Banned Books Week Guest Author Post by Shannon Delany

Banning Books: Inefficient and Oddly Entertaining

Every time a discussion of censorship or book banning comes up an image of artist Frank Miller’s (Sin City, 300, The Spirit, Batman) jumps to mind. Here’s the image’s link: http://tinyurl.com/27olagh

To me, censorship is as frightening as that image is shocking.

I thought about taking a moral or philosophical stand about banning books for this post. I have plenty of arguments against the banning of books (more since discovering my own debut novel, 13 to Life, and all other paranormals have been banned from one classroom in a particular Texas school).

But I’d like to approach the argument differently.

I want to tell you why I think banning books—or most anything—is an inefficient manner of keeping something out of people’s hands.

I studied Eastern European history in college and the USSR became a fascination of mine. The USSR was known for taking extreme measures in controlling the information (television, radio, newspaper and word of mouth) that reached their citizens. They were big supporters of censorship. And we—in case we forget—were outraged as a nation that there was no freedom of information for that country. It was one of the myriad reasons we claimed superiority over them during the Cold War and one of the reasons I find it bitterly ironic that we still have so many books challenged here.

History teaches us that the censorship that occurred in places like the USSR (and still occurs today in certain countries that we boldly consider to be less than the U.S.) only causes a societal backlash.

You ban something, what inevitably happens? More people find out about it.

Why? Because to ban something you have to first discuss it with some authority. Then you have to list it somewhere and make people aware of it being banned. Some people will (of course) ask for a reason as to why something is banned. So a reason must be produced and also made somewhat public. Frankly, by the time you’ve discussed what needs to be banned, agreed on a list, listed banned items and explained your justification for banning such things you may as well have advertised the banned items to people.

Until Dr. Wesley Scroggins got so much recent press pushing for the banning of the books SPEAK, TWENTY BOY SUMMER and SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, I hadn’t read any of them (SPEAK was on my TBR list because I’ve seen it used with amazing results in classrooms). Now, thanks to my natural curiosity and Scroggins’ 20+ page document (available online) explaining why they should be banned I’ve read more of each of them than ever before. Thanks, Wes!

And where do we see most book bannings occurring? In schools as questions are raised about what preteens and teens should be reading.

Again, how truly inefficient! Think about it. What’s one truth we universally recognize about teens? They are rebellious—they will do something just to spite authority—just to prove they can do it. And teens and tweens are most frequently mentioned as having the greatest amount of disposable income (so they can actually buy books).

So go ahead. Tell teens they aren’t allowed to read something (ohhh—better yet, threaten to confiscate it if you find it in their possession—they *love* that). You’ll see that book’s numbers on Amazon rise. Doubt it? We all watched SPEAK’s numbers jump last week. Because everyone was talking about it.

Feel free. Sit in long, dull meetings coming up with lists of books to be banned. Don’t dare use books to open conversations with teens about topics you might otherwise try to brush aside. Then wait as word spreads like wildfire. And watch readers speak out about how those very books enlightened them, strengthened them or simply entertained them.

The more you complain, the more buzz you create for books. And advertising money’s always a bit tight in the publishing industry. So do what you feel you have to. There will be plenty of well-read, well-educated people (young and old alike) to try and teach you how truly inefficient your attempt at banning books really is.

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Shannon Delany is the author of 13 To Life. Secrets & Shadow, the second book in the 13 to Life series will be released February 15th, 2010. To learn more about Shannon and her 13 to Life Series, please visit her site here www.ShannonDelany.com.

Thank you Shannon for your awesome post and for being apart of our Banned Books Week. We really appreciate it!