Harry Potter burned for your sins
I remember that night in Kennedy Park as all those Harry Potter books were heaped up high and prepared for the flames of censorship. Only, the group that planned the burning forgot to get a permit and so they had to settle for cutting up the books, instead. While there is something comical about a band of crusaders trying to hack into a very thick volume with very cheap scissors, the ultimate purpose of the exhibition was as ugly as ever. Here was censorship at its most vile. Here was a group of do gooders condemning a beloved story because they perceived it as evil adn full of witchery. Child corrupting witchery, no doubt.
And as frightening as the originators of the plan were to me, the hordes that fell behind them was even more disturbing. Average men and women who should fight for their freedoms were instead pumping their fists and screaming their support for the censors. Their eyes glazed over with the vacuous sheen typically seen in cows led to slaughter or followers of charismatic cult leaders. And they kept coming and coming, men, women and children who looked completely normal but who so easily allowed themselves to fall under the spell of the man at the podium.
I had an unsettling vision that night of growing legions gathering in number and strength around the globe. I saw them pointing out the books they deemed inappopriate and casting them out. And while my imagination usually tends toward the overly dramatic, there is no hyperbole at all about that bad dream. Every day, books are challenged and brought up for public scrutiny. Soccer moms who haven’t so much as burped in years will still rant about the evils of “The Catcher in the Rye” and insist that it be removed from high school book shelves.
Harry Potter is doing fine and so is J.D. Salinger, other than the fact that he’s dead. But the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, of course, and so I like to revisit the issue every now and then. And so for your nostalgia and unease, here’s a partial list of challenged books followed by a longer list of same.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (contains racial slurs. Imagine that: racial talk in the era of slavery.)
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (foul language and it does not represent traditonal values. Whose traditional values, ya bastids?)
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (a teenage girl’s horrible experience with drugs. Not appropriate for teenage girls to read about.)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (described as “filthy and trashy” by a New York school district).
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (teenage characters from broken homes. Certainly not something you want a teenager from a broken home to read about.)
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein (irreverant attitude about child disobedience. If you don’t let your kids look at Silverstein sketches, they will be perfect.)
Cujo by Stephen King (profane language. But apparently the part about a St. Bernard eating people is okay.)
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (teenage girls have periods and stuff. For God’s sake, don’t tell the kids.)
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (“vulgar and offensive.” Ah, so’s your mother.)
Lord of the Flies by William Golding (demoralizing because it implies that man is inherently a savage. This is among my favorite books of all time, so cut that shit out or I’ll kill you with a sharpened bone.)
Carrie by Stephen King (more girls menstruating, swearing and stuff.)
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell (wagering and other socially unacceptable activities. Ah, eat my worm.)
