Brady Bryan
Books are a medium that everyone is familiar with. From preschool to college, departments of education worldwide utilize books as the main source of teaching, and can very well be attributed to how one learns and interacts with the world around them. The types of books provided to the public has a substantial impact on their growth, cognition, and experience as the content displayed in books are what they familiarize themselves with throughout their entire life. Books tend to deal with a diverse array of topics from biology to social sciences, comedy to thriller, fiction to nonfiction, each ranging in level of intricacy. However, due to the multiple blatant issues with society nowadays, modern books tend to have a much larger emphasis on the concepts of society. Even authors of childrens' books subtlely interweave minute hints of social commentary within their works. With the increase of visible social commentary in childrens' books comes a larger, more pronounced increase of commentary present in modern novels. Such prominent issues discussed revolve heavily around the actions of teenagers, particularly drug use, sexual activities, and suicide. One challenged novel later turned into a Netflix original series garnering controversy from 2007 was Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Thirteen Reasons Why is about the suicide of a teenage girl as a result of bullying and depression. A boy who had a crush on her receives multiple tapes of the girl's recorded voice. In each tape, she tells stories of what led to her suicide with each testimony being attributed to a bully from high school. In 2018, Thirteen Reasons Why earned the sixth spot on the "Top Eleven Most Challenged Books" List for addressing teen suicide, resulting in the novel being banned and restricted. While the novel deals with a heavy topic that seemingly increases in modern-day society, the book shouldn't be challenged for doing so. Why should books that address real-life topics be criticized? It is as if society is trying to ignore reality and keep literature purely fictitious. One review of the novel by Kathryn Hughes states that the premise is rather preposterous, yet suspenseful and clever. The main idea of the novel is to elicit the reader's thoughts about the effect words have on others especially when combined with hurtful comments and rumors made in groups. The novel serves as a thinkpiece instead of a "shock-value" work of literature. Other reviews such as one by Terreece Clarke go harder on the societal topics that the book has while simultaneously targeting parents - a cautious, protective audience - as the reader. Despite listing the heavy topics, he wraps up the article by making the point that suicide is a topic that mustn't be ignored, but discussed between parent and child. Generally, I disagree with the banning and restricting of books. It is highly disrespectful to the author's integrity and initial vision of their work of literature. With reasons for bans and restrictions arguably being as tame as the are, it would appear as though society wants to ignore the progressive views of the world, stagnating the progression of society as a whole. As one grows up, one realizes that the world is not as pure and beautiful as they once thought at a young age. Therefore, books of a certain maturity level reserve the right to remain intact, and it is the duty of librarians (in accordance with the guidelines and principles stated in the Core Values of Librarianship, Code of Ethics, Freedom to Read Statement, and Library Bill of Rights) to preserve diversity,
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AuthorBrady B. is quite familiar with blogs since he had to frequently post on his blog in 6th grade. Although its been a long time since then, he still knows what a proper blog should look like. Archives
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