Since 1981, we have celebrated Banned Books Week (BBW) every year.The week gives us an excusewhen we canread all those famously banned and burned books (even though we shouldn't need an excuse). The Bible, Grimm's fairy tales, Huxley's "Brave New World," and Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" have all been banned. Even dictionaries have been removed from classrooms and libraries under claims of obscenity.
The Banned Book Week Button for2003 (September 20-27) says: "Open Your Mind to a Banned Book." The button encourages readers to look beyond the cover or the unpopular history of a banned book. Readers are encouraged to "Open Your Mind," but sometimes that's easier said than done.
Freedom of Speech
The freedom of speech is one of the rights that we hold most dear, but every day cherished classics are banned or challenged.Book banning and burning isnot something that only resides in ancient history, in a time and place that's easily forgotten. It happens at libraries and universities across the United States, and it probably happens more frequently than we even know.
Novels like Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" explore the phenomenon of book banning, suggesting the ultimate extent to which it could go. Bradbury writes about firemen who burn down libraries and men who memorize the full contents ofbooks so they can keep the contents alive. But, even with books like this, it's easy to forget.
How could books cause such a controversy? They're only paper and glue--collected into pages--with ink in between. But whatever the substance of these books may be, they're filled with words, thoughts, ideas and concepts. It just so happens that a certain percentage of the words and ideas that arein those vast libraries of the world are controversial or objectionable for a variety of reasons: religious, sexual, political/social, racial/ethnic, or behavior.
CelebratingBanned Books Week reminds us that books are still being banned every day, but it also lets us know that we shouldn't take our the priviledge of readingfor granted.
