Banned Books Week is nearly over. But the fight isn’t. It’s an election year, which means politicians will want to look like they stand for something.
Seems to me that with over 50 school shootings so far this year with 24 fatalities, gun reform would be something they’d stand for. Especially since there have been (checks notes) no deaths related to literature this year. But what do I know?
Book banning is one of the most hypocritical, insidious things we’re dealing with in our country. It’s not the worst thing, of course. But it’s something that feeds into most of the other problems we have. Poverty, racism, classism, they’re all fed by book bans.
Let me explain.
It’s another barrier for people without money
So far, no one is talking about banning books outright. They just want to ban books from public and school libraries. If you want to read a book, you can just buy it, right?
I don’t like that argument. It’s the same sort of thing people with money always say, forgetting that there are people who don’t have money.
Books are expensive. Right now I’m reading William by Mason Coile, and it is $24.30. $14.99 for the e-book. I paid nothing to read it because I borrowed it from my local library.
Now, I’m not digging at Coile here. Nova is $14.00 for the paperback. Broken Patterns is $13.00. Books are expensive. Most of that money doesn’t go to the writers. And even if it did, I wouldn’t want you to buy my book if it meant you were going to struggle to buy groceries that week. That’s why they’re all slowly being added to Hoopla.
Libraries give people with limited means access to books. So no, we cannot just go out and buy books if they’re banned from the library. And the freedom to read what we like shouldn’t be one more thing in our society with a financial barrier.
It demonizes books that don’t discuss a very specific worldview
If you look back at the list of books most often banned, you’ll notice that a lot of them are about people in the LGBTQ+ community. Of course, that’s not the reason given by people who want to ban these books. They argue that the books are sexual. But they consider anything to do with the LGBTQ+ community to be sexual.
At least, that’s what they’d like people to believe.
The truth is that most book bans are meant to keep a certain kind of book off the shelf. Specifically, any book that isn’t about a straight person experiencing a story that doesn’t make America look bad. Anything that steps out of that narrow view is in danger.
This effectively closes off a powerful avenue of acceptance for people who don’t exist in that narrow view. Which is to say, most of us. It’s easy to feel like there’s something wrong with you when no one around you understands what you’re experiencing. Books can be one way to find out that you’re not alone. There’s nothing wrong with you, and how you’re feeling is normal.
But of course, some don’t want LGBTQ+ people to feel normal. Some don’t want questioning our sometimes dark and bloody history to feel normal.
It erases hard stories that need to be told
Some books are really hard to read. Maus, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, The Giver, 1984, Handmaid’s Tale. None of those books made me feel good.
Several of them made me feel seen. Most of them made me see the world in a way I hadn’t before, and understand better burdens that weren’t mine. All of them taught me something.
Yes, some books are hard. Yes, some books talk about stuff we don’t want to hear about. Sometimes those are the books we need to read. Because life is hard. Life is scary in ways we don’t all understand.
But if we want to change the world, if we want to make it less scary and more bright, we start by understanding. We start by seeing the shadows.
Don’t stop the fight just because Banned Books Week is done. Because the people who want to fight for censorship sure aren’t stopping.
So, what are you reading?
If you love this content and want to support Paper Beats World, you can do so on Ko-fi.
And if you’re looking for new books to add to your Fall reading list, don’t forget that Starting Chains is coming out on October 4. Broken Patterns is already available on Amazon.
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