Protecting the right to read
PRINCETON — Displays are going up in libraries across the county, encouraging people to read and extolling the virtues of such books as “The Color Purple,” “A Separate Peace” and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”
Libraries are preparing to celebrate the 28th annual Banned Books week, which begins today, Saturday. The week was initiated by the American Library Association with the goal of reminding all Americans not to take their First Amendment freedoms for granted.
Margaret Martinkus of the Princeton Public Library said Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to choose and the freedom to express one’s opinion, even if that opinion might be considered unpopular, and stresses the importance of making available those unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.
Martinkus, who has worked at the library for 10 years, and worked as an English teacher for 35 years, said she has heard many challenges to books during her career.
“A lot of the books on the frequently banned book list are books that we teach in school,” she said. “They’re classics.”
Martinkus said people shouldn’t be surprised that many of the challenged books are classics.
“If it’s going to be a really good story, it’s going to have to have lots of conflict in it and lots of things that maybe make people uncomfortable sometimes,” she said.
Martinkus said she has had both students and parents who had a hard time with a certain book, and remembered one particularly “ugly” incident that took place 20 years ago about “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
Martinkus said nationally, parents have initiated 56 percent of the challenges against books. The rest include patrons, teachers, clergy, school administrators and the government. She said challenges are many times motivated by a desire to protect children from “inappropriate” sexual content or “offensive” language. The top three reasons cited for challenging materials are the material was considered to be “sexually explicit,” the material contained “offensive language” and the materials were “unsuited to any age group.”
Sometimes the challenges run the other way, with the intent of protecting children from racist language. Martinkus said that when the library had the “Between Fences” exhibit, they showed a version of “Huckleberry Finn” that was very close to Mark Twain’s words. It was too much for at least one young man.
“As this young man was leaving, he said, ‘What is the rating on that movie?’ and I told him that this predated ratings,” she said. “He said, ‘Well, there should have been. The language was terrible, and that should be rated R.’”
Martinkus said the final decision on who can read what should come down to the person or a parent.
“I have no problem with a parent saying, ‘I don’t want you to read that book,’ or ‘I don’t feel you’re ready to read that book,” she said. “They have the ultimate responsibility, I think, and hopefully, they’re exposing them to other things and eventually teaching them how to make a good choice as far as what books to read.”
But that responsibility ends with their own child.
“We’re not responsible for what other people are reading. That’s either their job or their parents’ responsibility,” she said. “I think we do have a responsibility to provide good books.”
Comment on this story at www.bcrnews.com.
For more information about Banned Books Week, including which books are most frequently challenged, visit the American Library Association Web site at www.ala.org/bbooks/.
