You Know What Grinds My Gears? Censorship.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The Bill of Rights


As far back as 387 B.C., books took on a curious life as works that provoke and offend, when Homer found his Odyssey on the chopping block as one of the first books to be banned. The last week of September was Banned Books Week, a week that celebrates the Freedom to Read, and ironically, this week in the news, Laura Mallory, of Atlanta, Georgia, seeks to ban the 'Harry Potter' books in her home county of Gwinnett. I don't normally like to discuss the news here, because you can go to CNN for that stuff, but when I read this article I felt my blood pressure rise. Being a complete bibliophile, I'm biased, yes? Not to worry; I'll try to be somewhat objective.

Let's look at the argument:
Mallory says that the Harry Potter books should be banned because they include references to witchcraft, which she feels is 'evil' and an attempt to indoctrinate children into the Wiccan religion.

Let's suppose the books actually are about witchcraft.

Fact: The Wiccan religion is one of the most peaceful religions that exists. You never saw a Wiccan invent Crusades and massacre thousands (millions?) of people because they were different or did not believe exactly the same. While I personally don't follow the Wiccan religion, I have great respect for any religion that includes as its basic tenets the belief that all efforts must be used for good. The idea of 'evil' witchcraft is antithetical to Wiccan beliefs.

What's 'evil?' I don't have enough pages to explain what that could be, as every person will have different ideas there. But I know that fantasies about friendship, the triumph of good, and adventure are certainly NOT evil. My parents have seen the Harry Potter movies, and they made the mistake of mentioning, in casual conversation, that they had liked the last movie, to one of my more conservative relatives. The entire Harry Potter series was immediately deemed 'evil' because of the 'witchcraft.' While J.K. Rowling is indeed a personal hero of mine (She made kids want to read! She made adults want to read! She created an incredible fantasy that shares influences with..Star Wars....), her version of witchcraft is more rooted in her own imagination than in actual witchcraft. I'm no expert on the matter, but I believe her version is a mix of basic witchcraft ideas and things she made up.

But what of 'real' witchcraft? What is it? Can it be evil? I like to believe that magic could exist, though I've seen no practical evidence of it in the real world. I'm Mulder, as you might know, and I believe in the possibility of all things. I just can't feel that God created such wonderful and complex beings as humans, and didn't give us keys to a higher consciousness. I also can't believe we're alone in the universe. But that's another rant for another day. :)

Witchcraft has been around for centuries, and started as a means of dealing with illness, famine, and weather catastrophies. Witches, mostly women, developed the belief that they could heal, communicate with the Gods, and affect their environment. It's that last trait that gave witches such a bad reputation, as superstition, ignorance, and fear caused many to believe that witches affected things and people in a negative way, as a part of a pact each witch must make with the devil (which is an urban legend, not based in fact). Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but none of us has actually met the devil. Have we? Sure, Hitler was evil, but he wasn't the devil. As far as I can tell, Jesus is the only person to actually talk with the devil face to face (when He was tempted in the desert). I don't honestly believe any mere mortal such as ourselves sits around and communes with the devil. Sure, there are dark forces around, but in the end it's all about what people believe. And there are some who believe the devil is not evil, but is misunderstood. I don't really look at negative things as having come from the devil; I look at them as having come from people who made the wrong choice.

Fitting that I got my pro-witchcraft commentary in here during October. :) But really, I don't know enough about witchcraft to judge it. And that's my argument to Ms. Mallory: Don't judge what you don't know. Don't judge, period. That's what Jesus said plain and clear, and he didn't specify. I can't tolerate prejudices of any kind, because most are bred out of ignorance and fear. Millions of women were victims of genocide because of the witch hunts. How sad is that?

But in reality, Harry Potter is not about witchcraft. If Ms. Mallory had bothered to read and comprehend the novels, she'd know that. So her whole argument is ridiculous, to me.

But the core of my frustration here is, There should never be a banned book, ever! The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is arguably the greatest American novel ever written, and it was banned. Twain's characters were realistic to their time period, and shouldn't offend any more than a book set in the times when Native Americans were called 'savages' should offend. No, I don't like certain language in Huck Finn, mainly because I was taught that said language (The N word) was curse language and it wasn't allowed in our household. The ideas behind it were backwards, to our modern-day thinking. But in Twain's time, this was how people thought and spoke. Huck himself wasn't a racist. Jim was actually a friend of his. One day I'll have to dissect my favorite books on this blog. I probably could blog all day about them. Except, maybe I should leave my favorite novel, Jane Eyre, to fellow Eyre-ites. haha I just made that up. Eyre-ites. ;)

Of course the flip side is, there's a lot of garbage out there. Pornography and the like. Well, I'm not really a fan of pornography, or overly sexual writing, mainly because what I imagine is much more powerful than someone's description of sex. But it's really all about perspective: One person's pornography is another person's Art. In America, Thank God, we have the freedom to write and read (and say) whatever we want. I can't imagine it any other way. The most subversive book ever written was The Bible, if you really read and understand it, and it's the #1 seller of all time.

The bottom line is, censoring what someone can read, or watch, or say is a way of trying to control them. And I'm not in favor of one person controlling another. I agree that certain things are in bad taste, and some things are truly offensive to me. But I defend the right of us all to express ourselves. Because in expressing ourselves, we're learning about ourselves and others. And that can be a great gift.

So to those who would ban or censor:
Stop trying to take away our gifts!

Whew! I feel better now.

According to the Online Computer Library Center's research of the top books banned (based on worldwide data), the Top Ten are:

1) The Bible. Why does this not surprise me?
2) Huckleberry Finn. Twain was an incredible writer. Period.
3) Don Quixote. LSD dreams or some wild fantasy? Poor Don. He never knew which.
4) The Koran. Someone will always try to supress someone else's religion, it seems.
5) Tom Sawyer. Somewhere, Twain laughs.
6) Arabian Nights. I haven't read it, but the Arab world took offense.
7) Gulliver's Travels. Not Gulliver!
8) The Canterbury Tales. I love these stories.
9) The Scarlet Letter. Did I do a list of my favorite novels? This is one of them.
10) Leaves of Grass. And this is my 2nd favorite book of poetry. Life without Whitman would be a sad life indeed!

I think all of my top ten favorites (excepting Jane Eyre) have been on the 'ban' lists at one point...books like A Farewell to Arms, The Great Gatsby, and The Bell Jar, in addition to the ones listed above. Imagine a world without these works...and you could really go mental! ha

Have a great day...and, in support of writers everywhere, go read a banned book. It'll do you good. :)