CREDIT: CANDIS BROSS
Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to read and the value of free and open information. The awareness week draws attention to the dangers of censorship.

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them,” Ray Bradbury said.

If anyone understands the consequences of banning books, it’s Bradbury. Author of the classic novel Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury condemns the practice of burning books in order to suppress political dissension.

And he’s right; you don’t have to burn books to destroy an idea. Nowadays, people just try and ban them. Ironically, Fahrenheit 451 has been banned from libraries and school curriculums because of a scene in the novel where the Bible is banned and consequently burned.

Banned Books Week runs from Sept. 27 until Oct. 3. The awareness week celebrates the freedom to read, something many of us take for granted.

Reading is rebellion, so to celebrate Banned Books Week, pick up one of the following books that have the honour of having been banned or at least challenged to be banned in Canada. Most of these novels are well known, but have controversial subject matter.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

This Canadian novel is set in a dystopian future where dangerously low birth rates led to a totalitarian state that forces women who can conceive to produce children for the society’s elite. Offred, the protagonist of the novel, struggles to regain her freedom and escape the strict confines of her world. The book was almost banned because of the depictions of sex as well as defamatory statements about minorities, God, women and more.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

The Harry Potter series has been targeted by book banners for many different reasons. Some fundamentalists thought the series promoted witchcraft, Satanism, the occult and other anti-Christian themes. Other parents thought the themes discussed in the later novels were too dark for children to read. But what these parents were ignoring was the fact that the Harry Potter series is responsible for spawning a generation of readers and to deny children the opportunity to enter the magical world of Harry Potter is an injustice.

Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov

This pedophilic novel follows a scholar named Humbert and his obsession with young women whom he calls “nymphets”. One young girl in particular named Lolita sparks his obsession. Humbert eventually marries Lolita’s mother Charlotte in order to get closer to the young girl. The highly questionable content has led to Lolita being banned all around the world.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Harper Lee’s novel is an important part of many high school curriculums. Narrated by the innocent and tomboyish Scout Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird discusses the important topic of institutionalized racism. The novel has been banned or challenged because of the use of racial slurs and profanity on top of uncomfortable subject matter such as sexual assaults and racism.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Just because a novel is considered to be in “the top 100 greatest novels of all time” does not mean people won’t try to ban it. Brave New World is set in a future where natural reproduction is abolished and human embryos are raised artificially and are developed to fulfill a predetermined role within the caste system. The novel has been banned because of the anti-family and anti-religious themes as well as explicit language.

As Oscar Wilde said in The Picture of Dorian Gray, “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”

We need to read banned books for the very same reasons they are banned, because they discuss themes that we otherwise don’t want to talk about. So pick up a banned book today and celebrate the fact that we can read about anything we want, no matter how questionable the material.