George Carlin was the man when it came to pointing out the absurdities of word censorship, with nods to Nat Hentoff and many others.
As a librarian and writer, I love banned words. I love banned books displays, too. And of course, I love banned books.
Taking on censorship is like shooting fish in a barrel -- unless it has government and secret police backing. Especially unless it's enforced by Italian fascists, Iranian Basij, Puritan freaks, Nazi thugs or totalitarian authoritarian goon squads in general. Even then, crackdowns add weight to the importance of words, texts, art of all kinds, even more so -- precisely because made rare and precious and subversive and free.
Taking on censorship is like shooting fish in a barrel -- unless it has government and secret police backing. Especially unless it's enforced by Italian fascists, Iranian Basij, Puritan freaks, Nazi thugs or totalitarian authoritarian goon squads in general. Even then, crackdowns add weight to the importance of words, texts, art of all kinds, even more so -- precisely because made rare and precious and subversive and free.
Back in 1997 while doing research, I visited the Special Collections at UVA's Alderman Library in Charlottesville, Virginia, which had amazing displays, things like William Faulkner's typewriter, coat, chair and other accessories; if memory serves, it had samples of Thomas Jefferson's red hair, too, and artifacts from US and Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston. UVA's Special Collections also had on display banned materials like S.C.U.M. Manifesto and William S. Burroughs' (aka William Lee's) Junkie. Hell, even Homer's The Odyssey was banned by morons somewhere on Earth.
Love it: the Power of the Word. Just like in the Bible.
Today's Rune: Strength.
Erik, I too love to read what the powers have deemed banned. Cracks me up--but "Junkie" scared the bejesus outta me!
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for me to understand how people could be so stupid as to ban books. I remember Harry Potter getting that treatment. What could be more absurd.
ReplyDeleteHi Eric.
ReplyDeleteYou're so right by loving banned books. Me too.
If you are interested in such stuff you could also be intrigued in our website!? It's www.ncac.org
At the moment I'm completing an Internship at NCAC- National Coalition Against Censorship. It's dedicated to protect free expression and access to information by providing for example educational resources and advocacy support to individuals and organizations responding to incidents of censorship.
The recent blog entry deals with "safe libraries" and the logical consequences of filtering important informations. It’s very interesting and we want to know what for example you think about that special case. We’re glad about a lot of comments as well as a lively discussion!
Greetings
Jana
Banned books are usually extremely awesome. I would actually love to have a book published and then banned somewhere. I'd view it as a boost to my ego...then again, I'm wierd and like to piss off people.
ReplyDeleteThanks, all, for the comments! Jayny, I'll check it out!
ReplyDelete