Post written by Laura Cococcia. You can follow Laura on Twitter.
I’ve been closely following one of the latest well-publicized discussions regarding freedom of expression – the debate over whether or not certain books should be included in the town library of West Bend, Wisconsin.
You can read the details, but the Wisconsin battle has resurrected the cultural conversation around book banning and freedom of expression.
As some of you may recall, we posted a few news-related items around the topic of freedom of expression, particularly related to books and writing, earlier this year at Laura Reviews. The first involved commentary on The Guardian’s April 16th report that The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini was one of America’s “most challenged books” in 2008, as noted by The American Library Association.
Jodi Picoult’s best-selling novel My Sister’s Keeper was also on that list and removed from shelves last year, along with 73 other books.
We also discussed the New York Times article about Tsering Woeser, a Tibetan poet and blogger who has been arrested by Chinese authorities. Her books have been banned and the blog she has written for 4 years, Invisible Tibet, has been blocked. She now lives under self-imposed exile in Beijing.
Now, in Wisconsin, there are people demanding that certain books discussing sexuality be banned – and even burned. Both sides, though, in an effort to get their voices heard, began blogging about their viewpoints until the press picked it up.
A Few Conversation Starters
All of this discussion has made me wonder: Who gets to make the decisions about these books? Should it be the parents who determine whether or not their children should be reading books on sexuality? Or should it be the town government, in a country where freedom of speech and expression is a stated human right?
Both sides have the right to blog, but who has the right to ban?
Some additional reading about freedom of expression can be found at PEN’s Freedom to Write blog.
Freedom of expression is a critical – if not the most important – guiding principle of TJCC. As such, we welcome your comments and viewpoints – whatever they may be, as long as (of course), it stays respectful.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
As usual, Laura, all very well said. It's a difficult discussion to have – but for me, it's disturbing to see there is even talk about burning books, regardless of the topic. Good luck with your move to the big apple.
What an great opening! Congratulations on your new blog. I'll update the link on my blog and move you from the "book blog" to the "other blog" category. I'm glad you are still going to blog about books and authors.
I don't support book bans and certainly not book burning. Hey, what are they doing about ebooks?
I monitor what my children read by occasionally reading along with them. I take them to the library and give them a book allowance to spend themselves. I'm open to discussion.
One would hope that schools assign age appropriate material of good literary content. Sexuality is always going to be interesting to teens with their raging hormones. Burning books isn't going to stop teen pregnancy. If anything books are a safer way to experiment with risky ideas than acting them out.
By default I go with freedom of expression. Censorship is a slippery slope.
So you can't read a book on sex, but you can walk into a shop and walk out with a lethal weapon minutes later! Says something about the world we live in.
Ben – Thank you on all fronts. it is a difficult discussion, but I think one that has to keep going – it always amazes me that this topic keeps coming up.
Sarah – Thank you re: the blog! Very interesting question regarding e-books though, I hadn't yet thought about that. Your perspective as a parent certainly made me think more too – my feeling is that the more we "ban" information from children, instead of properly educating them, as you do, then we end up with more problems than we started with. Thank you for posting such a thoughtful comment!
Kim: Very well-said! Wow, certainly a world of contradictions! Hope you're doing well.
Hope you all had a great weekend!
- Laura