“Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight”. What an insightful comment about the role of books, made by the famous novelist, screenwriter, and film director Stephen Chbosky!
Under no circumstances should we claim that the profound role of a book is just to amuse its readers and not to be immersive. On the contrary, numerous authors have attempted to write about serious and critical political and social topics even though that meant that they usually had to face hard times because of that. Some decades ago the issue of censorship was very common. Many books that nowadays are influential and considered life changing, once faced their abrupt banning because they brought up sensitive subjects. Actually, you may get surprised by the amount of books that were once under censorship, so come on and explore some of them with us!
To begin with, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, one of the most popular and successful books of all time, was temporarily banned in 1977 due to the use of words such as: “damn” and “whore lady”. However, the true reason for its banning was that it conveyed an anti-racist message and thus, it was perceived to be able to cause unwanted revolutionary reactions. Nonetheless, this novel was challenged or rejected by numerous American schools as it was accused of using a racist language, including the word “nigger”. Moreover, “Ulysses”, by the Irish author James Joyce, an highly philosophical book considered as one of the most important works of modernist literature, was burned in the U.S. (1918), Ireland (1922), Canada (1922) and in the UK(1923), where it was also banned in 1929, mainly because of “The Nausicaä episode”, which was thought to have pornographic content for a very long time.
Another famous novel that faced censorship is “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov. Although this book has been praised as one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, it was banned in France (1956-1959), England (1955-59), in Argentina (1959) and in New Zealand (1960), as it was characterised as obscene. Furthermore, “Animal Farm ” by George Orwell was banned from many schools in Panama City in1987 as 44 parents filed a suit against it. In addition, this novel was banned from schools in the United Arab Emirates in 2002 as the Ministry of Education stated that it contained written or illustrated material that contradicted Islamic and Arabic values, such as pictures of alcoholic drinks, pigs, and other “indecent images.”
In addition, various well-known novels faced challenges mainly by religious institutions. Some of these books are: a) “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald (the Baptist College in Charleston claimed it had improper language and sexual references), b) “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck (it was claimed not to show respect to Jesus Christ), c) “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien as the Christ Community Church stated its plot was satanic. And of course, the list goes on.
Taking everything into consideration, we can conclude to the fact that censorship is a situation in which not only the artist cannot express himself or herself, but also the general public cannot get informed about serious and alternative topics. Fortunately, nowadays ,censorship is not as severe as in the past in many countries, yet it is still very widespread in non-democratic ones. Thus, an effort should be made to prevent such restrictive actions from occurring.
Censorship
“Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight”. What an insightful comment about the role of books, made by the famous novelist, screenwriter, and film director Stephen Chbosky!
Under no circumstances should we claim that the profound role of a book is just to amuse its readers and not to be immersive. On the contrary, numerous authors have attempted to write about serious and critical political and social topics even though that meant that they usually had to face hard times because of that. Some decades ago the issue of censorship was very common. Many books that nowadays are influential and considered life changing, once faced their abrupt banning because they brought up sensitive subjects. Actually, you may get surprised by the amount of books that were once under censorship, so come on and explore some of them with us!
To begin with, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, one of the most popular and successful books of all time, was temporarily banned in 1977 due to the use of words such as: “damn” and “whore lady”. However, the true reason for its banning was that it conveyed an anti-racist message and thus, it was perceived to be able to cause unwanted revolutionary reactions. Nonetheless, this novel was challenged or rejected by numerous American schools as it was accused of using a racist language, including the word “nigger”. Moreover, “Ulysses”, by the Irish author James Joyce, an highly philosophical book considered as one of the most important works of modernist literature, was burned in the U.S. (1918), Ireland (1922), Canada (1922) and in the UK(1923), where it was also banned in 1929, mainly because of “The Nausicaä episode”, which was thought to have pornographic content for a very long time.
Another famous novel that faced censorship is “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov. Although this book has been praised as one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, it was banned in France (1956-1959), England (1955-59), in Argentina (1959) and in New Zealand (1960), as it was characterised as obscene. Furthermore, “Animal Farm ” by George Orwell was banned from many schools in Panama City in1987 as 44 parents filed a suit against it. In addition, this novel was banned from schools in the United Arab Emirates in 2002 as the Ministry of Education stated that it contained written or illustrated material that contradicted Islamic and Arabic values, such as pictures of alcoholic drinks, pigs, and other “indecent images.”
In addition, various well-known novels faced challenges mainly by religious institutions. Some of these books are: a) “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald (the Baptist College in Charleston claimed it had improper language and sexual references), b) “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck (it was claimed not to show respect to Jesus Christ), c) “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien as the Christ Community Church stated its plot was satanic. And of course, the list goes on.
Taking everything into consideration, we can conclude to the fact that censorship is a situation in which not only the artist cannot express himself or herself, but also the general public cannot get informed about serious and alternative topics. Fortunately, nowadays ,censorship is not as severe as in the past in many countries, yet it is still very widespread in non-democratic ones. Thus, an effort should be made to prevent such restrictive actions from occurring.
Chrysa Mylonidou
May 31, 2021
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