By J.E. Warren
Arts Editor
There are some people who feel they know best about what others should or shouldn't read. This is the mentality behind book banning — a mentality that judges and condemns for expressing ourselves.
When literature is suppressed, it's usually on political or religious grounds. In many instances, attempts to suppress literature succeed. This affects free Americans, and many people believe it's an infringement on their First Amendment right to free speech when public literary institutions such as libraries, bookstores and schools ban books.
Literate history shows that a great deal of challenged and banned reading material in America is also highly recommended reading. Classics that have been attacked by book-banners include "Ulysses" by James Joyce; "The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald; "Brave New World," by Aldous Huxley; "Catch-22," by Joseph Heller; "Sons and Lovers," by D.H. Lawrence; and "The Grapes of Wrath," by John Steinbeck.
It is surprising that there are so many book-banners in a country that values literature as much as America does.
According to a study done by the Freedom Forum Online (www.freedomforum.org), the United States is the fastest growing market for books in the world. Also each year, publishers offer 50,000 new book titles and consumers buy 1.5 billion books.
Each week, 14 percent of American adults go to a bookstore; 60 percent of all U.S. citizens pursue their reading interests at the U.S.'s 15,950 libraries.
The president of the American Library Association (ALA), Ann K. Symons, estimates that there have been thousands of books challenged. Great works of literature are not immune from those challenges.
Last summer the Modern Library released a list of the 20th Century's 100 best novels. According to the library association, more than a third of those 100 books have been targets of endeavors to have them banned.
Here is a close-up of some of the classics that have been challenged:
"Moby Dick"
By Herman Melville
Bantam Classic
The classic "Moby Dick" is the wildest and most popular water ride in the history of American Fiction. There are many interesting relationships that take place in Melville's story that some people in Lindale, Texas, thought conflicted with the values of their community (Such as the one shared between the characters Ishmael and Queequeg). Queequeg is a cannibalistic, savage idolator who Ishmael befriends in a cheap pub early in the book. Ishmael, who was once a Christian schoolmaster, has turned to sailing by the time he becomes best friend to Queequeg. This makes for a strange but warm relationship in the story that has been detested by Melville's more righteous critics.
"Catcher in the Rye"
By J.D. Salinger
Lb Books
The book, "Catcher in the Rye," is the portrayal of the character Holden Caufield, an antisocial problem adolescent. Holden, knowing that he is soon to be expelled from his school, decides to leave early. The story continues to follow his actions and sufferings after he makes up his mind to spend a few days in New York City, and he ends up having some new experiences with life, love and sex.
Any realistic story about life, love and sex written in America is bound to raise eyebrows and attract zealous book-banners. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye has been challenged and banned in many places, including Lindale, Texas, because of its language and content. The most recent challenge occurred at the Oxford Hills High School in Paris, Maine, in 1996, because a parent objected to the casual use of the "f" word throughout the book.
"Lord of the Flies"
By William Gerald Golding
Perigee
William Golding's controversial book, "Lord of the Flies," is a classic story that depicts some of the grimmest truths about human nature when pushed to its limits. According to some critics, Golding did a good job of it. The tale about a group of English school boys who become stranded on an unpopulated island and end up reverting to savage and superstitious behavior is an illustration of the potentially dark nature within humanity and the important role that the individual plays in controlling society. It's a story full of symbolism. This all adds up to be a perfect recipe for controversy and a book worthy of a challenge, as far as particularly rigid librarians and other school officials are concerned. Golding's classic tale was challenged by Dallas Independent School District high school libraries in 1974. The DISD considered the book "demoralizing inasmuch as it implies that man is little more than an animal."
The late Justice Brennan wrote, "Access to ideas makes it possible for citizens generally to exercise their rights of free speech and press in a meaningful manner; such access prepares students for active and effective participation in the pluralist, often contentious society in which they will soon be adult members... Students learn that a library is a place to test or expand upon ideas..."
The First Amendment right, for scholars, writers and readers, is dependent upon the ability to read from all books, including literature that is considered objectionable.
