Banned Books

October 6

When something’s happening politically that concerns me, my first reaction is how can we throw a party and have a positive event surrounding an issue. ~ Michael Tisserand

Any book worth banning is a book worth reading. ~ Isaac Asimov

Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance. ~ Laurie Halse Anderson

Read whatever they’re trying to keep out of your eyes and your brain, because that’s exactly what you need to know. ~ Stephen King

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. ~ Joseph Brodsky

The important task of literature is to free man, not to censor him, and that is why Puritanism was the most destructive and evil force which ever oppressed people and their literature: it created hypocrisy, perversion, fears, sterility. ~ Anaïs Nin

Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice. ~ Henry Louis Gates Jr.

[The place where people come to speak, and from whence Cherry Street Books live streamed the speakers on Facebook . . . ]

If a public school were to remove every book because it contains one word deemed objectionable to some parent, then there would be no books at all in our public libraries. ~ Peter Scheer 

[Host Michael Tisserand introduced speakers who did readings from books that have been banned at various times through the ages . . . ]

Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight. ~ Stephen Chbosky

Censorship is telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it. ~ Mark Twain

[The total tally of attendees, as verified by the nonpartisan group We Don’t Have Skin in the Game (Seriously), was 107 . . . ]

I’m not, like, a book guy, but isn’t the point of all this book stuff like what Ms. Croft was teaching us—that unrestricted access to books allows us to be challenged and changed? To learn new things and to critically think about those things and not be afraid of them? To be better than we were before we read them? ~ David Connis

A dangerous book will always be in danger from those it threatens with the demand that they question their assumptions. They’d rather hang on to the assumptions and ban the book. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

[Main Street by Sinclair Lewis (1920) read by James Pence]

Most troubles are unnecessary. We have Nature beaten; we can make her grow wheat; we can keep warm when she sends blizzards. So we raise the devil just for pleasure–wars, politics, race-hatreds, labor-disputes. ~ Sinclair Lewis

It has not yet been recorded that any human being has gained a very large or permanent contentment from meditation upon the fact that he is better off than others. ~ Sinclair Lewis

What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist. ~ Salman Rushdie

[Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937) read by Thressa Johnson]

I hate it that Americans are taught to fear some books and some ideas as though they were diseases. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

When these people call Eleanor & Park an obscene story, I feel like they’re saying that rising above your situation isn’t possible. That if you grow up in an ugly situation, your story isn’t even fit for good people’s ears. That ugly things cancel out everything beautiful. ~ Rainbow Rowell

[Co-host Barbara Benson doubled as microphone adjuster . . . ]

A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill. ~ Robert A. Heinlein

[Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White (1952) read by Jessica Chipman]

There are no bad authors for children… because every child is different. They can find the stories they need to, and they bring themselves to stories. ~ Neil Gaiman

The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose. ~ James Baldwin

[Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (1956) read by Lewis Mundt]

Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor. ~ James Baldwin

Censorship of anything, at any time, in any place, on whatever pretense, has always been and always will be the last resort of the boob and the bigot. ~ Eugene O’Neill

[To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960) read by Sandy Susag]

If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won’t have as much censorship because we won’t have as much fear. ~ Judy Blume

[Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (1970) read by Carla Grover Barnhill]

Yes, books are dangerous. They should be dangerous – they contain ideas. ~ Pete Hautman

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show its own shame. ~ Oscar Wilde

He who destroys a good book kills reason itself. ~ Milton

[Maus by Art Spiegelman (1991) read by Tami Hinz and Michael Tisserand]

Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you’re going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book… ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance. ~ Lyndon B Johnson

All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship. ~ George Bernard Shaw

[And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson (2005) read by Rowan, age 11]

Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. ~ Potter Stewart

I can’t imagine a greater compliment for an author than making the banned book section. ~ Chris Colfer

[The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (2007) read by Alysa Ilchert]

Every burned book enlightens the world. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. ~ Ray Bradbury

[Emily Regnier, owner, Cherry Street Books]

Torch every book. Burn every page. Char every word to ash. Ideas are incombustible. And therein lies your real fear. ~ Ellen Hopkins

The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion. In the long run it will create a generation incapable of appreciating the difference between independence of thought and subservience. ~ Henry Steele Commager

Every dictator gets rid of the artist first… They burn the books and execute the artist first… Art might do something. It’s dangerous. ~ Toni Morrison

[Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe (2019) read by Drac]

You can’t know something’s missing if you don’t know it exists. And that, to me, is sort of the greatest tragedy about all of this (in regard to the removal of LGBTQIA+ stories from libraries and classroom shelves). ~ Mark Oshiro

He drinks espresso coffee made in a little Italian percolator and seeks out controversial or banned books on the premise if a book is banned, it is probably interesting. ~ Tracy Sorensen

The school board banned one of Maya Angelou’s books, so the librarian had to take down her poster. I fished it out of the trash. She must be a great writer if the school board is scared of her. ~ Laurie Halse Anderson

Well, the man who first translated the bible into English was burned at the stake, and they’ve been at it ever since. Must be all that adultery, murder and incest. But not to worry. It’s back on the shelves. ~ Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Calling a book “Young Adult” is just a fancy way of saying the book is censored. ~ Oliver Markus

Censors don’t want children exposed to ideas different from their own. If every individual with an agenda had his/her way, the shelves in the school library would be close to empty. ~ Judy Blume

Some children were lucky enough to have their Potter novels banned by witch-hunting school boards and micromanaging ministers. Is there any greater job than a book you’re not allowed to read, a book you could go to hell for reading? ~ Ann Patchett

Books and all forms of writing have always been objects of terror to those who seek to suppress truth. ~ Wole Soyinka

Photos on loan from other sources . . .

Having the freedom to read and the freedom to choose is one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me. ~ Judy Blume

[In honor of Kathleen Pohlig, founder of Cherry Street Books]

All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values. Well, as an old poop I can remember back to when we had those old-fashioned values, and I say let’s get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States — and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death! ~ Kurt Vonnegut

When the Viennese government compiled a Catalogue of Forbidden Books in 1765, so many Austrians used it as a reading guide that the Hapsburg censors were forced to include the Catalogue itself as a forbidden book. ~ Craig Nelson

Books were despised by the Viking Tribes, as they were seen as a horrible civilizing influence and a threat to the barbarian culture. ~ Cressida Cowell

Up Next: Back to catching up with the old stuff . . .