doyle.

But what you might learn, if you weren’t so busy freaking out about Steinbeck’s patriotism, is what life was like for migrant farmworkers in the 1930s and 40s in this country. If hard working men and women scraping to simply exist don’t “represent traditional values” who does?

By the way, the title comes from a Robert Burns poem:
The best laid schemes o’ mice and men
Gang aft agley
And leave us nought but grief and pain
For promised joy!

When Of Mice and Men was published, American farmworkers, much like many other Americans, faced dire circumstances - partly due to the 1929 Stock Market crash and also due to the invention of grain harvesters which eliminated huge swaths of workers from the fields. You had essentially 4 or 5 men doing the work of 350 a few years before that. So you have these two men, George and Lennie facing a new world and their place is shrinking.

Huge numbers of mostly men but also women and children travelled the countryside between the 1880s and the early 1930s harvesting wheat. They’d earn like 3 bucks a day and live in barracks style housing through New Deal programs.

Who tells their story? Do we not tell it because it’s depressing? Do we cut bits out because of what the class and racial reality was at that time? Do we not GIVE CONTEXT to our children through these stories?

This book is about the American Dream, it’s about connection and loss, it’s about family and friendship, it’s about aching loneliness. Yes, there’s a lot of metaphor but it’s worth it. The very idea that in the 1990s people tried to ban this book because it didn’t encompass traditional values when it is INDEED wholly about traditional values and the people who make up the fabric of this nation seriously makes me livid. As a parent, I cannot countenance people like this trying to limit my children’s learning.

If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend it. It’s not lighthearted, it is tragic, I won’t kid you. But it’s an amazing novel. Check it out from your library or grab it from your local bookstore.

The other day, my husband called to tell me Judy Blume was being interviewed on NPR (Yes, the same local channel who censored my website, but whatever). Anyway, I’m a HUGE fan of Blume’s books and she’s the number two most challenged author since 1990 - for a writer of some truly amazing and memorable children’s books, I find the idea ridiculous but there you have it.

As it happens, Blume has written some really wonderful thought pieces about censorship (and speaks of it eloquently as I’ve come to hear each time she’s interviewed) but one of my favorite essays of hers is actually the introduction to a book called “Places I Never Meant To Be”

When Margaret was published in 1970 I gave three copies to my children’s elementary school but the books never reached the shelves. The male principal decided on his own that they were inappropriate for elementary school readers because of the discussion of menstruation (never mind how many fifth- and sixth-grade girls already had their periods). Then one night the phone rang and a woman asked if I was the one who had written that book. When I replied that I was, she called me a communist and hung up. I never did figure out if she equated communism with menstruation or religion.

It gets far worse for her after 1980 when her books are challenged every day and groups begin to picket and organize against her writing and her books.

I found myself at the center of the storm. My books were being challenged daily, often placed on restricted shelves (shades of Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1955) and sometimes removed. A friend was handed a pamphlet outside a supermarket urging parents to rid their schools and libraries of Judy Blume books. Never once did the pamphlet suggest the books actually be read. Of course I wasn’t the only target. Across the country, the Sex Police and the Language Police were thumbing through books at record speed, looking for illustrations, words or phrases that, taken out of context, could be used as evidence against them.

I think there are a few reasons what she has to say resonates with me so strongly - first, her books were a hugely formative part of my youth and puberty. I can remember reading Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret, I can remember crying as I read Blubber. When I read her books I didn’t feel alone. At the time, it just made me feel better. But now I understand how much of a gift it takes to write like that. And that leads me to the second reason, I write too. No, I’m no Judy Blume. I’d never presume to make the comparison, but I do understand how the world can feel scary when you take risks with your writing and say things people are afraid to hear.

She talks about how her editor read a passage in Tiger Eyes and brought up how it would attract trouble over content. She describes standing there, with this person who’d been with her through her other books and feeling so alone. And in the end, she took out the lines.

What effect does this climate have on a writer? Chilling. It’s easy to become discouraged, to second-guess everything you write. There seemed to be no one to stand up to the censors. No group as organized as they were; none I knew of, anyway. I’ve never forgiven myself for caving in to editorial pressure based on fear, for playing into the hands of the censors. I knew then it was all over for me unless I took a stand. So I began to speak out about my experiences. And once I did, I found that I wasn’t as alone as I’d thought.

She found a group, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and began to speak out against censorship. The essay, which I’ve linked above, gives countless examples of teachers who either censored books or were punished for not censoring their students. Of school adminstrators removing important classics like “To Kill A Mockingbird” and “The Red Badge of Courage.”

What I worry about most is the loss to young people. If no one speaks out for them, if they don’t speak out for themselves, all they’ll get for required reading will be the most bland books available. And instead of finding the information they need at the library, instead of finding the novels that illuminate life, they win find only those materials to which nobody could possibly object.

Some people would like to rate books in schools and libraries the way they rate movies: G, PG, R, X, or even more explicitly. But according to whose standards would the books be rated? I don’t know about you but I don’t want anyone rating my books or the books my children or grandchildren choose to read. We can make our own decisions, thank you. Be wary of the censors’ code words — family friendly; family values; excellence in education. As if the rest of us don’t want excellence in education, as if we don’t have our own family values, as if libraries haven’t always been family-friendly places!

This is why I speak out. This is why I speak up. Books have always been important in my life. They’ve transported me to other times, other places, they’ve helped me understand myself, my place in the world, they’ve amused me, made me mad, challenged me, taught me, infuriated me and have been a constant companion.

I can still remember the first time I read certain books - Toni Morrison’s Beloved for instance (and one that shows upon the challenge list every year). Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird - oh the anger at injustice I felt! Vaclav Havel’s Living in Truth - the one book I think has formed my adulthood the most and interestingly enough, a book with several essays about censorship, LOL.

I don’t think everyone has to agree with me or my ideas. I don’t think everyone has to agree with the ideas in the books I write or read or love. But the idea that anyone out there believes a book like Beloved shouldn’t be available breaks my heart and makes me mad.

The bottom line is, censorship happens, often when you least expect it. It’s not just about the book you may want to read but about the book your classmate might want to read. It’s not just about teachers and librarians at other schools who might find themselves in job-threatening situations — it could happen at your school. Your favorite teacher, the one who made literature come alive for you, the one who helped you find exactly the book you needed when you were curious, or hurting, the one who was there to listen to you when you felt alone, could become the next target.

Last year I celebrated the whole week here at my blog and it was so fun I’m doing it again this year! Today a basic overview of the week and what it’s all about.

You can start by checking out the American Library Association’s Fabulous Banned Books Week Site!

Banned Books Week (BBW) celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.

The “10 Most Challenged Books of 2006″ reflect a range of themes, and consist of the following titles:

“And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, for homosexuality, anti-family, and unsuited to age group; (This book is about penguins. Not made up penguins, but real penguins at a zoo who adopt an abandoned egg and raise the chick. The two adult penguins are male. Yes, the entire furor over the book is that the penguins in a nature book were male)

“Gossip Girls” series by Cecily Von Ziegesar for homosexuality, sexual content, drugs, unsuited to age group, and offensive language;

“Alice” series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor for sexual content and offensive language;

“The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things” by Carolyn Mackler for sexual content, anti-family, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;

“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison for sexual content, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;

“Scary Stories” series by Alvin Schwartz for occult/Satanism, unsuited to age group, violence, and insensitivity;

“Athletic Shorts” by Chris Crutcher for homosexuality and offensive language.

“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky for homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language, and unsuited to age group (BTW, as a parent of a son who is very different from his peers, this book is one I know I’ll be giving him in a few years. It’s a really amazing book even for adults)

“Beloved” by Toni Morrison for offensive language, sexual content, and unsuited to age group;

“The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier for sexual content, offensive language, and violence. (this is one of the smartest YA books I’ve ever read. It doesn’t have a happy ending per se, but it’s a scarily accurate view of what it’s like to be an adolescent. I do read a lot of YA books, by the way, it’s part of the parenting gig and my oldest is getting to the age where some of these books are appropriate reading. I also like them too!)

Off the list this year, but on for several years past, are the “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger, “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain.

Freedom to read different ideas, even if you disagree with them or they challenge you, is one of our most important and cherished freedoms. As the author of Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury, said, “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

I grew up in a household that treasured this concept. From a very early age I read everything I could put my hands on. If I had trouble or found something I couldn’t understand or made me upset, my parents used this as a teaching moment.

I’m not saying you have to agree with everything, or that you have to let your children read anything they want. I do think we, as a culture, seem to have a growing fear of ideas we don’t agree with and rather than listen to them and debate with our own, or simply ignore those ideas we loathe, we find it necessary to silence those other ideas.

As an author that frightens me. The books I write often contain sexually graphic material. Some of them have magic and paranormal creatures. Some of them have violence, some of them are menages with male/male contact. I understand and respect that not everyone will like them or agree with them. I don’t let my children read my books, that wouldn’t be age appropriate although I don’t generally go out of my way to hide what I write from them. But last year, my husband, stuck in traffic and listening to the local NPR station, heard the weekly call in show about new books and he called in to talk about mine. They put him through and he sat in a queue until they came back to him and told him they looked at my website and decreed it inapprorpriate for the adult audience to hear about on the radio. Apparently they decided the “elderly audience” listening “would be offended” and with an apology, they cut him off.

Adults are now being babysat by other adults because their own belief system is so weak they’re unable to hit the back key on their computer after hearing my website on a radio talk show. This is ridiculous.

If two male penguins sitting on an egg disturbs you and you think it’s somehow inappropriate for your children, I respect your right to believe so. I respect your right to take an active part in your child’s reading and intellectual life by not allowing it to be checked out from the library or purchased. What I don’t respect is the attempt to stop MY children from reading it because, it is my belief that a fear of two male penguins taking care of an egg is irrational. Beliefs - everyone has em and that’s a GOOD thing.

Ideas are not dangerous. The ABSENCE of ideas is.