Ban These Books Too; It's Only Fair

By: The Mystic | 29September2000

Chief Morals Proctor Department of Censorship Local Library / School District Dear Sir or Madam: Don't think your efforts, and that of your philosophical companions, haven't been noticed in public libraries and school boards to ban books that you believe are unsuitable for young minds. I realize that your struggle to protect children from their own curiosity and the alleged failures of parents to place your limits on what their own children read will continue, regardless of those who use words like First Amendment, censorship and freedom of thought. I know of several of the books that you and your kind have recently targeted for removal from library shelves: J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series has often been selected because it focuses on wizardry and magic. Some of the writings of Phyllis Reynolds Naylors, Robert Cormier, Judy Blume, Walter Dean Myers and John Steinbeck have been banned for language that was determined to be offensive. Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Alice Walker's The Color Purple and David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars have all been banned during this past year for sexual content. Whereas many people don't understand the motivation that drives you and your comrades, I think I do, precisely. I realize how dangerous you believe it is to expect a child to reach beyond his or her grasp or to be uncomfortably challenged by new thoughts and ideas. When I read that a Clinton Arkansas school was trying to ban Wilson Rawls' Where the Red Fern Grows -- the first book I ever shed tears over -- because of one reference to "them damn hounds", I realized that you aren't just trying to protect children; you are attempting to protect us all from the most miniscule possibility that we might be shocked or offended or -- worse yet -- the sin of thinking outside what you have determined is orthodox. I don't like what you are trying to do, but I do understand it. Given all your hard work, it is almost embarrassing for me to point out that there is still much for you and your comrades to do, all of it uphill. I have stumbled across some incredibly offensive references in books that are widely available to children in probably 99% of the public libraries and (I'd bet) a majority of this country's school libraries, even at the elementary level! The reason I think it's going to be difficult for you is because these books are among the most popular in the country, and read (or at least owned) by many people -- respectable and otherwise -- many of them with children in the house who would be proud if their kids took a break from television to bury themselves in these books. One particularly reprehensible author of whom you may have heard is William Shakespeare. He refers to the sex act thoughout many of his plays. In one, he revoltingly calls a black man copulating with a white woman a "black ram tupping a white ewe" [1] and refers to them "making the beast with two backs" [2]. In another, he euphemistically refers to sexual congress as doing "the act of darkness" [3]. Besides all the fornicating, this author often makes jokes from references to human genitalia [4]. Many of his books are full of murder -- of which he also makes jokes [5]. Is nothing sacred?! There's another set of books that is potentially more disturbing. They appear to have been written by various authors, but since the books are nearly always published as a collection under one cover, I consider them together as one book. You may have heard of them too. They are referred to as Scripture and the Bible. Similar to the Harry Potter series, there are references in it to wizardry [6], although I am unable to ascertain whether this is supposed to be OK in the context of the story. Like "Red Fern", it includes a vulgar word, 'pisseth'. This doesn't occur just once so it would be simple to mark the word out like those in Arkansas propose to do. The word occurs six times, spread across three different books [7]. Since the Bible is so ubiquitous, it is too bad that a little witchcraft and a few naughty words aren't the worst of it. Unfortunately, it contains many stories of sexual abuse and deviance. Unlike other books you have banned where perversion is related as such, in Scripture, the perverts and abusers are often the people who are supposed to be the heroes. One of the primary heroes is Abraham who is married to his half-sister [8]. Nothing is made of this disgusting little detail, as if incest were the most natural thing in the world. Does this not at least fall under the category of "unsuited to age group", the third most frequent excuse for banning books during the past decade? Perversion seems to run in Abraham's family. Consider his nephew Lot, who offers his two virgin daughters to a group of men to use as they see fit [9]. A few days later, Lot's wife abandons him and he gets these same two daughters pregnant [10]. Like Abraham's incest, there is no evidence in the story that this is not perfectly reasonable behavior. Is that not more disgusting than the rape and sexual abuse in Caged Bird? Concerning rape, there's another Bible story in which Moses (another 'hero') sends out twelve-thousand soldiers to a battle. He instructs the soldiers that all men and women are to be killed, with the exception of virgin girls who are to be kept as slaves [11]. Does this seem like a reasonable spoil of war, or perverse sexual content that should be removed from the eyes of innocent children? This is the same Moses who establishes a law that allows a man to rape a single woman without penalty, as long as he pays off her father and marries her [12]. As in Shakespeare's stories, murder is a common theme in the Bible. In one, a woman invites a man into her home with assurances of safety, feeds him, then after he falls asleep, she hammers a stake through his head and into the ground [13]. Unlike Shakespeare, the murder isn't depicted as a reprehensible act; she is praised her actions. The killing of the enemy's babies by smashing their heads against rocks appears to be justified [14]. There are references to people eating their own children [15]. Ethnic cleansing is accepted as normal -- even righteous [16]. I must ask you, is baby-killing, cannibalism, murder without punishment, white slavery and rape, and incest the sort of material to which you would allow children to be exposed? If this isn't dealt with soon, it will spread like a particularly virulent plague and society might begin to tolerate the contents of the Bible as ideals. I believe I have shown that the works of Shakespeare and stories from the Bible are even more horrible than the books you have already banned or are attempting to ban. I fully expect you to begin the campaign to take these vile stories of criminals, abusers and sickos -- particularly when they are depicted as heroes -- out of the hands of those who might be influenced by them. It is only fair. Sincerely, A Concerned Citizen --------------------------------------- References Even now, now, very now, an old black ram Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise; Awake the snorting citizens with the bell, Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you: Arise, I say. -- Othello Act I, Scene i BRABANTIO. What profane wretch art thou? IAGO. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs. -- Othello Act I, Scene i A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of my mistress' heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it: wine loved I deeply, dice dearly; and in woman out-paramour'd the Turk; ... --King Lear Act III, Scene iv KENT. Who's there? FOOL. Marry, here's grace and a codpiece; that's a wise man and a fool. -- King Lear Act III, Scene ii SECOND MURDERER:What, shall we stab him as he sleeps? FIRST MURDERER: No; he'll say 'twas done cowardly, when he wakes. SECOND MURDERER: When he wakes! why, fool, he shall never wake until the great judgment-day. FIRST MURDERER: Why, then he'll say we stabb'd him sleeping. -- Richard III Act I, Scene iv Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor. And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee. --1 Samuel 28 1Samuel 25:22; 1Samuel 25:34; 1Kings 14:10; 1Kings 16:11; 1Kings 21:21; 2Kings 9:8 And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. --Genesis 20 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. --Genesis 19 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. --Genesis 19 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. --Numbers 31 If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; 29 Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days. --Deuteronomy 22 And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not. And when he had turned in unto her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle. And he said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him. Again he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man doth come and enquire of thee, and say, Is there any man here? that thou shalt say, No. Then Jael Heber's wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died. --Judges 4 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. --Psalms 137 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them. --Jeremiah 19 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. --Joshua 6 [Use this text file as a template to (e)mail your local library or school board.]