I have discussed before last year about book banning-thinking from the perspective of people on the other side and the irony of banning a book. My thoughts on the matter is, to put it plainly, that it irritates me. I just find it so strange that one person (or a group of people) can go around dictating what should and shouldn’t be read. It’s ridiculous to see children and adolescents deprived of a book containing a strong message. Every time Banned Books Week comes around, all I can think of is Laurie Halse Anderson’s poem, and I nearly start crying. The gist of it is this: The words penned in certain books can have an enormous impact on the ones who read it. You can see her read it in this video on YouTube.
I understand where these parents and adults are coming from. Some of these books can be explicit and talk about very heavy subject matter. They may not think their child or teen should read it. And that is fine. It’s when you force your choice to be a rule, thereby removing the book from the hands of the rest of the children and adolescents. Do what you wish with your own children. Don’t keep that book away from other children.
How about you? Do you think books should be banned? Have you read any banned books? What do you think about Banned Books Week? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
~Jessica
I agree with you. It annoys me to no end when people think the rules they set for their children should be applied to everyone. I guess is see their reasoning in a way, though. I've known kids who've been forbidden to read a book, so they make a point to do it in secret. Still, in my opinion, that's not a valid excuse for banning a book. If people banned every book someone objected to, there would be almost no quality literature out there.
ReplyDeleteI love the way you express this. :) You're so right! There would be so few things to read if they would ban all these great books. And most banned books are amazing books.
DeleteI get the feeling that people who support banning books tend to spend a lot of their time going around and trying to tell others what else should and shouldn't be done as well. I find the whole thing ridiculous and frankly an insult to a readers intelligence. If we all went around believing everything we read the world would be a strange place indeed. Luckily most people are much smarter than that. Banning something has never been the solution to influencing people. When will we learn that lesson?
ReplyDeleteExactly. :) People are such control freaks, they need to just chill out about something that isn't that big of a deal. And yes, we can't believe everything we read--the world would certainly be a strange place!
DeleteWell said! I think it should be every person's right to choose the book they read - or for parents to decide based on their children on a case-by-case basis, not for every child, period. I was always mature for my age, so some of the books I read might have been considered too mature for girls of that age, but I wasn't the type of kid to read about drugs, sex, alcohol, etc, and go out and do those things because I read about them in a book. I understand that some kids are impressionable, but if they're going to ban books, shouldn't they ban TV, movies, and video games too? Where does it end? It's ridiculous. And it's like anything else that's 'forbidden' - it makes people want it MORE, so I think it has the opposite effect.
ReplyDeleteYes! If they want to ban books, they need to ban the rest of the entertainment kids are subjected to. Even though I wouldn't ban a video game, some of them are ten times worse than the books that get banned. It does often have the opposite effect! That's the only good thing about banning a book--it gives the book the attention it deserves and several kids that "aren't allowed" to read it will sneak read it and love it. I read a few books I probably wouldn't have been allowed to read when I was younger, but I survived without doing anything stupid. Lol. Well, too stupid... I think. ;)
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