Local literature lovers unite against book banning

Kimberley McGee

Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2000 | 9:01 a.m.

What: You Can't Read That: An Evening with Banned Books.

When: 7 p.m. Thursday.

Where: 1401 E. Flamingo Road at the Clark County Library in the Large Conference Room.

Cost: Free.

Information: 733-1141.

Between the covers of the best selling "Harry Potter" children's book series lurk monsters, witches, evil spells and children in peril.

But to some the danger of this fantasy world is more real than imagined. They fear that children will be unduly influenced by the mystical pictures J.K. Rowling paints with words, and will be turned toward the occult.

For this reason, the "Harry Potter" series was the most challenged book in 1999 in school and library districts across the country.

But the relatively new book series on the banned block is not alone. It joins such American classics as "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain and many of the girl-grows-up-genre tomes by writer Judy Blume.

Flying in the face of those who'd rather stifle freedom of expression, the American Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada are sponsoring the second annual "You Can't Read That: An Evening with Banned Books" event Thursday at the Clark County Library on East Flaming Road, in honor of the nationally recognized Banned Books week, which began Monday.

"We want people to be aware of the banned books," said Suzanne Scott, organizer of the event and administrator at the Clark County Library.

With the help of friends and local literary professionals, Scott has arranged for portions of classic banned books to be read, including the coming- of-age drama and consistently banned book "Catcher in the Rye," by J.D. Salinger; the "Harry Potter" series; selected Blume works; and "Snow Falling on Cedars," by David Guterson.

Books aren't actually banned. Rather, they are challenged, meaning they are put up for consideration to be removed from a particular school, library or other venue where children can access the material easily.

Anyone can challenge a book as long as they can present a reasonable cause for removal, such as explicit language, sexual situations or offensive content. It is only removed from a library or school curriculum if the challenge is successful, approved by the American Library Association or the originating school board.

The ALA writes on its website (ala.org): "The positive message of 'Banned Books Week: Free People Read Freely' is that due to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection."

Why is it so important to present banned books to the public?

"It's to remind people that the freedom of expression should not be taken for granted," Scott said.

It's the freedom of ideas and the freedom of the mind to communicate these ideas that are at stake with the banning of books, Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the ACLU, said.

"Once you start banning books and banning new ideas because you don't like them or they seem offensive to people then you are banning the process of each individual being able to make up his or her own mind," he said.

Right to read

Those who oppose the banning of books say that if books over the past 100 years that had been thought of as risque in content had been kept from the public, new ideas could not have formed. Segregation, slavery, women's rights and teenage angst were all addressed in literature that might be considered for banishment today.

The First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the freedom to express ideas through speech, art and music as well as other forms of artistic communication. By looking at books that have caused social ruckus over the years, its clear, Lichtenstein said, that the value of freedom to express oneself is a time-sensitive issue.

"What is now great literature was considered insidious not too long ago," he said. "Once you start banning things then everything gets locked in and what is currently fashionable and favorable becomes that for all time and cannot get challenged."

Lichtenstein was greatly affected personally, he said, by legendary comedian Lenny Bruce, who during the '60s pushed the envelope of good taste and public acceptance when he used profanity and sexually explicit material in his stage act.

"If you read the material now, it's simple, acceptable," Lichtenstein said. "It was just words, but it was brilliant."

That proves the point, he said, that what walked the edge of decency in the past slowly blended into the mainstream of society simply by existing in words.

"It's interesting the kind of things that are unacceptable are based on the whims of the time," Lichtenstein said.

With the recent racial epithets uttered by Clark County School District Superintendent Carlos Garcia, (he used the "n" word), followed by a offensive language said by a local teacher and another area administrator, the climate of the district is such that Lichtenstein predicts "Huckleberry Finn" will find its way to the list of banned books locally.

"The issue of 'Huckleberry Finn' will raise its head again because of the language," Lichtenstein said of the "n" word that occurs throughout the book, as it is part of a main character's name. "When the book was written the language was not at issue. It was right for the time."

Lasting impressions

Dayvid Figler, special public defender for Clark County, a Nevada Arts fellow and a poet, shares in his legal colleague's passion for Americans' freedom to think for themselves.

"Certain authors have been prosecuted for their words -- Henry Miller for one -- and hopefully by reading from them people will see their classical value," he said. "Hopefully this will make society look at themselves by looking at history and pointing out the sheer ridiculousness of banning (books) for their content."

Figler will read Thursday from "Portnoy's Complaint" by Philip Roth, a selection from his personal library.

"I found that book to be an important part of my coming of age and it was an important piece of literature to me," he said.

The 1928 book, about a teenage boy's thoughts on balancing on the thin line before adulthood, could be compared with a 1999 movie that had critical tongues wagging.

"There is nothing written in 'Portnoy's Complaint,' which is done so skillfully, that is more interesting and more edifying than 'American Pie,' " Figler said. "The video is so over the top, it's 10-feet tall and people talk about it and people have access to it."

The written word seemingly holds more bite with those who want to ban offensive materials.

"With books people can settle in and understand it, it has more of a deep, personal, feeling," Figler said.

The right to read has been a personal fight for Figler since he was an impressionable high-school boy. In protest of the banning of "Catcher in the Rye" in his English class, Figler and a friend picketed the school. It was then that he was struck with an epiphany: He'd never read, or even cared about reading, the banned book.

So he did.

"It impacted me to this day," he said. "It made me appreciate a lot of aspects of the world. The language was personal ... sometimes shocking, especially to someone who hasn't heard it. To see it captured in a way that has meaning and import, it opens your eyes. Great literature makes you think."

Gregory Crosby, senior content producer for lasvegas.citysearch.com who is also scheduled to read at the event, said that good literature moves a reader to walk a virtual mile in another's shoes.

To some, that's a heady experience best left alone.

"There are lots of forces in the world that would rather you didn't out of simple fear of what is misunderstood," Crosby said. "Those problems exist regardless of books. They are human problems."

Banning anything is antithetical to the idea of education and original thought, he said. "Do you want to think for yourself or do you want to swallow everything that society throws at you whole?"

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