Is there a right to ban books?
TL;DR: Nope, never, nunca
In advance of Banned Books Week (October 1-7), I wanted to write about the right to ban books. Does this right exist?
It’s a little complicated in general, but crystal clear when you consider the current push in the United States to ban books. If materials involve “harmful content or ideas,” those materials can be restricted or banned.
How do we define harm? I believe that materials that instruct on murder, mayhem, or torture should be, at the very least, restricted. It’s conceivable to study those materials for what a researcher might glean about their origins or histories. But I don’t want, say, a manual on bomb-making to be on the “featured” shelf of the local library.
What about books that support and advocate violent views? Recently, I’ve been reading a lot about Reconstruction as part of planning a new kids book and I’ve been immersed in the literature of the day celebrating white supremacy. That constitutes, in my view, a clear harm. Should materials that promote violent white supremacy be banned?
Let’s get more specific. Published in 1905, The Clansman by Thomas Dixon is about a Confederate veteran who falls in love with the daughter of a northern abolitionist. The couple triumphs in a campaign to disenfranchise Black men, portrayed as lascivious monsters, and defend white supremacy.
In his Author’s Note, Dixon boldly denounces Reconstruction and efforts to “Africanize ten great States of the American Union…In the darkest hour of the life of the South, when her wounded people lay helpless amid rags and ashes under the beak and talon of the Vulture, suddenly from the mists of the mountains appeared a white cloud the size of a man’s hand.”
That “white cloud” was the Ku Klux Klan, responsible for over a century of murder, lynchings, and attacks on Americans who stand up for justice (here’s a good summary and analysis of the book). The Clansman was the inspiration for the film “Birth of a Nation.” Into the 1970s, Dixon’s story was still a potent recruitment tool for the modern KKK.
Yet the book remains widely available, including online via the Gutenberg Library.
A more modern version of Dixon’s work is The Turner Diaries, a post-apocalyptic novel about a secret cell of white supremacists and their attempts to overthrow the US government. The book helped inspire the January 6 rioters and included a gallows set up to murder politicians.
Like The Clansman, The Turner Diaries remains available online and via my university library with only a mild warning about “offensive content.”
Why aren’t book banners outraged?
My detour into books celebrating violent white supremacy is deliberately facetious, of course. In fact, books promoting hate are rarely if ever targeted by contemporary book banners. They have a very different target: books about love and the complexity of human experience.
It’s not harm, in other words, but difference that seems to be the real issue. Book banners are a little like the community in The Giver, Lois Lowry’s 1993 book about a society that has obliterated pain and strife by enforcing “Sameness.” All emotion and even color are eradicated, converting the world into a grey uniformity. Jonas, the 12-year-old protagonist, inherits the role of Receiver of Memory, the only person who remembers what the world was like before the Sameness.
Predictably, The Giver is often the target of book bans. Lowry herself has said that most of the banners have never read the book. She opposes any censorship and believes no literature should considered off-limits.
Book banners don’t want us to understand that humans are capable of infinite varieties of love. They hate that we are all rooted in complex histories that demand our engagement and understanding.
Love is really, really threatening to haters.
What are the most banned books in 2022? Most are about love; almost all are for teens; and all are fiercely adored by their readers (including me—I’ve read about half and the rest are on my TBR).
According to a report by the American Library Association, in the first eight months of 2023, there have been “695 attempts to censor library materials and services and documented challenges to 1,915 unique titles.” The number of books challenged "has increased by 20 percent from the same reporting period in 2022."
I guarantee that none of these books was The Clansman or The Turner Diaries.
Book banners are often portrayed as individual parents promoting bans. They are not. Book banning is an organized, well-funded campaign by hard-right groups that refuse to recognize America’s complex racial history, LGBTQIA+ Americans, or immigrant and indigenous stories, among others.
Writers and librarians—along with teachers and orthopedic surgeons (see below)—are some of my favorite people and they are joining together to shed light on what’s behind book bans and stand up for the right to expression. This week, LeVar Burton, Ariana Grande, Guillermo del Toro, Padma Lakshmi, Ron Perlman, Amanda Gorman, and 175 others signed an open letter denouncing book bans.
“It’s only a matter of time,” the letter pointed out, “before regressive, suppressive ideologues will shift their focus toward other forms of art and entertainment, to further their attacks and efforts to scapegoat marginalized communities, particularly BIPOC and LGBTQ+ folks.”
If you want to stand up for love and against book bans, please join me in talking about the reality of book bans to your family and friends, defend the right to freedom of expression in your community (#Uniteagainstbookbans), support writers, teachers, and librarians—and most importantly READ!
A Kickstarter for audio
Unfortunately, my Kickstarter for audio for Books 2 and 3 of The Bond Trilogy wasn’t successful. If you donated (THANK YOU) you should not be charged. I’m committed to finding a way to record the audio and will let you know!
A Labor Day swim (that wasn’t)
Labor Day in Durham was hot and quiet and I REALLY wanted a swim. One of the great things about Durham summers is swimming in the Eno River, which has several lovely holes where swimmers (and dogs) can paddle. My daughter had told me about a new trail to Bobbitt’s Hole, where I’ve been swimming for almost 30 years.
Why not try something new? I thought.
Famous last words.
The walk was less than a mile. I set off with Amos. Here we are making sure we are on the right path.
When my partner and I adopted Amos, he was not the most enthusiastic swimmer. Now, though, he is eager to wade into the water. On the last descent to the river’s edge, I slipped slightly (ever so slightly). I’ll spare everyone more details but I knew immediately that this was…not good.
Thankfully, my daughter was home and knew exactly where I was. She actually arrived before the very prompt Orange County EMS and Eno Park Rangers and collected Amos (who never got his swim).
I was able to provide the first responders with their inaugural cross-water rescue.
Fast forward to Duke Hospital’s emergency room and the diagnosis: trimalleolar fracture. In human speak: badly broken ankle. I’ve had two surgeries so far (one to stabilize the ankle and one to bolt it back together) and am off the foot for at least six more weeks.
More time to read banned books!
If you have suggestions (books, shows, movies), send them my way.
Thanks for reading!
Thank you for this thoughtful piece on book banning. And I'm sorry to hear about your broken ankle. That's the same fracture that happened to me almost four years ago, when I slipped on the ice coming home from the 2020 Women's March. I had the rods-and-pins surgery and six weeks of no weight on the affected leg but made a full recovery. Hope you heal quickly and fully as well.