Book bans are right up there with censorship, the desecration of cultural artifacts and the whitewashing of history, all of which Florida now does routinely in the name of development and white nationalist purity. But I admit: I had a lot of fun reading over at least parts of the list of 1,600 books the Escambia County school system has removed from shelves, supposedly to review and potentially ban.
Librarians review books as a matter of course. They are professionals trained in the art of calibrating the right books to the right school audiences. So there’s nothing wrong with reviewing books along those lines. The problem is that those books have already gone through that process. Most have been on the shelves for years. Many are classics, some are dictionaries–dictionaries–and one of them is the Guinness Book of World Records.
I don’t know what could possibly be objectionable in the Guinness book. Maybe the pitchforks of Escambia thought the book encourages children to drink dark beer. Apparently the book does give some attention to animal species, not human unfortunately, that can copulate “more than 50 times in the same three to four hours, all with the same female,” or female chimpanzees copulating with eight different males in 15 minutes. But I’m not sure how that’s sexually explicit. To me it reads more like the set up to one of those brain-twisting math questions on the SAT.
Among the less esoteric rejections, we see titles by Walt Whitman, Sandra Day O’Connor Thurgood Marshall, just about every book by Maya Angelou, even though that famous passage of her getting raped when she was 9, in I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings, is all of two lines, rendered in metaphor: “Then there was the pain. A breaking and entering when even the senses are torn apart.” And that’s it.
Many titles that have been making headlines for the past two years are on an earlier Escambia list that led to a federal lawsuit. But that’s old news. Silencing Ann Frank’s Diary isn’t. Now we’re into not just censorship, but the erasure of people and memories, the erasure of man’s inhumanity toward particular people and races, as is the case with the removal of books by William Faulkner, Alice Walker and Toni Morison.
By the time you find that two books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the greatest storyteller of the last century, have been removed, it’s no longer surprising that the Encyclopedia of World Costumes is also on the ban list. No doubt, Escambia schools think that children could become gay by spending time looking at frou frous. It’s absurd enough for Ripley’s Believe It or Not, except that that title is banned in Escambia, too.
You can argue that book bans in the age of Amazon, Google and universal libraries are irrelevant. To some extent that’s true. Those of us with means can acquire any book we please, often overnight. But books aren’t cheap, and the days of online bargains are pretty much over. Besides: Americans don’t read much anymore and don’t even know what their children should read. So for a big segment of our school population, school libraries are it. Students either get their books there, or they don’t get them. Their cultural literacy is disproportionately at the mercy of what librarians put on shelves–what librarians are allowed to put on shelves.
Most reading discoveries are by browsing–the serendipity of finding a great book, discovering a writer who seems to speak to you personally, a story that makes you feel less alone, less of the freak everyone else makes you think you are, more of the human being that you have always been but are afraid to acknowledge. Those are the books that can make a life-changing–a life-affirming–difference in children’s lives. Those are the books that are being removed.
A few people who call themselves parents but are really frustrated bullies who want everyone else to lead the miserable lives they do, at least when they’re not engaging in threesomes, have successfully made black holes of Florida’s school and classroom libraries and further marginalized slews of children whose one solace might have been that one book.
It may not have been any one of the 23 Stephen King books banned, or the Grisham and Crichton and Koontz and maybe even the Picoults books that are literature’s equivalent of that gluey orange sauce McDonalds slathers on its burger imitations. But who are we to say what strikes a chord with a child’s imagination, what speaks to a child’s sense of wonder and self-discovery? Right now in Florida we may no longer ask the question. The bans have it. The rest is irrelevant.
Orange County Public Schools spent $400,000 in tax dollars in overtime pay to media specialists to draw up their own list of nearly 700 titles now found unacceptable (including Milton’s Paradise Lost and the one regained, Saul Bellow’s Herzog, and of course Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, now a metaphor for public schools, but also, thank heavens, Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead: no one will miss her felony-worthy prose). Public money, spent to silence history and deny students literary fun or discovery on the bogus, never-tested assumption that these books harm their readers.
Flagler County went through its own round of deshelving libraries, though it’s done so in more pernicious ways. We don’t really know how many books have been banned because most have been “weeded.” That’s a deceptive term that pretends that removing a book because it’s not read as much or may have been bought by mistake is not book-banning. It is. Teachers and librarians would rather err on the side of caution, otherwise they’d get sued or fired. So you can be certain that whatever happened in Escambia is happening in Flagler and across the state.
And that’s what they call Free Florida.
Pierre Tristam is the editor of FlaglerLive. A version of this piece airs on WNZF.
Nancy NICHOLS says
Thank you for this commentary. As a retired librarian im horrified by these book bans and shocked that more people arent trying to stop this. Shame on those hateful book banners who dictatorially try to tell everyone else what to read and think (you are all Nazis)
Sherry says
Thank You Nancy! You are Right On!
TREEMAN says
Banning Books, Stopping Free Speech, and the use of “STATE” Disinformation is a Tactic of the Chinese Communist Party! Just ask the people of Hong Kong! Stop calling people Nazis when they are actually Communist! The CCP Master Plan is to Divide Americans and KILL Americans with illegal DRUGS!!
Nancy N. says
Book banning is a tactic common to many authoritarian regimes. It’s been used by the Nazis (whose public book burnings are well documented), various communist regimes, and many others throughout history. So while the communists in China may be current prominent practitioners of book banning, they certainly don’t own it. It’s an authoritarian practice, period, regardless of the underlying political philosophy of the regime doing it.
Skibum says
Treeman, you need a quick history lesson because the Chinese Communist Party is not unique in their efforts to ban books and curtail speech or other freedoms. Do you not know about Hitler’s Nazi government and the widely documented and filmed piles of banned books that were torched in huge bonfires by Hitler’s henchmen? Are you not aware of the concerted efforts by Hitler to outlaw all forms of speech that did not glorify him and his murderous escapades in Germany during his reign as the country’s fuhrer? Or do you subscribe to Donald Trump’s belief that “Hitler has done a lot of good things” as reported by Trump’s own former White House chief of staff? Is that why you are so keen to condemn the Chinese, but loath to say anything bad about the Nazis of WWII Germany, even though they murdered millions of Jewish men, women and children? Please LEARN the truth about history before you try to talk about it.
TREEMAN says
The Nazis were DEFEATED in WWII: but Communist Russia continued to expand in Eastern Europe, China, N. Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, and in Africa! Today, the Chinese Communist Party is the REAL Threat to America’s Freedom!! Appeasement Biden is afraid to STOP Communist China’s Plans to make America a Colony! KEEP TAIWAN FREE! KEEP AMERICA FREE!
DaleL says
Just yesterday, Mr. Trump was interviewed on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures by Maria Bartiromo. He was asked if as president, the U.S. would protect Taiwan from Chinese aggression. Mr. Trump declined to give a firm answer. He did express discontent with Taiwan for allegedly taking computer chip business away from the U.S.
Forbes estimated in a 2020 story, that Mr. Trump got some 5.4 million dollars from China during his presidency.
Mr. Trump’s word salads and projection onto his opponents could be taken straight from George Orwells classic novel 1984.
It is clear. To keep America free, Europe free, and Taiwan free, we need to keep Trump out of office.
Deborah Coffey says
I disagree. They are Nazis in all ways. And, I’m in favor of renaming the Republican Party…the American Nazi Party. It’s time.
Thomas Hutson says
In Free Florida
Mr. Tristam, I have to admit to you that early on reading this op-ed of yours regarding the mass assault on our Libraries, Teachers and School Books left me in doubt as to your motive. After reading it the second time, I believe my thinking matches most of yours.
The real difference in my thinking is to call out all these so-called professionals by name, and their positions in our governments both federal, state and local. It should be no doubt in anyone’s mind, my feelings towards our current Little Mussolini aka Florida Governor, want a be president. He is the one that appointed the current threesome school board member – Moms for Liberty, member of the current Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (Disney board), wife of the past party leader. This guy that wants to be president thinks there should be one like her on every school board in our state. Think about that, she is sitting on the panel that decides what is good reading for our children, SAY WHAT? Oh no, “DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO”.
Question, why has Baby Mussolini not removed her from the position she holds on the school board, or the Disney Board? One can only speculate on that answer.
There is no real problem with books in our libraries, no problem with our teachers, or books. Our real problem is the bullies that have been elected into positions of control at the present time. We voters in Florida have a chance to correct this short coming, its time to tell these bullies “Their time is coming.” Its time to get rid of Baby Mussolini and his minions, that is the only way real change to the current mess can be made.
It is a good article, easy reading, surprise, it might just get banned!
David Hartgrove says
The dangerous thing is that our governor will try to export his right wing agenda to the entire nation should he win the nomination for president. Thankfully that appears to be a distant possibility. If he does as badly in New Hampshire and South Carolina as he did in Iowa he’ll be forced to drop out of the race. Not that this represents a reprieve for the country. His role model, Donald Trump, is, if anything, far worse when it comes to a commitment to a free exchange of ideas and knowledge. It’s a dark time for our country and its democracy has never been more threatened.
Pam says
Smart parents want their children to learn the history of our country, not banning books is a failure allowing them to learn.
Toto says
Im sure the next movement of these groups will be to make books about “When the Stork comes” explaining how they bring babies into the world. F’ing pitiful.
The Sour Kraut says
Yep. Trying to control others thoughts has been very effective in places like Nazi Germany, North Korea, China, Russia, and possibly soon the U.S.A. Our very democracy is under threat. What kind of country do we want to leave for the next generation? One of understanding and acceptance, or one of fear and hate?
JW says
Another symptom of a FAILED STATE. The people who are behind this are illiterate and ignorant. But, maybe they are also a symptom of some “leaders” living in Florida, including Trump and DeSantis.
Mondexian Mama says
Beware of the politicians who tout the word freedom. The U.S. comes in at a distant tenth when it comes to personal freedom. Don’t take my word for it, do your homework.
dave says
I guess after the dictionary next will be the bible, all medical books since they do show private parts, and might as well get rid of all news since it most likely will offend someone somewhere and of course lets ban TV since the cussing, the sex, drugs, violence it has to offend someone and then all video games and I forgot, music like rock since with Elvis is was called the devil’s music ( OH MY) and look how far we have come with all types of music ( rap, hiphop etc………..since then. This country is going nuts for a kind word. History is what it is, history of our country and the earth we live on. I guess when they ban everything, we will have little children acting like clones or robots with no real thought patterns. Freaking sad.
DaleL says
Perhaps the Bible should be banned. Some parts of it are pretty bad and are not usually taught in Sunday school. Take Isaiah 13:11-16 for example. It includes: “Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.”
Or Psalm 137:9: “Happy shall he be, that takes and dashes your little ones against the stones.”
Or Numbers 31:17-18: “17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man. 18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.”
Maybe instead, it is just a colossal waste of money and resources to ban or restrict books.
Endless dark money says
Racist ron and the gang out banning truth and telling lies that is no surprise. Floridians don’t need rights or books ban them all that way they are easier to control.
Endangered species says
Words are woke.
Endangered species says
Free hahaha ha maybe you were once upon a time but you voted for gop so freedoms are being removed regularly. You free to make profits for corporations anything else is questionable.
Atwp says
People continue to vote Republicans. If this continue, we will be worse than the other communist countries. I believe the police will soon have the permission to kill all who go against the government.
Pogo says
@Not banned in Florida: Friends of Trump — Made in China
Bankruptcy Sale — don’t wait, this sale ends in 2024
https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+business+with+china
Related: by birth, marriage, criminal tendencies, and tentacles
As stated
https://www.google.com/search?q=history+of+American+Nazi+party
As stated
https://www.google.com/search?q=history+of+American+Nazi+party+in+Florida
Jane Kranz says
Please vote. Our country is in deep trouble. Your voice matters. Books are full of knowledge and aid in personal development .
The Geode says
I didn’t hear NOT ONE OF YOU recognize that we have the FRIGGING INTERNET. You are worrying about books that YOU won’t even read nor have any clue about. Here’s a novel idea – why don’t YOU take a better interest in your child’s life and education and teach them yourself? Nobody is stopping you. We are lazy to the point of wanting someone else to raise our children and then complain when they fail “life” because of your disinterest. If any of you need a dictionary, use that phone you used to complain about something you really can give 2-damns about…