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I have watched this meme float around for weeks now, biting back my personal reservations against it. But after weeks of silently reading the comments of little goth kids who've never suffered one day in their lives and who's mommy and daddy probably give them the money they use to buy all their prepackaged rebellion down at Hot Topic pat each other on the back as they pass this around and vent about what a RELIGIOUSLY OPPRESSIVE NIGHTMARE OF A COUNTRY we live in, I just couldn't hold back anymore.
I am a writer. Books are sacred to me, as they should be to all people. I take the notion of outlawing a printed idea very, very seriously. It angers me. It upsets me and that's why this meme upsets me. Because it just further drives home how we so completely take for granted how good we have it in this country. They say these books are "banned" but they are not. Have unmarked helicopters ever descended on your house on the rumor that you have a copy of Toni Morrison's "Beloved" (complete with big, shiny "Oprah's Book Club Pick of the Week" seal on the cover, no doubt,) lying on your coffee table? Have you ever cowered and looked the other way as someone was grabbed off the street and tossed into a black van, never to be seen again because they were reading a copy of Stephen King's "Carrie" at the bus stop? If the answer is yes, then congratulations. YOU know what a "banned book" is. If the answer is no, then congratulations to you too, because you were fortunate enough to be born in a place where such things are not endured, and I pray you never have to learn otherwise.
Look, the Ladies Church Auxiliary of Okiefanochkie, Wisconsin managing to get a book on human sexuality yanked from the shelves of the school library is disheartening and it is sad. But it is NOT the same as "banning" a book. When placed alongside the banning of writings the way it was practiced in Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, Taliban Afghanistan, and (until very recently,) Baathist Iraq, it doesn't even come close. Think about that the next time you find yourself all filled with righteous indignation. That said, I will post the meme anyway, as food for thought if nothing else.
( 100 Banned Books. Ones I've read are in bold )
Oh wait, what's this? I added a one hundred-and-first book? How dare I? Yes. I dare. Even now there are countries in the world where so much as owning a copy of that text is grounds for imprisonment, government seizure of property, torture, and death. You want a banned book? THAT'S a banned book.
I am a writer. Books are sacred to me, as they should be to all people. I take the notion of outlawing a printed idea very, very seriously. It angers me. It upsets me and that's why this meme upsets me. Because it just further drives home how we so completely take for granted how good we have it in this country. They say these books are "banned" but they are not. Have unmarked helicopters ever descended on your house on the rumor that you have a copy of Toni Morrison's "Beloved" (complete with big, shiny "Oprah's Book Club Pick of the Week" seal on the cover, no doubt,) lying on your coffee table? Have you ever cowered and looked the other way as someone was grabbed off the street and tossed into a black van, never to be seen again because they were reading a copy of Stephen King's "Carrie" at the bus stop? If the answer is yes, then congratulations. YOU know what a "banned book" is. If the answer is no, then congratulations to you too, because you were fortunate enough to be born in a place where such things are not endured, and I pray you never have to learn otherwise.
Look, the Ladies Church Auxiliary of Okiefanochkie, Wisconsin managing to get a book on human sexuality yanked from the shelves of the school library is disheartening and it is sad. But it is NOT the same as "banning" a book. When placed alongside the banning of writings the way it was practiced in Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, Taliban Afghanistan, and (until very recently,) Baathist Iraq, it doesn't even come close. Think about that the next time you find yourself all filled with righteous indignation. That said, I will post the meme anyway, as food for thought if nothing else.
( 100 Banned Books. Ones I've read are in bold )
Oh wait, what's this? I added a one hundred-and-first book? How dare I? Yes. I dare. Even now there are countries in the world where so much as owning a copy of that text is grounds for imprisonment, government seizure of property, torture, and death. You want a banned book? THAT'S a banned book.
