A Post That Would Not Be Written
Posted by: Alan in Banned Books Week, Book Reviews, Books
Today’s post was supposed to be a discussion of the reasons Why books are banned. Having written two days in a row about Banned Books Week and having enjoyed the most visitors, page views and comments I’ve yet had in this blog’s short history, I figured it would be a slam dunk to continue the Banned Books theme and keep reeling them in. Unspoken (or perhaps un-thought-of) in this plan was the assumption that censorship and book banning could neatly be blamed on the Religious Right and their attempts to make the United States over in accordance with their own not at all truly Christian agenda.
As is becoming my habit, I started a new discussion thread over at Blog Catalog asking my fellow bloggers for their input on the Whys of censorship, primarily thinking that I could harvest a few good comments to quote and spread some link love and with only three books to discuss, writing this entry would be an easy hour’s work and I could just move on to other things, like the Word Press lessons JD so kindly offered to give me or actually turning off the computer for awhile and reading an actual book as grist for future posts. Sometimes I am really smart and sometimes I am so naive and ignorant as to deserve to be called Stoopid. And after eight hours or so of thinking about this, of reading responses to my BC thread far more eloquent and informed than anything I’ve written, what I am left with are several draft posts I would be embarrassed to publish and a snippet of music from Spandau Ballet’s Journeys To Glory album that won’t budge from my head:
Questions, questions
Give me no answers
All they ever give me is
Questions, questions…To cut a long story short I lost my mind

In a comment on the BC thread, which was of a depth and eloquence greater than 99% of blog posts out there, techfun pointed out that those who advocate for censorship of particular books most often do so out of sincere and well intentioned concerns and that approaching them stridently as ‘enemies of free speech’ is counter-productive, tending to make them more determined in their resolve and resulting in more rather than less censorship.
Then another reply, from scorpy01 pointed out that activists on the far left are no less likely to call for censorship than those on the far right. And as much as my prejudices wanted to scream out ‘oh pulleeze’, the quiet voice of my conscience says that she’s right. And then I read a reply from Dane Morgan who argues that the why of censorship can generally be reduced to fear and arrogance. Fear of the idea to be censored and arrogance in believing oneself qualified to make the judgment that the idea is too dangerous for others to see. This has a ring of truth in my opinion and yet leaves me feeling as though I understand the issue considerably less well than when I began.
To anyone who read my blog today expecting a detailed discussion of why the two Easy Readers about families with same gender parents are innocuous and belong in school libraries and a Christopher Hitchens style rant on why it’s all the Religious Right’s fault, I apologize. After thinking about and discussing the issue all day I found that I could not write that post.
I still believe that books should not be banned and I’m certain that I will observe and write about Banned Books Week again next year. But I will do so with a bit less arrogance, a bit less certainty and a bit more compassion in my heart for people I have seen only as enemies. And maybe by then I will be ready to write a post explaining the Why of censorship.



















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