Hello again, Leaders Post!
Didja miss me?
Because I missed you! And in today’s opinion piece by Kieran/Kiara, we will be focusing on the censorship of books deemed “too controversial” for the public, books that are declared “too graphic,” and I will be sharing some of my favorites of these books!
The books on our shelves have been the debate between officials and publishers for over a hundred years; from the content within a book, to the cover and title and the plot itself. We’re talking books on LGBTQ+ topics, by authors part of the community, stories on immigration and genocide, and books that spill the nasty details on America’s “founding.” (Spill that tea like we did with the British!)
ANYWAYS.
LGBTQ+ topics, for example, have been the subject of controversy for decades and even longer, with books like Oscar Wilde’s Picture Of Dorian Gray being pulled from book stalls or threatened with being banned. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, the example mentioned above, was censored by Lippincott’s in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a publishing company responsible for looking after author’s manuscripts. Instead of doing that, they removed 500 WORDS from Oscar Wilde’s original text, for fear that it would impact the minds of young “innocent women,” and gross out the public. The book was censored for the implied tension between Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wotton, and the painter Basil Hallward, the three main characters of the novel.
It was said that the book contained “graph homoerotic content”, whereas the most graphic thing was Basil Hallward professing his love to Mr. Gray in the most nineteenth century proposal. It just seems like excuses are being made for these book bans. But it cannot be a coincidence that even after being censored, The Picture Of Dorian Gray was deemed “improper.”
What about the famous novel Not All Boys Wear Blue? That’s on the list of books that are either banned or going to be. Even decades later, these books are being pulled from the shelves for no other reason than denying people their freedom of speech, which literally goes against what our country stands for. Supposedly.
In our ever-changing world, it is vital to stress the importance of educating ourselves. Go to your local bookstore, buy a banned book, trust me; you’ll learn more about this world than you think.
Before I leave, here is a list of my FAVORITE banned books, as promised:
- The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- Anne Frank: The Diary Of A Young Girl by Anne Frank
- Schindler’s List by Thomas Kneally
- Maus by Art Spiegelman
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
- The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Please check these out, I highly suggest this! See you the week after next week for the next piece!
Kieran/Kiara Granillo