No doubt you have heard about the McMinn County School Board’s decision to ban Maus, Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer-winning graphic novel/biography/history about the horrors of the Holocaust. Art’s father Vladek and mother Anja both survived Auschwitz. The story tells how Art manages to get his father to open up about his experiences in Poland before, during and after World War II.
The school board banned Maus because of a few cuss words, a single frame that showed nudity in a non-sexual context, and violence including lynching and torture. Board members felt it was inappropriate for eighth graders – children between 12 and 14 – to be exposed to this segment of history. Never mind those same kids are feasting on violence in movies, comic books and video games, as well as on TV.
The Maus ban is far from an isolated case. Every year the American Library Association publishes a list of the most frequently banned and challenged books. Among the most targeted books are And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson, the true story of two male penguins who successfully raise a chick; and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, loosely based on the author’s own troubled childhood. There have always been people and organizations that try to keep certain books away from children, if not away from everybody, because of objectionable content such as sex, profane language, or the depiction of LGBTQ characters. These days there have been more book bans than ever as conservatives try to squelch access to volumes that address LGBTQ issues and systemic racism.
Conservatives holler about “cancel culture” while practicing it. Alabama wants to protect Confederate monuments but not books that can teach kids valuable lessons about society, history, and themselves. Our children are falling farther and farther behind the rest of the developed world in education, but our elected officials are destroying our educational system so we are raising a generation of ignoramuses. Little wonder we have to look to foreign countries for doctors, engineers and scientists.
Banning a book does not make it go away; in fact, this makes it more appealing. Forbidden fruits are the sweetest as the old saw goes. In fact, a ban can be the best thing that ever happened to a book. Interest in Maus has skyrocketed since news of the ban broke, and now the book – The Complete Maus and the two parts My Father Bleeds History and And Now My Troubles Begin – are best sellers on Amazon. Libraries probably have long waiting lists to check them out. Thus, by telling kids they can’t read this graphic novel, the McMinn County School Board has guaranteed that a lot of them will.
How do you get teens to read a classic book? Make it required reading, and they howl “BORING!!!” Tell them their parents read it and enjoyed it, and they yawn. Tell them all the cool kids are reading it, and they respond with “Meh.” But ban it from the curriculum, and suddenly it’s a hot item.
