Banned Book Week is too reactionary

“Thirty days hath September,” and this year Sept. 30 marked the 30-year anniversary of Banned Books Week.

Sponsored largely by the American Library Association, Banned Books Week began in 1982 after a sudden surge in the number of challenges made to books in schools, libraries, and bookstores.

But to be totally honest: this seems like a scam to coerce me to read.  I mean really ALA?  How did you manage to screw this one up?  Only a group of librarians could take something that would, in Footloose fashion, be exciting and appealing to everyone, (engaging in the forbidden,) and turn it into a boring task comparable to counting pubic hairs.  I’m trying to wrap my head around the logic.

Back in the 1200s, cetrain translations of the Bible were banned, but you don’t see modern Christians setting aside a single week for reading the New Testament, unless of course you only go to church on Christmas and Easter.  Given that there’s  seven days to try and cram in as much “freedom to read” as is humanly possible, how does one pick which banned book to “appreciate”?

Ten years ago in high school, my English teacher brought in a banned book: Little Black Sambo.  It’s a children’s story about a little boy who gets jumped by a gang of tigers admiring his new clothes. The book was not banned for the story, which contains no apparent racist overtones, but went out of print due to the racist nature of the pica-ninny illustrations. It generated discussion, underlining the concept of banned books, and served as the introduction to our reading Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451.”

“Fahrenheit 451” is set in a world where everyone is obsessed with TV and radio, and no one reads anymore. The job of “firemen” is to go and burn books. But a rogue fireman breaks the law and starts to read, turnning him into an instant fugitive.

Now I know some literary Patricians argue that all copies of “Twilight” should be rounded up fed into a giant boiler somewhere. Does this mean I waste the whole week reading crappy romance novels about sparkling vampires?  Do I hoard garbage literature because I can?

Or maybe I should pick up a copy of the men’s magazine, Playboy. It has been banned numerous times, and one of the recurring reasons is that it promotes the sexual objectification of women.  But you’d be surprised to find that there are copies of Playboy that are printed and distributed by the Library of Congress…  in Braille. Apparently some people do, in fact, “read it for the articles.”

It just seems so odd to me that, as a liberalized society, we’d set aside one week to “fight the power.” We reserve a single week for reading the contraband “the Party” wants to keep out of our hands. But for the remainder of the year, those books probably sit on shelves somewhere, collecting dust while we quietly respect authority and nod our heads, sinking back into our own little boxes.

The concept of a Banned Book Week is too reactionary for me, and if the aim is awareness, it’s a compulsory afterthought.