This week is Banned Books Week and here at the ACLU of Oklahoma we are all about freedom. So to celebrate -- and to encourage everyone to read a banned book -- we've asked some of our favorite people to tell us about their favorite banned book.
Linda Edmondson and former Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson:
To Kill a Mockingbird is a treasure. It is hard to believe that anyone, anywhere, would consider banning this book. Reading about Jem and Scout growing up, the adventures they have and the people they meet was a delight. The strong influence of their father Atticus made made us wish we had lived nearby like Dill did. The messages about race, mental health and ethics are softly written but strongly imprinted on our memory.
Vincent LoVoi, Publisher, This Land Press:
Ulysses was a banned book. It also helped create a great Oklahoma institution. At the nadir of the Great Recession, in the first half of 2009, my business partner and I pondered an investment in a small collection of Oklahoma restaurants teetering on bankruptcy. The young founder encouraged us to go to Dublin, where he spent a semester abroad while in college not too many years earlier, to visit some pubs to understand his aspirations. I had promised myself someday to reread Ulysses and my son was acting in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that summer, so I decided to dust off my college copy of James Joyce’s masterpiece (and the essential Stuart Gilbert reading guide) and head across the Atlantic, to Edinburgh to see some of my son’s performances and then to meet my friend in Dublin. The trip went well and Joyce was still daunting, but grinding through the chapters whet my appetite for the faces and sounds and stories of the people of Ireland. That deep dive into the “living room” of the Irish, as my colleague likes to describe pubs, helped make his aspiration for public houses in Oklahoma somehow make sense. My business partner and I invested, reorganized it as the McNellie’s Group, proudly watched it grow to 14 establishments with four McNellie’s Pubs and two Fassler Halls across Oklahoma, and never regretted it for a minute. I’ve now promised myself to reread Ulysses again, hoping that the wisdom of another decade or two can help me understand it more and more.
Patrick Riley, Publisher, The Lost Ogle:
When I was 14, I was your typical teenager dealing with problems like being too popular, too well liked and too good at sports...or something like that. Then one day my Uncle Phil gave me a copy of The Catcher In The Rye. I don't want to sound like a sociopath or serial killer, but from the opening line on I was hooked. Here was this kid that was my age who also thought the world was full of goddam phonies and wondered where the ducks would go when the pond freezes over. I finished the book in two days, and inspired by what I read, thought I would try writing my own story. I've been writing ever since.
Ryan Kiesel, Executive Director, ACLU of Oklahoma:
Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States stands in stark contrast to the popular tendency to cast our nation’s history as an inevitable course of events made possible largely by the actions of a handful of near superhuman individuals, who, we are told, are almost always white and male. Our real history is far more complex, troubling and interesting. That unvarnished history is also more instructive as to how we might begin to consider our present moment. Compare that with the sterilized history books whose twin ideas of exceptionalism and infallibility are toxic to progress. Real progress in our society is born out of a looking at our past with a critical eye. A People’s History of the United States reminds us that the stories of women, men and children, who struggled to secure a more free and equal society, often refuse to be confined to the shackles of fanciful narratives.
Theresa Nicoletto:
I remember the first time I read Huckleberry Finn – it wasn’t some profound literary work to me, it was just entertainment for a little girl. It was defintitely entertaining, but the messages were so subtle and powerful. How could anybody be mean to Jim? Why would "nice" people want to treat him with such cruelty? Since then, I’ve heard of people objecting to the racially charged language in Huckleberry Finn. I can’t believe that such an elegant and compelling indictment of racism could be subject to censorship because it’s racist!? I don’t think there’s a better artistic work against racism than Huckleberry Finn – or a more entertaining read in the process.
John Selvidge, Poet and Communications Director at the Ralph Ellison Foundation:
Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man changed my world when I first read it as a teenager. Not only did the novel expand my artistic and intellectual horizons and push me towards an awareness of race in America that challenged my upbringing, but I still remember the sense of vertigo when I learned that Ellison was from Oklahoma City. At the time, Oklahoma was known mainly for its sports heroes and country singers, and yet here was this highly intricate modernist masterpiece, this psychologically astute and socially trenchant bombshell of a book that simply loomed in American literature. Returning to Invisible Man now, I’m amazed at how relevant it remains for our own times in its explorations of alienation, ethnic identity, politics, violence, history, mass hallucination, the struggle of the individual both in and against society—all this in addition to the dizzying level of artistry Ellison achieved in weaving it all together and making it sing like a symphony. I’m sure I’ll be rereading it for the rest of my life.
Brady Henderson, Legal Director ACLU of Oklahoma:
The best stories are fused from both our dreams and nightmares. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, is just such a tale. Huxley's work, written in 1931, has proved remarkably predictive and poses questions that are even more relevant to our world of 2015 than they were in the 1930s. The technology, globalization, and reordering Huxley predicted for the world of the 26th century is becoming ever more a reality in the 21st. Progress has its price, and it's a cost that the powerful prefer not to talk about. But luckily for us, Huxley had the courage to give it more than a mention.
Laura Massenat, Co-Owner of Elemental Coffee:
Since I graduated high school in 1985, and looked forward to partying like it was 1999, 1984 by George Orwell grabbed my attention by claiming to have some relevance to my teenage life. My initial enjoyment of the book was an appreciation of the humor and irony in the language, very familiar tools used in my family. As an adult, 1984 speaks to my ever growing recognition of our willingness as a society to believe what is simply not true- that death is tragic and to be feared, that after "I do" comes happily ever after. How many politicians prefer to play in the world of "shoulds" instead of facing what is?
Former State Senator Connie Johnson:
For me, Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was a book of compassion and understanding. It detailed the plight of a person, hurting and in bondage. Though I read it many years ago even today I still have difficulty understanding why it was banned. Perhaps it was banned because of a fear that people will liberate themselves from bondage through literature. I believe there is a deep, inherent message in that.
Sheryl Lovelady, Member ACLU of Oklahoma Board of Directors:
For over 30 years, Alice Walker’s characters in The Color Purple have stood firmly anchored in their stance for female empowerment and equality. The novel leads us down the path of life’s harsh inequalities, but it is exactly that path that helps us find truth, power and divine love by simply “doing right” by women, the poor, and the oppressed. This is a message that speaks to the core of our work at the ACLU.
Herb Eakers, ACLU of Oklahoma Supporter:
Although The Bluest Eye brings up several unpleasant and ugly issues, the true genius of this book lies in the response it arouses in its reader. It is emotional, thought-provoking, and at times, offensive. Morrison tackles the gritty realities of racism, incest, body image, self-esteem and cultural differences head-on and without apology, but these situations, in today's world, are no different than those on cable TV or the news. Rather than banning the book, the opportunity to openly discuss these issues should be embraced and understood.
Mana Tahaie, Director of Mission Impact, YWCA of Tulsa:
As an Iranian-American woman, books that reflect my identity with any degree of nuance are so rare as to be nearly nonexistent. I came across Marjan Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis as a freshman in college, while I was discovering myself during a semester abroad in France. I remember being caught completely off-guard when I found it in a small bookstore, so unused to feeling visible. I love this book for validating my family’s story and bringing it to a wider audience on Satrapi’s own terms, in a world where marginalized identities are too often mediated told by the mainstream through the lens of one-dimensional stereotypes and assumptions.
M. Scott Carter, Director of Investigative Communications, ACLU of Oklahoma:
Mark Twain's astounding novel, Huckleberry Finn grabbed me by the throat and forced me to acknowledge the idea that people could be judged simply by the color of their skin. I was 13 when I read Twain for the first time and even today, almost 40 years later, that book remains an important part of my life. Angry, confrontational and written in language designed to offend almost everyone who opened the cover, Twain's novel pushed boundaries, assaulted our beliefs and sought to remind each of us of our collective humanity. Huckleberry Finn was, and remains, a lesson for everyone.