BOOK BANNING: Is It the Only Way? - An Opinion

 

In this age of cultural sensitivity and easiness to offend, there have been many books banned from school libraries due to their content. The reasons behind this have been that their stories question societal norms, explore sensitive topics (homosexuality, racism, etc.), and have excessive violence in them. The titles that have shared this infamous distinction include Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, which tells of the truths left on tapes by a young girl who committed suicide, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, which follows a young woman through her experiences in a society ruled by a theocratic regime, and The Hate U Give by Andie Thomas, that explores systematic racism and its effect on its victims. All of these are relatively new books, however banned titles can also include classics like 1984 by George Orwell, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. These are books that I am sure many can remember being assigned to read in English class with never a question as to whether or not they were fit for student perusal. Yet they are also included in some of the banned lists that have been created in some of the states in this country. The question then becomes, is banning books really the only way that we can keep our children safe from being exposed to questionable material?

The fact is, no ban on anything has ever worked. From the time of Adam and Eve, the forbidden fruit has always been the sweetest and most desired. Banning books results in nothing more than the fact being used as a marketing tool to bring those novels into the spotlight where the people will want to read them that much more. There is also another fact that is more disturbing. This is that there are books on the shelves of public libraries, and that have been there for more than a decade, that include vividly detailed erotica under the guise of paranormal romance. (Please see my review of Master of the Night by Angela Knight dated April 26, 2022. Writers of her ilk include Christine Feehan, to name just one.) Many of these libraries have little or no controls on who checks out their materials, so these books, in the stacks under the innocuous nomenclature of Fiction, are available to any and all, including teenage girls looking for novels that include vampires and werewolves. While everyone is losing their minds over some books that contain nothing but stories of young men and women finding their own identities, these books have been the dirty little secret of the romance genre and more than likely have been read by many young girls over the years looking for a literary thrill. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying anything against these authors. They are excellent writers who tell fantastic stories. It is the way their work has been marketed and labeled that is the problem, and that has led to these books that are actually soft pornography being put into the general audience sections of libraries and sold on supermarket shelves alongside the work of such writers as Danielle Steel and Nora Roberts.

While banning books is not the best idea, and is actually insulting to a public who wants the freedom to read what they wish, I would say that there does need to be a change about who these materials are made available for. Many administrators would say that it is the parents’ job to monitor their child’s intake, but, especially when it comes to teens, this can be a futile if not impossible task. My suggestion would simply be a rating system for books. The computer systems used in libraries could be reprogrammed to include a three-tiered patron program based on age. These would be first for children ages twelve and younger, second for teens thirteen to eighteen, and the third for legal adults. The books themselves would be rated according to their content by the publishers. The movie, television, and gaming industries are required to give similar ratings. Why not books? There could be general consumption (G), young adult literature (T), and adult readers only (M) ratings. Once this program was in place, the libraries would be able to use their existing procedures while there would be automated safeguards to make sure a fifteen-year-old was not checking out a book that included highly charged sexual scenes, as well as scenes of overly violent action or other things that might be deemed unsuitable for children. A rating system such as this would also make it possible for vendors to try to put procedures into place that would make it at least difficult for sales of these books to minors, though online purchases would still be suspect simply because of the nature of the marketplace involved. But at least those occurrences would be out of the jurisdiction of the institutions that are supposed to be safe places for young people, such as libraries.

While this system is not perfect (as nothing ever is), it would be a way to at least limit the cause of the issue. As I said before, I have read these authors and find their talent very real. It is their style that makes them problematic for younger audiences. However, authors do not normally have control over how their work is marketed, so they should not be blamed for this debacle. Also, I would think that that this is a more serious issue than trying to ban classic books that have been the standard of English reading assignments for decades. The people that are responsible for the banning of books do have the correct motives, but somewhere between motive and execution of action something has gotten lost. The only thing that banning books has managed to accomplish is to make those same books even more popular and put them on the bestselling lists as a result. If these people really do not want their children reading these stories, perhaps they should pay more attention to what is in their child’s hands than what is on the library shelves. Especially considering what they have already allowed them to be exposed to for the past decade.

MOVIE REVIEW: Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

 

After escaping from prison, a leader of a gang of thieves tries to reestablish his relationship with his estranged daughter and finds that the man he trusted to take care of her has turned his child against him, and made a deal with a demon in the process. In trying to get his daughter back and save the city she lives in, he builds a new gang of outlaws that includes an unreliable sorcerer, a shape shifting druid, and the female barbarian who helped him raise his family after his wife's death.

This stars Chris Pine, who plays his usual character who acts cocky and self-assured while hiding a slew of complicated emotions. His costars include Michelle Rodriguez (Widows), Justice Smith (Jurassic Park: Dominion), and Sophia Lillis (Gretel and Hansel). Don't expect much character development or world building from this one. The world is already fully realized and, though there are some emotional moments between father and daughter, the people are there simply to keep the action going and the special effects buzzing. The actors do their best and, though the script bogs them down at times, their considerable talent does keep the CGI, which is extravagant, from taking over entirely. It's not great art, but it is a fantastic and fun joy ride. A little gory in places, so young children should be supervised, but still a good one for family night.

BOOK REVIEW: Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right by Mel White

 

This book is written by Mel White, a LGBTQ+ activist for over 30 years, and who spent the previous 30 as a ghostwriter and videographer for such Christian fundamentalists as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Billy Graham. When he came out as gay, and after an amicable divorce from his wife, he married another man in 1994. Due to his past associations, White should be at least one of only a handful of people to know what the religious right and its leaders are all about. This book is about his efforts to talk to, negotiate, and even plead with the televangelists who had been his friends to stop their verbal attacks on gay and lesbian people. In the face of the failure of that, he formed an organization called Soul Force, an LBGTQ+ group who hold peaceful demonstrations across the country to call attention to the danger that this kind of rhetoric inspires.

The first part of the book tells about his days working for the same people he now calls his adversaries. During this time, he was an eyewitness to the development of such influential Christian organizations as the Moral Majority and The Christian Coalition. He knew their ideologies inside and out, and even wrote some of the speeches that the leaders gave when the organizations were formed. With all this background knowledge, no one has any cause to question or suspect his view of events. However, the first seven of the ten chapters of this resembles nothing more or less than Christian bashing. While White freely admits some bitterness to his former colleagues refusing to even admit his existence after he came out as gay, it is pretty obvious that that hurt still runs deep. While what he says may be true, and more than likely is, his constant calling out of the names of those same people gets to be somewhat monotonous. It is true, and many can attest to this, that there are many on the radical Christian right who have been responsible for the verbal assaults on LBGTQ+ people, so it would have been nice if just a few more of them had been named.

It has now been almost 20 years since this book was published, and much has changed since then. Only one of the major four names that are mentioned are still alive, the Respect for Marriage Act was signed into law by the President in 2022, and there has been a growing societal movement to accept LBGTQ+ people as a minority group, which means that crimes against them can be treated as hate crimes and charges brought against perpetrators on a federal level. These changes have been slow in coming, but there has been progress made, and I believe that everyone is the better for them. People like White and his organization may have been influential in contributing to this, but the fact is that I had never even heard of Soul Force before reading this book and looking them up online. Whether that is symptomatic of LBGTQ+ activism being swept under the rug, or that they simply were only one small group that helped to push these changes into public awareness, I suppose will remain unknown. I do know that their philosophy, which is based on the writings and teachings of Mahatma Ghandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is a great endeavor and should be applauded. I just hope that organization has more understanding and tolerance than this book seems to.