Banning books again....

I don't normally post things from the Daily Mail, but this was something that caught my eye.  It's written by Amanda Platell, and it resonated with me....

Back in Australia in the late 1960s, my teacher introduced us to a book called To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

 

 

She told us it would change our lives for ever, revealing a world to us far removed from our own: deepest Alabama during the Great Depression, a society torn apart by racism.

Looking around my class of all-white kids, I couldn't see the relevance at first, until I read the book and fell in love with the characters — Tom Robinson, the innocent black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, and Tom's lawyer Atticus Finch fighting to save his life — all revealed through the eyes of Atticus's unforgettably courageous six-year-old daughter, Scout.

Little wonder it captivated our class, or that it had become an instant classic on publication. 

Its messages about prejudice and justice resonate with anyone who reads it; so beautifully written — and so unbearably sad — it can break the hardest heart.

No one could come away with anything less than a burning sense of the evil and cruelty of racism.

So how bewildering that, as part of its mission to 'decolonise' its curriculum, James Gillespie's High School in Edinburgh has banned this masterpiece from the Scottish equivalent of GCSE study, claiming it plays into an outdated 'white saviour' narrative, contains the N-word and that its representations of black people are 'dated'. 

Well, in the book the 'white saviour' Atticus is vilified for even trying to defend Tom.

Yes, the book contains racist language: precisely to expose the racism of its society. Teenagers don't need to be protected from offensive language in great literature: they are old enough to see these words for what they are.

And as for 'dated' — are we now to ban any book written or set in the past? 

Perhaps I'm too busy basking in my unconscious 'white privilege', but I know that had it not been for Harper Lee, this white kid from the Perth suburbs would never have had her eyes opened to the hideous reality of racial prejudice — nor become so acutely aware of early white Australians' shameful treatment of Aborigines.

Perhaps teachers at James Gillespie's High School might reflect on their own history before rushing to cancel others. Gillespie was a very rich 18th-century merchant who is believed not only to have owned slaves himself but to have traded with the slave-owning tobacco plantations of Virginia.

The hypocrisy of banning Harper Lee's text, while keeping his name above the school gates, is a sin to make poor Tom Robinson weep. 

I have to admit that I have never read the book - yes - I know that it's a classic - but this opinion piece in today's paper struck a chord with me.

Those few rare people who know me, know that I am a big reader - a bookworm.  I'm happiest when I can curl up on the sofa with a decent mug of coffee and my kindle, and read in peace.

I admit that there are some books that I wonder how the hell they managed to get published (the 50 Shades series instantly springs to mind) but it's because I had the opportunity to read it and draw my own conclusions about the book.  I know that there are people who think it's a really good series, and that's fine with me.  It would be a boring world if we all liked the same thing.

But banning a book because you don't approve of it?  Not if I can help it.  Salman Rushdie summed up my feelings on banning books with this wonderful comment:

If you don't want to read a book, don't read it. If you start reading a book and you don't like it, you always have the option of shutting it and at this point it loses its capacity to offend you.

Again, another author I have tried (and failed) to get with his writing style, but he sums up my feelings on banning books perfectly.

It would be one hell of a boring world if we all read / liked the same things....  Republic of Gilead anyone?

Back when I can tear myself away from my kindle...

Karen

In these days of no trust

Evermore hostility

We're all living

Under the same old sky

'Cause we're all living

We're telling the same old lie

In these days

In these days

In these days of no trust