Why You Should Care About Book Banning
Last year, author Salman Rushdie was stabbed ten times on stage while giving a public lecture in New York.
Why? Because he wrote a book titled The Satanic Verses in 1989, which was accused of being blasphemous, leading to various banning’s and spiraled into a death sentence being called against Rushdie in Iran.
He survived the attack, but was left blind in one eye and has permanent damage on his left hand.
The ironic part is that The Satanic Verses is not about satanism. It is supposed to be about identity, cultural history and the immigrant experience. The title is derived from a period of pre-Islamic history that is referred to in the Quran.
It is sad that because of close mindedness, a book that was meant to symbolize the author’s experience through historical and religious allegories, has been brutally condemned and vilified to the point of violence.
That is the level we have reached in literary censorship. According to the Associated Press, the American Library Association has tracked 695 challenges to ban books in libraries in the first eight months of 2023.
Florida has become a leader in book banning with 1,406 recorded book ban cases this year. This increase in banning primarily stems from Governor Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” and “Stop WOKE” acts, as well as conservative groups such as “Moms For Liberty” and “No Left Turn” that have been pushing for the banning of books centered around race, sexuality, gender and LGBTQ+ topics, as they consider it “grooming.”
Some of the most public challenges include Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation for accused pornography and The Hill We Climb after a complaint that it was indoctrinating students. Poet Amanda Gorman has joined with PEN America and Penguin Random House in a lawsuit against the Escambia County School District and School Board to return the books the county banned back into school libraries.
It is terrifying how quick our society bans or restricts books, considering we are a country that claims to value freedom of speech. Reading books that challenge you, that force you to confront harsh topics and present a different perspective is essential to education.
Libraries and schools are supposed to be an accessible source of free literature and we must protect them. If we tolerate book banning now, it will escalate into something more sinister.
There is a reason why infamously oppressive regimes such as Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia were against access to books. Because banning books silences us.
In order to ensure a free and democratic society, intellectual freedom and free speech must be protected. You don’t have to like every book, but you deserve to have access to it.
