What do "A Farewell to Arms," "Where's Waldo?" and "Harry Potter" all have in common?
Each has been challenged as a danger to those who read them. Banned books was the topic of discussion at a program sponsored Wednesday by Amnesty International and the graduate adviser program.
"Certain freedoms that have been protected in the past have been lifted," said Catherine Hynes, the program's coordinator and the graduate advisor for Massachusetts Row and Hitchcock dormitory clusters. "It is a good time to be asking what we think the boundaries of our freedom are."
Protests against banning books in the United States stem from the first amendment and its guarantees of free speech. However, from 1990 to 2000, there were 6,000 challenges to books, mainly coming from the regional and community level. Most of the books were not actually banned, but some of them have been removed from schools. The biggest issues that brought on challenges were sexually explicit material or offensive language. Distant to those two top challenges were the promotion of Satanism or cults, the promotion of homosexuality or the promotion of a religious viewpoint.
"A lot of the books that have been attempted to be banned are really canonical works of literature," Hynes said.
Other countries are more restrictive in their censorship. Hynes, a Canadian citizen, said that in Canada, hate literature has been made illegal. Zeynep Oktay '06 is from Turkey where "banning books is to an incredible degree," Oktay said.
The majority of the program focused on three readings from banned books that had been selected by their readers.
Oktay read a selection from "Catcher in the Rye," a book often challenged for its obscene language. However, Oktay said, "It is his anger that is most expressed through the inappropriate language."
"Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller, was another work challenged for its profanity, and it was read by Christina Stolz '06. She also felt that profanity was essential to the development of Miller's play.
The final reading, "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman, was read by Hai Sun, a graduate student. He was surprised when he saw it on the list, where it had been challenged for its sexually explicit material. "He has a lot of homo-erotic expression," Sun said, "but I can understand why this kind of feeling could be threatening to people."
The discussion that followed centered on the difference between banning books and restricting them due to age-appropriateness. Many books are banned from high schools, so the question was asked: Where is the banning of books and age appropriateness dissociated? Most said the difference has to do with the experience and the ability of the people to judge.
"With teenagers it's different because they are assumed as having their own opinions," Oktay said.
Still, books may be banned for a variety of reasons, many of which contradict with each other, depending on who is challenging it.
In the high school Advanced Placement English class of one discussion participant, the teacher assigned "Silas Marner," by George Eliot, because it was "the only uncontroversial book" the teacher could find. However, even this book was banned in a California school district.
"You start to see that there is no consistency," said Hynes.
