|
SEPTEMBER 4, 2003 at 9:30 PM
Posted by JAMES
Source: Bennington Banner via The Leaky Cauldron
Southern Vermont College professor Catherine Burns pens an articulately styled piece
on book-burning and the effects it entails for any person, young or old: '...millions of imaginations would be stifled, having been deprived of the freedom of literature.' Burns warns of the increasing regularity of this practice by extreme political and religious group.
Luckily enough for us, Catherine Burns also happens to teach a class on this particular subject.
Books such as the "Harry Potter" series have been targeted by certain groups as anti-Christian literature, as has Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" for racist over- and under-tones.
Various groups have called for the banning of certain books for a multitude of reasons: Graphic sex, violence, alleged religious heresy, etc.
But if one book is banned, why not another? And another after that?
More importantly, who will decide which books are banned, and which aren't?
Burns relates some of the harsher examples of book that seem to exist solely to be challenged for its right to take up space in the public library. These however, are correctly placed in any such setting and teach many lessons, directly or indirectly.
...Although books like Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" may make the gorge rise in our throats, and perhaps the same thing would happen to some of us after perusing Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues," these books exist for a reason.
They are designed to teach us, about our weaknesses, about our triumphs, but mostly about being human.
Take away the books, and you take away an integral part of what it means to be a whole person.
You may be taken quite taken back by Burn's statement that book-burning is more popular today than ever before. I know I was.
There are many very informative websites that tally and protest against censorship in any form. A few of the greats are listed below.
Reader Comments (44)
click to read...
Your Thoughts
click to write...
Copyright © 2002-2010 HPANA. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. 
HPANA is an unofficial fan site, in no way affiliated with J.K. Rowling,
Scholastic Books, Bloomsbury Publishing or Warner Bros. Entertainment. All
trademarks and copyrighted material are the property of their respective owners.
About HPANA | Movie 6 | Send a news tip | Contact us | Privacy policy
Auror
Points: 2391
HPN4eveRon says:
That is so wrong. Even if the books are bad, i think it is just down rite mean to burn them. Absolutly RUDE!!
Posted Sep 4, 2003 at 9:45 PM EST
Witch
Points: 742
TigerEyez says:
I so agree with this Burns woman. You take books away, but that only stifles freedom of speech.
Posted Sep 4, 2003 at 9:48 PM EST
Professor
Points: 1194
Godric11 says:
This makes me angry...I don't know if anyone has read Farenheit 451 by ray bradbury (VERY good book) but if you have, you can see how this is a really bad thing!, in that book, book buring is a profession and nothing but bad comes from it...I think that harry potter is no worse or better then any book if you are ranking books to burn...let people read what they want, if you don't like it then don't buy it just to burn it!, besides, i can guarentee 3/4's of these people don't read the books to give them a chance!
Sheesh, some people!
Posted Sep 4, 2003 at 9:52 PM EST
Transfiguration Professor
Points: 2990
Choralee says:
This a great article! Book burning should be banned altogether. Who was the idiot that decided Twain's Huckleberry Finn was a bad book? Has that idiot read it? Get real - and go find a life!
I have a passion for all books - to read is to experience life through someone else's eyes - - the authors! :)
Posted Sep 4, 2003 at 10:10 PM EST
High Inquisitor
Points: 23488
KT Lady says:
Some people really disappoint me...*sigh* I dont understand...if you dont like something...dont be around it! dont put yourself in the position where u absolutely HAVE TO put up with it...i dont know...but u guys get what im saying...:)
Posted Sep 4, 2003 at 10:11 PM EST
Witch
Points: 742
TigerEyez says:
Godric11 I've read Fahrenheit 451, I know what you're talking about. Banning books can lead to the downfall of our society, and I don't think people understand that.
Posted Sep 4, 2003 at 10:15 PM EST
Witch
Points: 712
harryroxmysocks says:
She's so right. One of the main reason's they ban books is because they make people think. I think no book should be banned, no matter how extreme it is.
Posted Sep 4, 2003 at 10:29 PM EST
Order of Merlin, 4th Class
Points: 1227
Prongs150 says:
I agree. As I always say, every book deserves a chance to be read, at least once. Burning books is wrong and should stop before something bad comes from it. Too late!
Posted Sep 4, 2003 at 10:41 PM EST
Prefect
Points: 333
HarryPotterNutcase says:
Ahh very well said. I agree with the Burns woman...book burning people are morons *hiss*
Posted Sep 4, 2003 at 10:44 PM EST
Auror
Points: 2773
Alessandra says:
Book burners are idiots but they have a right to express themselves in any way they choose.
So long as they burn their own possessions I've no quarrel with them. Libraries and bookstores and other people's books are strictly off-limits.
Posted Sep 4, 2003 at 10:59 PM EST
Order of Merlin, 1st Class
Points: 1856
Rupert Baby says:
I think that NO books should be banned, it is coicidential that we had a discussion in my english class today about how important literature is and how it overall helps stimulate your mind no matter what age you are, no book is going to be pleasing to everyone so if you're willing to ban one book why not them all? If these "book banners" were to think about that maybe that wouldn't be burning these controversial books?!?!
Posted Sep 4, 2003 at 11:05 PM EST
Points: 180
MUGGLEBORN6 says:
OK, in order to burn a book, you have to buy a book, which gives money to the author and publisher and so forth. if they want to show their dislike of a book, then don't buy it. i'm not going to say it's wrong, cause if they want to burn up their $20 or more, that's them, not me. why not just light up the ole fire barrel and throw all your money in, it's the same thing. cause isn't money the root of all evil?? some people are just ignorant.
Posted Sep 5, 2003 at 12:55 AM EST
Order of Merlin, 1st Class
Points: 1826
snapelupinfan says:
We once had a time in Germany when books were burned and NO ONE wants this time back. It should be forbidden by law to destroy books in this way. By the way as some of you told before, banning a book makes more people read it. I asked some of my pupils who have not read HP so far about this fact and they told me that they would start reading HP,if it was forbidden at their school.
Posted Sep 5, 2003 at 6:06 AM EST
Witch
Points: 917
Slytherin_Punk says:
HP is a great book and anyway good book or not you should never burn a book.
Posted Sep 5, 2003 at 7:02 AM EST
Head Girl
Points: 468
Charlie'sMum says:
Burning and/or banning books is one group of people's way of saying, "you need to agree with me, and the only way you can agree with me is by not being exposed to points that differ from my own." I find it laughable that the people who plaster their cars with American flags, and profess to believe in 'Christian values' turn around and engage in behavior that pretty much typified life under communism (and Nazism). I once had this amazing conversation with this woman on a train who was from Russia. This was not long after the 'fall' of communism and we got to talking about books, and she told me how the book 1984 by George Orwell was banned in Russia, but she was able to get a smuggled copy in. I will never forget what she said, she told me she was 'amazed at how accurate George Orwell was' in describing communism - and he wrote the book in 1948. She also told me that the KGB had bugged the park around the home of a famous Russian author (I forget who right now) because they wanted to catch people who might go there and discuss the 'radical' ideas that this author put forth in his books. People who burn and ban books don't want to help others, they want to control others. As Orwell himself wrote - "Until they become conscious, they cannot rebel'.
Posted Sep 5, 2003 at 9:05 AM EST
Points: 7828
Rococoed says:
Christians in the second world war helped the Jews hide from the Nazi's, risking their own lives in the process, rebelling against Adolf Hitler and his beliefs. Now it seems they have taken on Adolf Hitler's beliefs and are now burning books! Book burnings need to be stopped immediately, or I'll continue to have Holocaust flashbacks, and no one wants to have those, do they?
Posted Sep 5, 2003 at 10:45 AM EST
Points: 790
M. Sebastian says:
Libraries often have trouble with a patron who wants a book removed from the collection (as do schools). It is your right not to buy or read a book, but not your right to prevent anyone else who wants to buy and/or read it from doing so.
Posted Sep 5, 2003 at 11:05 AM EST
Professor
Points: 1068
Penumbra says:
I don´t understand why people love to go to extremes. If you don´t like a book don´t read it and that´s it! If you really need to burn one buy it and burn it and get over with it! I´m sure everyone has something more important to do than worrying about fiction books they don´t agree with.
Posted Sep 5, 2003 at 11:27 AM EST
Supreme Mugwump
Points: 2893
S.P.E.W. fan says:
There is general rule that parents need to follow if they are serious about knowing what their children read. Know what they read! Go with them to the library, visit the bookstores together! Get to know your child's tastes and steer them in the direction you see fit. Getting rid of "controversial" books only heightens the appeal to young audiences, so burning books and pulling them from libraries is actually conterproductive and really good publicity for the book. If I were an author I'd want someone to ban all my books and burn a few. How bizarre.
Posted Sep 5, 2003 at 1:43 PM EST
Animagus
Points: 19544
Sirius-Ella says:
grrr, I don't see the reason in burning books at all,
we UNDERSTAND, you don't like the books...just don't burn
them geeze..
-sirius-ella-
Posted Sep 5, 2003 at 1:57 PM EST
Order of Merlin, 2nd Class
Points: 1750
Centaur says:
Bookburning and banning is pointless. All it does is generate a heightened interest in the book that is being burned or banned.
Posted Sep 5, 2003 at 3:21 PM EST
Order of Merlin, 1st Class
Points: 1990
HarrysGran says:
Wow, when I read about book burnings, my stomach simply turns over. I'm a German and I know my history! Book burning is one of the things I really detest. Because it could be the start of something nobody would want! I loathe people who sort out what to read or think and what not. I don't want to be manipulated! -
The author said something really important: It's important that no book is burned - however gruesome - but then you know exactly what other authors really think - misguided or not, but then we're warned.
Oh maybe my post was a bit incoherrent - but everytime I read about this book burnings I really get exited...
Ah, something else - I know about books influencing the mind. I don't know if anybody knows about Karl May, a German author who wrote many (about 80) adventurous books in the last century. I adored them as a kid and got many off the library and later, when I could afford them, bought them all... And many of the statements the author made in the books I took for granted, but they were absolute radical. When I grew up, I - thanks heaven - understood that. And I absolutely was disgusted when I learned that Karl May was one of the favourits authors of Hitler. Bah.
Hm, it really is important nowadays that parents read the same books as their kids - some books need a lot of explaining...
But not HP. Hp is purely good stuff! Nothing dangerous whatever in there. On the contrary. And that's that.
Posted Sep 5, 2003 at 4:56 PM EST
Witch
Points: 574
Tonks007 says:
Thats horrible why would anyone do that?
Posted Sep 5, 2003 at 5:35 PM EST
Order of Merlin, 2nd Class
Points: 1645
morgana witch says:
Burning books is so stupid! It wastes a lot of paper! Especially the Harry Potter books, which are so long!
Posted Sep 5, 2003 at 5:54 PM EST
Chief Brain Washer
Points: 2881
Chogiiiirl says:
It is very sad that some groups are so insecure about their beliefs that they would resort to such insane habits as book burning/banning. People fear what they don't understand. Many of the people that burn books or want them banned have never even read the book they are opposing, or at least not all of it. You cannot control others, it's this little thing called "free will".
I liked Choralee's comment: that books let you see the world through another's eyes. I guess that book burners don't want to see the world in any other way than their own narrow-minded world view.
Posted Sep 5, 2003 at 8:23 PM EST
Witch
Points: 750
siriusgurl says:
wow she's so right... "...Although books like Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" may make the gorge rise in our throats, and perhaps the same thing would happen to some of us after perusing Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues," these books exist for a reason.
They are designed to teach us, about our weaknesses, about our triumphs, but mostly about being human.
Take away the books, and you take away an integral part of what it means to be a whole person." Thats just about sums everything up in my mind.
Posted Sep 5, 2003 at 11:15 PM EST
Back to top of page