Book Censorship Movement: Rewriting Classics and Defunding Public Libraries - Why We Must Push Back

(Photo by Nijwam Swargiary on Unsplash)

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We are putting our Inspector Gadget hats back on this week, to get to the bottom of this book censorship movement.

Over the past few months, books by Roald Dahl, R.L. Stine and even Gone with the Wind have recently been either rewritten, censored or demeaned as "hurtful and harmful."

If book banning wasn't bad even, now we are seeing books being altered for political agendas as well.

Speaking of book banning, you might remember that we talked about Florida in past newsletters, so we will look at Missouri who just voted to defund all public libraries! Yes, public libraries…

(Photo by Brittney Butler on Unsplash)

The vote, if passed by their Senate, would defund the 45.6 Billion dollar state budget for public libraries.

This trend toward book censorship and library defunding is deeply troubling for several reasons. For one, it goes against the principles of free speech, freedom of press and intellectual freedom that are at the core of our democratic society. Books and other forms of media should be allowed to express a range of ideas and perspectives, even if they are controversial or challenging.

"Blume, in her interview with Variety, referred to politician-led attempts to challenge books as “the real danger.”

Even legendary author Judy Blume has put in her two cent on the matter saying that she "doesn't believe in that" when it comes to rewriting classic literature and banning books.

Judy Blume faced book banning and censorship in the 80s when writing her books, “Forever...” and “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

"Blume, in her interview with Variety, referred to politician-led attempts to challenge books as “the real danger.”

“What are you protecting your children from? Protecting your children means educating them and arming them with knowledge, and reading and supporting what they want to read,” Blume said."

Sources:

⁃ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/judy-blume-responds-book-banning_n_6427d3a7e4b02a8d518ec526

⁃ https://variety.com/2023/film/news/judy-blume-roald-dahl-censorship-book-bans-queer-books-1235570001/

Our take:

Outside of extreme cases, rewriting books is dangerous because in order to grow from our past, we must be willing to understand it and confront it. Modern generations should be able to look onto classic novels with critical eyes so that they can pave a brighter future. By censoring and rewriting books all we are doing is hiding that there were bad actors in the past.

Additionally, classical and historical books should be look at within their context so we can use them as teaching purposes for future generations.

Whether it's book banning or censoring we must push back on people trying to control narratives so history won't continue to repeat itself.

As a Book Media company, this is an important conversation because in real-time the landscape of the book market is changing. It's important for voices such as ourselves (and many others) to keep our readers engaged in these rapid developments. We aim to cover book news with limited bias and also like to give our "Expert" opinions unsolicitedly from time to time😎😂

Curious to hear your opinions, reply back or leave a comment below!

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