I admit that whenever I hear the phrase "book burning" I get conflicted. The capitalist in me figures that the book burners have to first acquire the books from somewhere, which generally means the publisher or distributor or book seller, which means they have to buy them, which means the author gets paid for his or her work, regardless of the end result. And the book burners get to enjoy their wanton destruction of paper, cloth, glue, ink and the ideas impressed upon them. Everyone wins. Right?
At this point the librarian in me--the writer, and dreamer, the guy who thinks that the recording and sharing of ideas on a global scale that the printing press made possible is quite possibly the crowning achievement of our civilization (with antibiotics being a very close runner-up)--bundles up the capitalist, shoves him back into the closet, slams the door, and wipes the dust off his hands. Well, no, he sighs, that's not right at all. It's a fucking tragedy.
There's a lot to unpack in that article--whenever the elder generation in a small mid-western town achieves the pinnacle of homophobia and genophobia in one fell swoop, I think it deserves some real attention--but that's not what's making the town of West Bend, Wisconsin nuts. The real problem is that the principal actors in the drama have become offended by some books' contents. Phobias can be cured with hard work and courage, but offense is something rather more insidious, making it more difficult to fix.
Books represent ideas. Ideas come in all shapes, sizes, and sexes, in all languages, and from all historical periods. Many of us are more open to some of those ideas than we are others, and all of us limit the ideas we come in contact with to one extent or another. That's normal. (Unfortunate to be sure, but normal.) There's a limit to what we can handle mentally and we tend to cringe from the unfamiliar or what we dislike, even if we've been taught to dislike them with no direct experience of our own.
So when we find an idea we just can't stomach--"inappropriate" descriptions of sex and homosexuality, in the case of the West Bend library--we can do one of two things. We can accept that such ideas exist and that some people have them, and leave it at that while making sure to limit our contact with said people. Or we can become offended.
Taking offense is dangerous and addictive. Like any narcotic in the hands of someone who just can't handle the habit, it takes over your mind, your thoughts, your pocketbook, your relationships with family, friends, and community. It fucks you up. It's ugly. It makes you do bad things for worse reasons. It makes you into a criminal, a killer. It makes you want to kill ideas. But since that's not physically possible--an idea, once coined and communicated is pretty much immortal--and the offended know that it's impossible, they lash out at the next available target: the books and those who keep them.
The progression always happens the same way. First they become offended by the books. Then they ban the books. Then they burn the books. Then they burn the people. In this case the offended folks of West Bend, Wisconsin, aren't actually lighting the fires yet, but a few really want to. One of them went on a call-in radio show and declared that the library director needs to be tarred and feathered (how quaint is that?)
Remember, y'all: offense kills. Stay clean.

Recent Comments