Banned Books Week 2015- What Gives a Book a Bad Name?

 
   Yesterday we looked at the people who asked for books to be banned. Today, we're going to look at the factors that give a book a bad name.

  So, just what gets a book banned?

    The answer: Just about anything. From depictions of sexual situations to drug and alcohol use. Accounts of homosexuality to portrayals of religions- both Christain and not. Offensive language, violence, and rape are other reasons people demand a book be banned from schools, stores, and libraries. My favorite reason is differing political viewpoints.

    Well, folks, if these were the reasons to ban a book then you'd never be able to get you hands on a copy of the Bible, Torah, Koran, or most other religious texts. (And this insight is coming from a Christian!!!)

   Another reason books are banned are because people violate the number #1 of selecting a book: They judge it by its cover. Take the book I am reading right now. As you can see on the cover of Maus, it depicts 2 mice huddling under a poster of a cat that looks an awful lot like Hitler. There is also a swastika behind the Hitler-cat. Well, I posted this exact picture yesterday (see right) and my mother-in-law flipped. She thought I was reading a pro-Nazi text.

    She hasn't been the only one ever to do this. Art Spiegelman's Maus has been challenged numerous times because people see the cover and think 'Oh, my God! Someone is making the Nazis kid friendly. I must stop this." But in reality the artist used Mice to represent the Jews and Cats as the Nazis to show how Hitler referred to the Jews- as vermin that needed to be extinguished! And what is nature's most perfect exterminator of mice? Why, it's a cat! Click here to read more...

    After I explained all of this to my mother-in-law (and mentioned that it takes place in her ancestral home of Poland), I think I came ever so close to convincing her to actually read a graphic novel!!!

    Anyway, my point to this article is is that so many times a book gets banned or a bad reputation is because someone looks at the cover, is repulsed, and automatically calls for its censor. But if people would just research the book, a lot of the legal tie-ups about censorship would be erased from dockets nationwide.

    One neat thing my library does every Banned Book Week is that they take a number of books on the list, wrap them in brown paper, and only tell the patron what things got the book banned. I think it's brilliant as it erases the stigma of judging books by their cover and lets the reader go into the book with very little prejudice.

    Now, if you were to see from the listing of grievances that one of those books dealt with something you didn't like- such as violence or homosexuality; here's my advice: don't check it out! Get something else. No one is forcing you to read this stuff... TO BE CONTINUED...

   (coming Friday:  A Family Comic Friday Special Report- Banned Books in School: Assignment Vs. Parental Control.)