It’s Banned Book Week - September 30th through Oct 6th!
by Amber Polo
Why should you as an author care? Your books probably will never be banned. Right?
The freedom to write and publish
without censure is a gift to you from those who have worked hard to protect the
rights of all writers. The authors of the Bill of Rights. The ACLU. And, yes,
librarians. Those be-bunned creatures have protected your rights for decades.
They didn’t have to love your work or even want to read it, but they understood
that if censors were able to ban one book, all were in danger. They stood up in
their libraries and in courtrooms.
As I wrote The Shapeshifters’
Library I reflected upon the freedom to read and the freedom to publish and what
I, as a librarian, always took for granted. I incorporated the problems of
libraries into a fantasy where noble dog-shifters protect knowledge from
book-burning werewolves in a small Ohio town. I speculated on the many ways the
werewolves among us have tried to curtail our knowledge. It became clear that
banning and burning are pretty much the same thing. If a book is unavailable,
it’s ideas are gone. If it never gets published, it’s unavailable.
Enter “Fifty Shades of Grey”
into this year’s censorship discussions of what should be ripped from shelves
and chained in the library’s basement. In a small library bookclub I facilitate,
I asked a group of senior citizen-readers if they planned to read the book. We
had a great discussion. One of the best comments was from a woman who said she
would read it because she wanted to be able to discuss it with her
grandchildren.
Recently the San Francisco
Public Library installed 18 privacy screens on computer terminals to shield from
others what one person sees on the internet, be it porn or someone’s idea of
porn.
Librarians don’t judge the
reason you want to read. But they do have policies detailing their individual
library book selection policy. Public money can’t be stretched to buy everything
published. (Remember that when you expect a library to buy your book or accept a
donated copy.)
Celebrate Banned Book Week by
reading a banned book. Check out these lists of the Top Ten Challenged Books for the years 2001 through
2011. I bet you find a couple of your favorites.
Visit your local public library and see what’s changed. Support your local library. And love your librarian.
Full disclosure: I have an MLS
and have selected books for a public library. And I’ve listened to the first
third of “Fifty Shades of Grey” in audiobook.
***
Amber
Polo has
had a lifelong love of libraries. A fascination with ancient libraries and
curiosity about why werewolves outnumbered dog-shifters in literature inspired
her new urban fantasy series The
Shapeshifters' Library filled with librarian
dog-shifters.
To
help writers and readers reduce stress, her Relaxing
the Writer: Guidebook to the Writers’ High, offers suggestions and
simple exercises. Contact Amber at www.amberpolo.com and visit her blog
Wordshaping.
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Would you like to participate in
Friday "Speak
Out!"? Email your short posts
(under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com
for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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