You are a Banned Book

thebannedbooksblog:

The year is 1852. You are “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and you have just been banned because you have started conversations about slavery. You have challenged the widely accepted idea of slavery in the south and have caused people to rethink their assumptions. You have caused debates. Equally as important, you were written by a woman. Who used her real name. People are angry with you. So you become the first book to experience a ban on a nationwide scale.

You are a banned book.

The year is 1922. You are “Ulysses” and you have just been banned because you contain sexual content. Sexual content is not to be spoken, not to be thought. It is to be hidden as a secret part of life. But this ban is not like the bans of the 21st century. This ban is not in one library or one school. It is a federal ban. No one in the land of the free can read a copy of your pages. In a country with the freedom of speech, you are illegal.

You are a banned book.

The year is 1957. You were mailed to a friend by Samuel Wroth, and you are considered scandalous. Wroth should have the right to privately mail what he likes, right? But you, you dangerous little collection of pages, have placed him on trail in Roth vs. The United States. He asks the court to redefine their standard for “obscene” but they will not hear it. You are confiscated, and you are the reason Roth is placed behind bars until 1961.

You are a banned book.

The year is 1957. There is good news for you. While Roth was in prison, the court decided to take his suggestion and redefine what they consider obscene. Now you, a banned book, can only actually be banned if you are found  “utterly without redeeming social importance.” However, this is still very subjective. Who is to judge what qualifies as social importance? What qualifies as social importance? You are a banned book, and you are still subject every day to the legal standards of a judge’s opinion. That is why it is so important to create a culture that is dedicated to keeping you safe.