Books, amalgams of paper, glue and ink, are powerful things. They can evoke responses so passionate that the works themselves are hailed as masterpieces or derided as harmful and banished from stores, libraries and classrooms.
Earlier this fall, Banned Books Week celebrated the freedom we have to read and the importance of the First Amendment. As in year’s past, it also drew attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted book-bannings across the United States.
To mark this annual effort, students, professors and librarians gathered in Wold House recently for a dinner and discussion. The event, which was sponsored by Dickens House, a theme house for literature lovers, revealed that some Union students are personally familiar with this type of censorship.
“My experience with banned books was in my senior year of high school, when my English teacher taught “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne,” recalled Katie O’Connor ’10 of Dickens House. “She got in a lot of trouble from the school for teaching a book that featured the theme of adultery, and she was not allowed to teach the novel after that term.”
O’Connor was joined in Wold House by about 15 other students, Reference Librarian/Associate Professor Donna Burton, Engineering Professor Mohammad Mafi, College Librarian Tom McFadden and Visiting Professor of Mathematics Kim Plofker. Together, they discussed a wide range of topics, including the differences between graphic movies and graphic novels, and the differences between banning books for political reasons versus banning books for sexual explicitness or excessive violence.
“It was a great event, with plenty of lively debate,” O’Connor said. “Several people brought up some interesting points, and the conversation was spirited and engaging. I continued thinking about the topics even after I left the dinner.”
Burton believes discussions like these are inherently valuable.
“Intellectual freedom is a cornerstone of academic life,” she said. “The College is an excellent venue in which to discuss censorship and its ramifications.”