Censorship is Obscene







There is a sign on a shelf of my living room library bluntly stating that “Censorship is Obscene”. I’m guessing this may require a bit of explanation.
My mother, a pioneer in developing and implementing remedial reading programs, took every book-banning PTA or edict-issuing school board as a personal challenge. I have since learned that this societal struggle is never-ending, but it seemed to be particularly active in the Midwest, when I was in grade school and junior high (we won’t go into specific dates here).
At that time in post-war America there was a great flowering of literature (and the arts in general) which challenged previous norms and resulted in social upheavals on many levels.
Ground-breaking literary statements by talented writers produced works such as Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, Franny & Zooey, Sometimes a Great Notion, Tropic of Cancer, Fahrenheit 451, Lord of the Flies – to name just a few. While authors pushed the envelope, there was an equal and opposite push-back by others who resisted change. As if that wasn’t enough, it was also a time when wholesome, all-American classics such as Huckleberry Finn and Alice in Wonderland were re-evaluated and deemed to represent heretofore unrecognized dangers to impressionable minds.
So I was a personal witness to the age-old struggle between moral demagogues on one side and their equally stubborn opponents to any and all restrictions on reading materials. And Mother was right in the thick of it. If it was banned, Mother read it – and made sure that I did too! If it was merely controversial, we read that too! We discovered the best banned books of the twentieth century together!
In retrospect, this was one of the rare subjects in my childhood years on which we agreed. My mother and I had our differences. But she left me a priceless legacy that I wholly embraced, and have passed on to my children, and grandchildren. As a parent myself, the emphasis was more on performance arts, but the concept is the same.
A little background here. All of our children appeared on stage for the first time at the age of three months (as did their father and uncle). They spent summers doing summer stock, along with their parents, and during the school year we dragged them to every movie and stage presentation within a fifty mile radius. But it didn’t end there. After each show we thoroughly discussed the film or play. What did they like best? Why? What was the playwright’s intent? Did it succeed? We made them sit through every single credit of every single movie to give them an appreciation of just how many people it took to create a theatrical film or documentary. They became very sophisticated critics.
The goal of course, was to expose them to enough movies and plays to recognize the difference between good and bad – and know the reason why. I’m proud to say that this philosophy has survived into the next generation.
And all this nurturing produced one of my proudest moments as a parent. We usually sat through the entirety of even the most egregiously horrible productions – just on principle. But there was one play that was so badly directed and acted that we took the unusual step of exiting during the intermission. We didn’t make a big deal of it (but we did learn later that our departure was noticed). And on the way home our middle son, who was about three or four at the time, summed up the evening (and validated my entire philosophy of child-rearing) when he asked us, “why were the actors making fun of the lines?”
Respect comes in many different forms, and this pre-schooler saw right through the actors’ disdain for the material, and conceit that they didn’t owe their audience the simple courtesy of making an effort.
Out of the mouths of babes…..
Shebby,
What is the Nebraska Navy?
Comment by Rebecca McLaughlin on August 2, 2018 at 7:16 am
Rebecca,
“Admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska” is Nebraska’s highest honor, and an honorary title bestowed upon individuals by approval of the Governor of Nebraska, the only triply landlocked U.S. state. It is not a military rank, requires no duties, and carries with it no pay or other compensation. Admirals have the option of joining the Nebraska Admirals Association, a non-profit organization that promotes “The Good Life” of Nebraska.
The award certificate describes the honor in a tongue-in-cheek fashion:
And I [the Governor of Nebraska] do strictly charge and require all officers, seamen, tadpoles and goldfish under your command to be obedient to your orders as Admiral—and you are to observe and follow, from time to time, such directions you shall receive, according to the rules and discipline of the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska.
The use of the title of admiral, instead of some other high-ranking military title, is a humorously ironic reference to the fact that Nebraska has no navy, both because it is landlocked and has no oceans, seas or major lakes to defend, and because it relies on the United States Armed Forces for defense and has no active state defense force since 1972.
Contents
Comment by Shebby Lee on August 2, 2018 at 9:18 am
What an exemplary method of child-rearing. In an age when freedom to handle a firearm is taking precedence over freedom of the press, we’re in dangerous territory. Literature and art deserve the same critical analysis by thoughtful minds as are all other forms of expression. Reading, observing, discerning, are fertilizers for the growth of a healthy society.
Comment by Ann Haber Stanton on August 2, 2018 at 7:47 am
As always Shebby, I really enjoy your ramblings. Entertaining and thoughtful. My mother worked for the CA Dept. of Education, and could buy their textbooks at cost. So she did and brought them home for me to read. Mothers do amazing things like that. Thank you for sharing.
Comment by Mark Hoffmann on August 2, 2018 at 8:38 am
Shebby,
I hear you!
My dad was on a small California town school board for 16 years (four election cycles) until all of his four girls graduated 8th grade. Lots of controversy over books, buildings, teacher pay, school bus routes, and much more.
I think my dad enjoyed it but Mom would be stirring the soup for lunch, shake her head and remark, Hart, WHY DO YOU DO THIS?”
Beth Wyman
Comment by Beth Wyman on August 2, 2018 at 9:05 am
As I recall, our mothers were quite impressed w/each other when they met at BHP. I remember your mother vividly, and was always intimidated! My mom resented being left on the farm by my traveling dad, of course, and never stopped criticizing our anemic high school — Until she finally got on the school board and was eventually elected president! We finally had a foreign language option, physics, advanced algebra, and psychology. We, too, had our differences, but I’ve always admired her courage, integrity, and determination in the face of desperation. Locally, she was considered to be a snob, “stuck up”, and pompous, but she also began the first and only bridge club in our little burg! Oh yes, Mother highly approved of you as my friend…
Comment by Becky Bell-Greenstreet on August 2, 2018 at 11:13 am
I was intimidated by her too, Beck.
Comment by Shebby Lee on August 2, 2018 at 1:23 pm
Remember also the “good old days” when the American Library Association encouraged yearly displays of “Banned Books” which generally contained many familiar titles. Ah, and also when schools, school boards and libraries required people showing up to demand something be removed from the shelves as unsuitable or offensive actually required the demanders to write out their reasons, and demonstrate that they’d actually read the work, all of it.
Comment by Betsy Scott on August 2, 2018 at 11:39 am
Definitely sentiments I share about words on paper. However, my first though is that those who read are intelligent & don’t accept all written words without some degree of thought and analysis. Unfortunately, my assumption is flawed. So do we try to censor.
An immediate example is should plans for make one’s own gun be available to all, or should the plans be kept from those folk society deems unfit to have such plans
Intriguing dilemma, don’t you think?
Comment by Marian V. Reed on August 2, 2018 at 3:01 pm