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September 28, 2005

The best part about banning books is that it makes people want to read them

I love books. My house is full of the books I've collected over the years, from birth to present day. It's more than just reading them, which is a joy in itself. It's owning them..seeing them on the shelves and revisiting them like dear, old friends.

The supression of ideas through the banning of books has always been a foreign concept to me. It only creates a black market for the ideas and the books.

Which makes the American Library Association's List of Banned Books that much more fascinating.

The list is heavy with literature aimed at children. Authors such as Judy Blume and Maurice Sendak appear repeatedly. Is it possible that my anti-authoritarian streak was bred through Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, a childhood favorite? Have I corrupted my children with Where's Waldo (#88)?

I'm not terribly surprised that so many of my favorites appear on this list. I've always run against the grain. Vonnegut, Steinbeck, and Salinger are the staples of most any individual who seeks to go outside the restrictive bounds of the fundamentalist "morality" culture.

Perhaps that culture has no choice but to attempt to ban these ideas. But nothing makes an idea more attractive to people than trying to keep it from them.

Posted by Carla at September 28, 2005 07:15 AM