Banned Book Week

It's banned book week, and David Brin (a famous Science-Fiction writer and one of my favs) posted this picture.

Which got me to thinking about these books. I've read six of them, and have been thinking about reading two of them for a few years now. (The remaining three don't interest me at all.) A random sampling of 11 books is unlikely to get such a high rate of completion, but a sample of banned books... well, they usually have something quite interesting to say. Something quite powerful. Not all of course and not for everyone of course, but they provoke. And that is almost always interesting.

Lolita is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read, and oh, how I hate it. Being stuck in that pedophile's head for the duration of the book was dreadful and was only made worse by the beauty of the prose. I have such a visceral and enduring reaction to that book. And unbeknownst to me, I had brought into a country where it was contraband. About a quarter of the way through, I learned that I was reading a banned book in a country that had banned it. And the person who informed me that I was doing so was at the time a member of the country's military. I was truly reading a dangerous book.

To Kill a Mockingbird has always been a beloved book. When I read it as a child, I was struck by Boo Radley, mesmerized by him. As an adult, I was struck by how much more there was, how even though I was fully aware of race relations and the dangers inherent in this society, our society, it wasn't something that engaged me deeply as a child. I think that could be said for Scout as well. To have a book that remains beloved but can be engaged in on different levels at different times is precious.

So read banned books. Read them because you can, and not everyone can. Read them because they provoke, they challenge, and they linger.