Member-only story
Utah’s Book Ban
Thirteen literary works are the first to get the ax under a new censorship law.
Utah just banned thirteen books from all public school libraries and classrooms. I have only read two of the authors, Margaret Atwood and Judy Blume. I haven’t read any of the banned books.
However, this is not an article intended to defend the merits of any of the banned works. Though it has been years since I was in high school, it’s entirely possible the books in question are not ones that I would have ever checked out of the library.
That said, censorship is not about my personal taste in literature, or yours. It is an attempt to impose the values and tastes of one person or group on the rest of society. While Utah’s recently passed censorship law is supposedly intended to protect youth from books that contain “pornographic or indecent material,” Utah’s school libraries are not now, nor have they ever been, where youngsters seeking pornography go to find it.
“Indecent material” is a far more subjective standard than graphic pornography. Unfortunately, Utah’s law allows for complaints to be filed with Utah school boards on the grounds that the book or work of art is “subjective sensitive material,” and it mandates those school boards review the work in question and take action if the book falls afoul of…