Banning books won’t hold back authors

This column ties in with the one previously published on 28 March 2024, titled “Readers Thrive”.

I attended a Writers’ and Poets’ get-together at The Town's House in Mossel Bay last weekend. What a wonderful experience to spend time with likeminded people who want to learn more about all things word related. Fast forward to Tuesday afternoon when I came across an article on books that have been banned around the world.

It got me wondering: what is going to happen to the world if people stop reading? In my opinion, they’ll stop thinking, stop questioning, and become sheeple.

While book banning has been happening for decades, for many different reasons, it’s become more prolific since the advent of wokeness, and along with it, cancel culture. Had I known that twenty of former bestselling author, Jodi Picoult’s books would be banned, I’d have hung on to my copies. Not only did her stories get me thinking about social issues, such as alcoholism, date rape, parental relationships, and assisted suicide. One page in one of her novels dealt with date rape and was banned in some states in the USA. One page….

To Kill a Mockingbird was originally banned in the 1960s due to profanity and the themes of rape and racism.

I own a copy of this classic, and I’m proud to say I do. Are the themes contentious? Yes. Can they make the reader uncomfortable? Absolutely! I find it ironic that this book and many like it are banned, when they deal with themes that citizens all over the globe deal with every day.

Where is the First Amendment where banned authors are concerned? Should they not be afforded the same rights under the constitution to articulate their opinions without having to fear censorship or legal sanction?

To quote Sir Isaac Newton: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Even with their contentious subject matter, removing books from the shelves only bolsters their reputation, making people want to read them. In the USA there is a site dedicated to selling banned books at no cost. The buyer merely has to cover shipping costs.

In South Africa, a decade after her book, July’s People was banned, the late Nadine Gordimer received the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature. While the story was a work of fiction, a great deal of what she penned forty-three years ago is taking place today, it feels almost prophetic on some level.

Coming full circle – one lady at the writers’ event posed the question: “What are you writing? What words are you leaving behind for those generations to come?”

The fact remains: readers thrive. They learn to question the status quo, to push boundaries, to facilitate change. Banning books is never going to change that.