Banned Books

The big news this past week has been about a book published by someone no one knows which proclaims the former President is no less than the Second Coming of the Christ. Friends of mine who find the premise utterly ridiculous, have suggested that the book be banned or burned.

This in spite of the fact that one of the bigger topics these days is the banning of books by certain right-wing advocacy groups. The question comes up in my mind about the proverbial “Slippery Slope.” Have we started down that slope, or what?

We all have something in the back of our minds which we really don’t want to know about. Things like how candy corn is made, or how the economy of some Pacific Islands is based on bird poop. We are wired in such a way that we are easily “curated” to think in ways we are told to think. Heaven forbid that we read something which may be foreign, yet challenging to the way we are told to think.

In a discussion I had this morning, I recalled the time when the Harry Potter books were first published. Cries of “Witchcraft!” or “Wizardry” were heard far and wide, mostly from people who probably hadn’t read the books. I read them out loud, to my children. I saw nothing wrong with the stories, nor did most of the other people in my circle at that time.

Classics, like Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” are on some contemporary banned books lists – probably because the black character in that story was humanized.

Books are not necessarily pretty. Just looking at my bookshelf now, I’m looking at a couple – “The Devil All The Time” and “The Heavenly Table” – both of which would be considered “Depraved” by some. My mother turned me on to author, Donald Ray Pollock, after she read his first book, “Knockemstiff.” I’ve met the man. Quiet, unassuming. But what he wrote was entertaining and filled with incidents which makes one wonder what’s really going on in the author’s mind. In contrast, my Pollyannish attempts to come up with a decent, saleable novel don’t hold a candle to what Mr. Pollock has already written.

I may have strayed a bit.

Part of my point is that there is plenty of literature out there which is offensive to one group or another. Just because I don’t like something, I don’t have the right to keep you from enjoying something I don’t care for. For that matter, there is plenty of other media out there which can be deemed offensive. Almost daily, I catch bits and pieces of people who don’t like Fox News, or who complain that the big three networks are biased and need to go away. Sometimes I agree with a particular opinion, other times I don’t.

Agree or disagree, it’s important that various viewpoints are out there. Maybe there are times when someone will cross a line and find that the viewpoint they once held in contempt really isn’t that bad after all.

Minds can change, if you let them.

Be Seeing You!