YOUR TRASH--MY TREASURE

After OH, LORD I SOUND JUST LIKE MAMA was published, my book received rave reviews, and eventually sold close to a quarter- of- a- million copies.  One day, I received a copy of OH LORD, I SOUND JUST LIKE MAMA in the mail. It was accompanied by a scathing letter, “I am sending you this book. I will not read it, because you are taking the name of the Lord in vain.”

I was censored! Of course I never responded. After all, someone had paid for the book and did not ask for a refund, but I assumed that she considered herself a very religious person. Had I written to her, I might have spoiled her day by pointing out the the Bible contains some “dangerous content”:  Sex (David and Bathsheba), Abuse (Slavery), Undocumented Refugees (Mary and Joseph fleeing to protect baby Jesus) and bibles of all religions depict some form of violence along with the good stuff.

Censoring books is an age old phenomena because the pen really can be “mightier than the sword.” However, the recent Fascist pleasure of burning books in the U.S. takes censorship to a whole other level. The American Library Association condemns censorship and tries diligently to ensure free access to information. Every year the Office For Intellectual Freedom compiles a list of the “Top Ten” most challenged books to inform the public about censorship in libraries and schools. Surveys indicate that 82-97% of documented censorship requests to remove materials are unreported.

Among the ten most challenged books from 2001-2021 are books that many of you have probably read—OH, MY! and many of them have been written by Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize
winning authors, or other award winning authors.  Here are just a few samples:

TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD, (Harper Lee) “negative effects on students’ perception of the Black experience.” OF MICE AND MEN (John Steinbeck) “negative effect on students.” THE HANDMAIDS TALE, (Margaret Atwood) “profanity, vulgarity, sexual overtones.” HARRY POTTER SERIES, (J.K. Rowling) “referring to magic and witchcraft contains actual curses and spells.” CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS SERIES, (written and illustrated Dav Pilkey) “encouraging disruptive behavior,” THE KITE RUNNER (Khaled Hosseni) “leads to terrorism and promotes Islam.” SEX IS A FUNNY WORD (Cory Silverberg) “addresses sex education and leads children to ask questions about sex.” THE HUNGER GAMES (Suzanne Collins) “dangerous viewpoint.”
BELOVED (Toni Morrison) “sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence.” MY MOM HAS A BABY! A KID’S MONTH-BY-MONTH GUIDE TO PREGNANCY (Dori Hillestad Butler) “nudity, sex education.” I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS (Maya Angelou) “offensive language, sexually explicit.” THE CATCHER IN THE RYE (J.D. Salinger) “offensive language.”

I could go on and on in this BRAVE NEW WORLD of television, computers and smart phones. Who needs books when you can have television programs such as:
THE BACHELOR (plenty of sex and nudity), NCIS the team tracks a serial killer (violence), MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT (probably lots of bad language at second sight), FOOTBALL (violence), LOVE,LIGHTS AND CHANUKAH ((religion), MYSTERIES OF THE UNKNOWN-A SEWER GLOB THREATENS A CITY (dirty, icky and occult) and then there is FOX NEWS ( political magic and witchcraft and offensive language).

So, when we open the box of censorship one person’s perceived trash is another person’s treasure.For instance there is a commercial on TV with women sitting on toilets “Women Pooping on TV.”  I’m not sure what they are selling, but I’m not buying!  So should this ad be wiped clean? Or, should you just change the channel? I guess that sitting on a throne and ordering the murder of your enemies in a TV series just might be worse than a few women doing what comes natural—even in public.  So it goes…

Esther Blumenfel