Censorship

"DON'T TOUCH!"  You have to touch.  "DON'T SCRATCH!"  You have to scratch.  "DON'T READ!"  You have to read.

Censorship is a somewhat controversial concept, and pretty ridiculous.  If you tell someone they cannot read something, they are going to read it.

Back in the 90's, I had no interest in the Harry Potter series.  Then the whole controversy came out about how it is evil (so to speak) and you shouldn't read it.  I said to myself, "If it's worth all the fuss to fight against, it might be worth checking it out."  The controversy, the "DON'T", peaked my interest.  I'm glad it did because it was a wonderful series.  The only problem is, now I can't stop howling at the moon (HA! HA!).

I discovered a few things about selection vs. censorship that I did not know while reading the Jenkins article on censorship.  A library only has a limited budget.  When selecting materials, if a quality book is not selected because it might be challenged, that is censorship.  If a quality book is not selected because of constraints (ex. budget, space, etc.), this is selection.  There needs to be a set of guidelines set in place, in case a book is challenged. 

A set of guidelines is something I am pretty sure we do not have at my work.  A few years back, a teacher saw a student reading an anime graphic novel.  Those books can sometimes have nudity in them.  This particular book had black-line drawing of a girl in a shower.  It wasn't very graphic or anything, and as you're reading the story, the picture wasn't really important.  The joke was something about the brother running into the bathroom to use the toilet, and shocks the sister who is in the shower.  Anyway, the library coordinator really overreacted.

She took the book from the student's hand and tore the pages apart, then threw it in the garbage.  She took the rest of the series off the shelf and did the same.  She said, "I don't want anybody else complaining to me about this stuff."  She didn't even look at the books, just tore them up and threw them in the garbage.

People think that T.V. shows should be removed from the air.  That's terrible.  "If you don't like what's on, change the channel."  A fine example is the Jerry Springer Show.  I thought the show was O.K. but didn't pay much attention to it.  Then they said it should be taken off the air.  That made me watch the show, and like it even more.  "Change the channel or unplug the T.V."

If you want to censor something, censor yourself.  If you don't like a book, don't read it.  But don't ruin it for other people.