Get Action News on your website
Authors, banned books
October 1, 2009 Then there's "Slaughterhouse Five," whose obscenities,
violence and unpatriotic portrayal of World War II drew fire from
worried parents and librarians.
Once silenced, the books were among more than a dozen given live
readings Wednesday as part of a series of events marking Banned
Books Week, an annual celebration by the American Library
Association that runs through Saturday.
Lending their voices - literally - to the cause, 13 Vermont
writers including Ron Powers, David Macaulay and Tom Bodett
gathered in a steepled small-town church to read passages for a
rapt crowd.
"It's a chance to sort of live out one of my fantasies, which
is to do a book that gets banned," said the 62-year-old Macaulay,
the author of "The Way Things Work." "Nothing would make me
happier."
Literature censorship didn't start - or end - with "Lady
Chatterley's Lover."
Banning books or censuring their authors has been practiced
since the dawn of the printing press and before, and continues
today with challenges to the likes of "And Tango Makes Three,"
"The Kite Runner" and the Harry Potter series.
So the library association, in conjunction with writers,
libraries and civil liberties groups nationwide, sponsors the
annual event, which started in 1982.
"We're certainly seeing increased efforts to remove or restrict
books that are aimed for young adults," said Deborah
Caldwell-Stone, acting director of ALA's office for intellectual
freedom. "There are parents who believe that young people under 18
shouldn't be having access to books that discuss sex or drug use,
or homosexuality, and we understand that.
"But the fact that they hold those choices and values shouldn't
mean other families and young adults shouldn't have access to those
ideas. A parent can ask for different choices for their child, but
their choices shouldn't mean that the rest of the community loses
access to a book," Caldwell-Stone said.
In Chicago, the week was marked by a Sept. 26 event in which
best-selling authors read from their books, which were either
banned or challenged. Among those scheduled: Sarah Brannen's
"Gossip Girl," Lauren Myracle's "The Perks of Being a
Wallflower" and "And Tango Makes Three," by Justin Richardson
and Peter Parnell, which the ALA says was 2008's most-challenged
book.
In Denver, Printed Page Bookshop displayed 60 banned books and
one that hasn't been banned, challenging customers to guess which
one wasn't.
In Sedalia, Mo., Sedalia Book and Toy planned "Banned Books
Week" window displays and drawings for T-shirt and bookmark
giveaways.
In the Vermont event, about 120 people crowded into pews at
Norwich Congregational Church on a rainy, raw New England night to
hear Pulitzer Prize winner Powers, poet Galway Kinnell and others
read from once-banned tomes. The crowd, about 120 people, gave them
a standing ovation at the end of the two-hour program.
"This is not something that's academic, that happened many
years ago and doesn't happen anymore,"' said Allen Gilbert,
executive director of the ACLU's Vermont chapter, which
co-sponsored the readings. "Challenges to books happen all the
time."
