Banned Books Week: Classics in the library

By Lisa M. Rabey
Systems & Web Librarian

Why a book is challenged or banned can be anyone’s guess. It can range from what is considered to be inappropriate language, content, situations, belief systems, and religious ideals to name a few reasons. As a library, our main goal is to provide open and immediate access to information and content. We are not here to judge or restrict, but to serve.

Below is a listing of titles, available via GRCC Library, of over 40 classics that were challenged from the Radcliffe Publishing Course listing of the 20th century’s top 100 novels.

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald [print]
  The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald [eBook]
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger [print]
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck [print]
• To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee [print]
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker [print]
• Ulysses by James Joyce [print]
  Ulysses by James Joyce [eBook]
• Beloved by Toni Morrison [print]
• The Lord of the Flies by William Golding [print]
• 1984 by George Orwell [print]
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov [print]
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck [print]
  Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck [eBook]
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller [print]
• Animal Farm by George Orwell [print]
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway [print]
• As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner [print]
• A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway [print]
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston [print]
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison [print]
• Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell [print]
• Native Son by Richard Wright [print]
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey [print]
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut [print]
• For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway [print]
• The Call of the Wild by Jack London [print]
  The Call of the Wild by Jack London [eBook]
• Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin [print]
• All The King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren [print]
• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien [print]
• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair [print]
  The Jungle by Upton Sinclair [eBook]
• Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence [print]
• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess [print]
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin [print]
  The Awakening by Kate Chopin [eBook]
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote [print]
• Sophie’s Choice by William Styron [print]
• Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence [print]
  Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence [eBook]
• A Seperate Peace by John Knowles [print]
• Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh [print]
• Women in Love by by D.H. Lawrence [print]
  Women in Love by by D.H. Lawrence [eBook]
• The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer [print]
• Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller [print]
• An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser [print]

If you’re interested in other Top 100 lists, go to Modern Library for other lists of interest.

Banned Books Week: Fahrenheit 451

To celebrate Banned Books Week 2012, the library will be posting reviews and commentary from college staff and students about their favorite banned books and why during the celebration.

By Janelle Yahne
Circulation Associate

In 1953, Ray Bradbury did not know what we would have in the 21^st century. Smartphones with Bluetooth attachments to keep track of our daily lives, large high definition televisions that are almost as big as walls, and a fascination with reality television are many things that are merely hinted at in Fahrenheit 451.  In a near future ravaged by war, society has found no need of books and the conflicting views that are part of the reading experience and the need for quicker gratification by society.  Books become Reader’s Digests become CliffsNotes.

Written during the early years of the Cold War and 1950’s McCarthyism, Bradbury’s novel is about censorship, nuclear annihilation, and mindfulness. The characters figuratively stand on soapboxes during lengthy monologues meant to persuade the main character, Guy Montag, to the right way of living, using literature to prove each other’s points.  The great irony of course is this book being on the ALA banned books list primarily for language, violence, and its threat of burning a Bible though its text is later used as a form of salvation.  It is an excellent and quick read that can be found at the library.

Other books by Ray Bradbury can also be found at the library.

Banned Books Week: The Bible

To celebrate Banned Books Week 2012, the library will be posting reviews and commentary from college staff and students about their favorite banned books and why during the celebration.

By Richard Ryskamp
GRCC Trustee

Favorite: The Bible
Author: Multiple
Why: In the words of the founders of this nation:

This book is worth all the books that ever were printed, and it has been my misfortune that I have never found time to read it with the proper attention and feeling till lately. I trust in the mercy of Heaven that it is not yet too late.

- Patrick Henry (Revolutionary General, Legislator, “The Voice of Liberty”, Ratifier of the U.S. Constitution, Governor of Virginia), speaking about the Bible, as quoted by his grandson William Wirt Henry in Patrick Henry; Life, Correspondence and Speeches, Volume 2.

The Bible contains more knowledge necessary to man in his present state than any other book in the world.

-Benjamin Rush (Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Surgeon General of the Continental Army, Ratifier of the U.S. Constitution, “Father of American Medicine”, Treasurer of the U.S. Mint, “Father of Public Schools Under the Constitution”) Essays, Literary, Moral & Philosophical (Philadelphia: Thomas & Samuel F. Bradford, 1798), p. 93, “A Defence of the Use of the Bible as a School Book;” see also Rush, Letters, Vol. I, p. 578, to Jeremy Belknap on March 2, 1791

All the… evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.

- Noah Webster (Revolutionary Soldier, Judge, Legislator, Educator, “Schoolmaster to America”) History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), p. 339, “Advice to the Young,” 53

Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. . . . What a Utopia – what a Paradise would this region be! 
- John Adams (Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Judge, Diplomat, one of the two signers of the Bill of Rights, Second President of the United States) Works, Vol. II, pp. 6-7, diary entry for February 22, 1756

Is the Bible really banned? There are many countries where it is illegal to possess a Bible. These are primarily communist countries like North Korea¹ and Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia.² And then there is the United States where the Bible is singled out as a book that public school students may not be exposed to,³ and there are attempts to prohibit students from reading it to themselves in private.⁴

References:
1. North Korea executes woman for distributing Bible
2. International Religious Freedom Report 2005 Saudi Arabia
3. Busch v. Marple Newtown School District
4. Thomas More Law Center Ensures Right Of Third-Grade Student To Read Bible In Public School

Banned Books Week: His Dark Materials Trilogy

To celebrate Banned Books Week 2012, the library will be posting reviews and commentary from college staff and students about their favorite banned books and why during the celebration.

By Janelle Yahne
Circulation Associate

Blending contemporary Oxford with mystical spirit animals, theocracy, and an exciting multiverse, His Dark Materials Trilogy (all three books in one available through MeL) is a personal favorite of mine.  Though all three books are excellent, I regularly re-read Golden Compass (or Northern Lights in the United Kingdom) as it is a beautifully told story about a girl trying to find her kidnapped friend with the help of numerous people with their own agendas. There are witches, armor-wearing talking polar bears, a hot air balloon riding cowboy, and a creepy golden monkey dæmon. The book is written for children, but I found the book in the adult science fiction after its publication in 1995.  It is engrossing and simplistic, making the last two books, The Subtle Knife and Amber Spyglass, a bit lacking even though each delve into intriguing moral and spiritual arguments.

As a banned book, I understand why it is listed. It is a book about philosophical and religious ideas intended for early middle school readers. Reading the book while in high school, I did not see the connections Philip Pullman makes to Paradise Lost, the writings of William Blake, and theoretical physics. The most obvious issues come in the last book, as Pullman very clearly explains his views of organized religion causing it to be banned in some institutions. The first book does not delve into as many theological arguments allowing the reader to absorb the beauty of the alternate Oxford and world.

One last note: the movie is not as good as the book.

Banned Books Week: Frankenstein and Harry Potter

To celebrate Banned Books Week 2012, the library will be posting reviews and commentary from college staff and students about their favorite banned books and why during the celebration.

By Autumn Flake
GRCC Student

One of my favorite banned books if Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I love this book so much because it was very intriguing and it gave me a new opinion on science fiction. Before I read Frankenstein, I didn’t like the science fiction genre at all, and now I’m giving this genre more of a chance when I go to the library. Also I read this book my sophomore year of high school, and my teacher had us do a lot of fun things with the book, including watching the two different versions of the movies.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling is one of my favorite banned books series because this series brought so much joy and imagination to my childhood. Harry Potter has such fantastic writing and characters before all the movies came out, every book I read I had a movie playing in my head the writing was that good. The plot was, pardon the pun, magical. I’ve read the whole series about 6 times and every time I read them they just keep getting better. I love this series so much that words can’t really describe it.