Thoughts on Banned Books Week 2016: Sept. 25 - Oct. 1
by Chet Weise, Editor Third Man Books
Many times the idea of banning books is ascribed to times past or to books that must be politically volatile or pornography or something terribly unmentionable. Many times people are surprised to find out that is very far from the truth, that books are challenged and banned in the right here and now and include titles such as Where the Wild Things Are and Green Eggs and Ham. In fact speaking of the here and now, Third Man Books, right here in Nashville, Tennessee has experienced something very similar not only once, but twice, during our young existence as a publisher.
As many of you might already know, two TMB books of poetry, PAIN: The Board Game by Sampson Starkweather and My Dinner with Ron Jeremy by Kendra DeColo, were yanked off the press on the day of their agreed print dates by the printers we had hired. For those who have read the two books, you know these books weren’t plotting violence against any person, did not include porn, in fact, they were only books that looked deep within the souls and thoughts of the authors and their relation to the world around them. Isn’t that poetry? I guarantee that if any of you met Sampson, there’s a good chance that you would want to hang out, talk about your favorite Prince records, crack jokes, maybe even ask him about his times as a high school basketball player or semi-pro soccer player. Likewise, meeting Kendra also means meeting her beautiful new baby girl and probably talking about her love for Rodney Dangerfield movies or the music of Sleater-Kinney. The fact that both their books were pulled off the press for “objectionable content” would probably surprise you. It sure as hell surprised me when I took those phone calls from the respective printers. Unless we count the time advertisers attempted to pressure iTunes and Spotify to remove the entire Insane Clown Posse catalog, the music side of the Third Man has not suffered from these sort of challenges. (For the record, both services do include ICP at the date of this post).
Kendra DeColo
I think there are many reasons why this problem may be more evident in the print world than in Third Man’s experience with music. The most obvious is that in Nashville most of the printers are oriented toward business focusing on religious institutions. This post is not anti-religion, by the way. But the explanation provided to us in the case of both books concerned the printers fear of their church-affiliated clients cancelling accounts if they caught wind of these books, or that employees within the printers themselves had objected to the books based on personal, religious beliefs. This post also isn’t saying that private individuals and private businesses should not have a right of refusal. So exactly what is this post saying? It’s saying that language is a powerful, beautiful, ugly, offensive, a pack of lies, honest, brave, frightening. etc.
Sampson Starkweather
I would argue reading and writing are very intimate acts that engage writer and reader one-on-one in a way unlike any other art form. Reading is an experience that requires space be set aside plus the allocation of considerable time and effort. When we read a book, our imaginations are fully engaged, our attention is fully demanded, and issues and ideas are poured directly into our conscience to be interpreted and deliberated. It’s a valuable experience. And we should protect that experience with everything we got.
Books are still being challenged or banned at many levels of our communities Reading is an experience that requires space be set aside plus the allocation of considerable time and effort. Banned Books Week is a time to remind ourselves how important the written work really is to us and our development, no matter what our personal ideologies might be. With that in mind, in a free society, I ask you why shouldn’t there be pornography or extreme political writing (ie the Declaration of Independence) available to us along with Green Eggs and Ham? We can choose for ourselves. We can also protect the appropriate people from seeing the wrong things at the wrong age. No matter what, if you’re a fan of Moby Dick,The Call of the Wild, The Catcher in the Rye, The Bible, Harry Potter, etc you will find these articles interesting. I’ll also include articles about Sampson and Kendra’s books. Because they are good books by good people, and whether you like any of these books aforementioned, you should know that your freedom of speech is under duress every day.
The 24 Most Controversial Books of All Time
https://electricliterature.com/24-most-controversial-books-of-all-time-70e484941082#.crdn3m59x
Banned Books that Shaped America
http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/censorship/bannedbooksthatshapedamerica
More Banned and Challenged Books
About Sampson Starkweather’s Pain the Board Game being Challenged
About Kendra DeColo’s My Dinner With Ron Jeremy being Challenged
i would really like a bookbag that says I READ BANNED BOOKS on it because I already have an I Read Banned Books TShirt from the last bookstore that employed me ….. maybe a TMB TShirt with a pocket some cool bookmarks or a TMB headlamp for latenight reading in the coalmines?!?! Seriously though…. the book bag is essential!!!!
A resounding and respectful third request for a TMB shirt!
I’ll second SummerStarIII’s idea. I’ve been waiting for a TMB shirt and I’d wear one with that slogan in a heartbeat.
We need shirts that say “I read banned books” asap
oh thats just fine Ben…. you posts and commentary cant possibly be domineering given that 90% of what you do is 1. follow me around 2. smash and grab collectors items and sell them at inflated prices to people who are desperate 3. regularly insult visitors to chat or white swirl or wherever you may be trolling at the moment …. 3 and now 4 of these posts would not have been needed for conversation if you and your greedy friends were not so bent on your digital overlord manipulation as invasive software and application RAT Masters…. Lets hear no more from you about how wives are ALWAYS OPTIONAL When you and your buddies go conventioning and collecting around the globe….. ive played all sides of your monopoly game and refuse to contribute to your funny money game and you need to be spending more time with your wife and kid than monitoring anything i spend my time on
6 of 15….someone is always dominating the conversation…….
My apologies for whatever the digital issue interruped and published that unedited draft…. My take on 21st Century censure and Nationalist Media processes really was not presented as a complete idea and appeared as a seriously flawed botch .post…. Basically I relating how great writing in our time is used mechanically to illustratrate how science and commercialism construct crisis events to contrive established media purposes via smokescreen diversions for the sake of legitimizing particular agendas or reassigning components of cause and effect….. Straight from the dead beaten horse of Climate Change to the clear and present continental divides on how communities are to be managed as ignorant masses by FEMA the casual consumer will always have to strive to delinare the sources of their access and authorized content with deference to where they spend their attention….. Personally not sure about the “cultural assassins” out there promoting alternate texts to fight the good fight or the efficacy of some multinational corporation like Bloomberg “buzzing” in on Crisis Alerts as a means of legitimizing themself to their audience via filtered outcomes ans suggested distraction as click bait so much but I laud the impact of literacy and promoting accuracy as such in all aspects of commercialism…. again… my apologies for the triple thread bomb earlier and for only just now having time to get back here to address it as the unedited set of components that it is…. i suppose the real lesson there became how lack of control on ones work can really send the wrong message
TheresaWITHanH: Wasn’t just girls reading 50 Shades of Grey, middle-aged women were reading it, too. Two women I work with read it and kept talking about it and I really, really wanted to give each of them a copy of Anais Nin’s Delta of Venus. Getting back to challenged and banned books, it’s interesting to see all the various reasons that books have been controversial for, and sobering to see such a clear presentation of how fearful society can be. And I like Electric Lit’s choice of symbol for racism.
Thank you, Chet! I have loved every offering thus far from TMB, and consider it a privilege to witness its progress. The difference between censuring and censoring should be examined and taught today and always. I appreciate you and the rest of the staff for fighting the good fight and providing such quality content along the way. It does not go without notice. Long live those who would try and silence any of us, for as long as we identify them as the cultural assassins they are, our hope remains alive and well. Here’s to the Revolution being printed in part by Third Man Books!
By the way, does TMB ever attend the NY Art Book Fair? I went a couple of weeks ago and looked for you on the roster, but didn’t see you listed.