Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 3, 1994 TAG: 9410040013
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CLAUDIA JOHNSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Alice Walker's story ``Am I Blue'' is anti-meat.
A snowball fight in Annie Dillard's ``An American Childhood'' is too violent.
The bottle of wine in ``Little Red Riding Hood'' promotes alcoholism.
``The Stupids Step Out'' teaches children to flunk classes. (It was my daughter's favorite book as a child, and she's now tied for valedictorian of her high school.)
And, my particular favorite, the illustration of Mrs. Stupid wearing a chicken on her head in ``The Stupids Have A Ball'' promotes cruelty to animals.
The audience was laughing, amazed. I assured them that I could go on.
After the lecture, one man said, ``It's easy to laugh at the religious right for this kind of thing, but what about banning `Huck Finn'?''
``Because Twain uses the word `nigger'?'' I said. Just saying the word out loud caused a small shock, a stir of discomfort. It always does. It always will. That's why ``Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,'' replete with the ``N-word,'' is the fifth most banned book in American schools in the past dozen years and one of the most challenged books of all time.
``Yes,'' said the man. ``Isn't that censorship, too?''
He'd put his finger on something we don't talk much about - censorship from the left. Oh, the right has banned ``Huck'' a few times, mostly because of irreverence, Twain's send-up of preachers (Silas ``never charged nothing for his preaching, and it was worth it, too'') and they have far more to answer for when it comes to book banning and the toll it takes on our schools. But the left has censored books, too.
The man with the questions pressed on. He wanted to know if I opposed the bans on ``Huck Finn.''
I swallowed hard, well aware that my answer would be seen by many as politically incorrect, and I said, ``Yes, I oppose them. I think the book should be read. I know it's riddled with racial slurs that offend - it was an offensive society Twain was portraying - but we mustn't lose sight of the great arc of the story, the real journey: Huck's choosing to risk his immortal soul and help set Jim free. (``All right, then, I'll go to hell.'')
I said I thought the best place for our students to encounter great controversial books was right in the classroom with the guidance of teachers. ``To suppress words or books, to pretend that racism didn't or doesn't exist, is an ostrich act. `Huck Finn' attacks racism,'' I said. ``It isn't racist.''
The man seemed satisfied, and we moved on.
But the whole thing got me thinking about ``Huck Finn'' and the increase of censorship in this country. (Since 1986, when I got involved, challenges to books in our schools have more than tripled.) It strikes me that the choice we face every time we are asked to censor a book isn't all that different from Huck's in the novel.
Huck Finn has to choose between what Lionel Trilling has called ``the ingrained customary beliefs'' of the time - slavery - and ``the clear dictates of moral reason'' - setting Jim free. The ingrained customary belief of our time seems to be ``thou shalt not offend.''
A preacher is offended by the ``women's lib stuff'' in ``Lysistrata.'' The book is locked up. Parents or students or teachers are offended by racial slurs in ``Huck Finn.'' Gone. Fundamentalists are offended by the occult in Roahl Dahl's ``The Witches.'' Banned or restricted. Members of the occult are offended by the unflattering portrait of witches in ``Hansel and Gretel.'' In the oven.
Reading over these accounts, you begin to realize why our founding fathers wrote the First Amendment. But where is it written that in a free society, we won't be offended?
We may think we're fostering (or forcing) greater sensitivity or compassion by suppressing offensive words with book bans or speech codes or good old p.c., but in the long run only open-minded education, the free flow of ideas and freedom of speech can accomplish this goal.
More reading, not less. Like Huck, we have to buck the conventional wisdom. We have to set books and words and ideas free.
If we don't, we trade freedom of expression for freedom from being offended. And, to borrow some (perhaps offensive) words from ``Huck Finn,'' it's one of the most jackass bargains we ever struck.
Claudia Johnson, screenwriter in residence at Florida State University, is author of ``Stifled Laughter: One Woman's Story About Fighting Censorship.''She wrote this article for the Tallahassee Democrat.
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