Title: Should Some Books Be Banned? | LitReactor
Headings: Should Some Books Be Banned?
Should Some Books Be Banned?
India’s fondness for banning books is not so much about cults of personality or propping up odious dictatorships; it’s about fear of violence.
Sedition
Obscenity
If we have a right to free expression, don’t we also have a responsibility to respect the beliefs of others?
Blasphemy
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Content: The books concerned can easily be obtained from book sellers or public libraries, so any curious teen can still get access to the material. The issue is about what should be taught, not about what should be read, and it is an important distinction which all too often gets blurred in the heat of the moment. But what is true is that most of the books which are challenged (also often confused with a ban) or end up as proscribed, are challenged on the grounds of sexual content. While I agree that withholding books from children is only liable to make them curious and that generally we ought to trust teachers to know what is appropriate, I don’t trust the list-inspired assumption that all books banned on grounds of obscenity ( Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Ulysses et al) are literary classics which have attracted the ire of the ill-educated or reactionary. Life really isn’t as glib or simple as this. Child porn doesn’t just exist in the forms of photos on websites. It circulates as books, magazines and pamphlets too. What about bestiality, rape, necrophilia? Are we really willing to allow this kind of material onto library shelves? And remember, before you point out that no reputable publisher would take this type of material on, that the huge rise self-publishing now renders that argument null and void.