Area 51
In a library where I once worked there was a shelf behind the desk, far up on the wall. This shelf housed an assortment of books including Mein Kampf, American Psycho, and an anime book with a title I forget. This shelf was called Area 51.
Area 51 tried to be an overlap between the real world and an ideal library. In an ideal library we’d stock all the books useful for our collection, books people wanted or needed to read. We’d tell the truth about humanity.
But in the real world people are frightened, nervous creatures, who want to obliterate any evidence of the dark half of humanity. People who want us to, “Think of the children!”
One book that nearly made it into Area 51 was an illustrated encyclopedia of Greek history complete with pictures of statues. The statues were nude, exposed breasts and other parts of the anatomy, just like real people. We received a complaint about it. After all, think of the children, witnessing all those breasts. If there’s one thing a child should never see, it’s a breast.
There was some debate between staff about whether Area 51 constituted censorship. The books were in the library collection, after all, and they were in the catalogue. If someone discovered something they wanted to read, the computer would kindly inform them the book was located in ‘Area 51′. That’s better than a library that doesn’t stock the titles at all.
There was a reason the shelf had such an absurd name. We knew it was absurd. This place for books deemed unacceptable by worried patrons — this purgatory: in the collection, and yet not.
But there was no helpful guide for library patrons pointing them towards Area 51. So they had to ask staff, who would kindly pick the book off the OBVIOUSLY CENSORED OUT OF REACH NAUGHTY SHELF and hand it over. Kindly. That would be enough to stop a lot of patrons from reading The Kama Sutra, among other things.
I came down on the side of believing Area 51 represented censorship. And yet it included a book too dark even for me. The anime book with the title I forget. In one scene, a violent act of sodomy split a person in half in an impossible, exaggerated way. The image disturbed me. It was the one thing in Area 51 I actually agreed probably shouldn’t be out there in a public library. We all have our limits.
But Mein Kampf? American Psycho? These are books that need to be read before they can disturb you. There are no images to fry your brain, just passages of cruel behaviour, paragraphs of hate. You have to think about it to be disturbed, and to me that makes the difference.
And of course there were the nude Greek statues, that perfectly revealed the conflict between our light and dark halves. Thousands of years of human history show we love our own forms, from breasts to buttocks. We worship them. Yet we also despise them. We shy from them and worry too much will go to our heads, and too much will turn our children into… what? Lecherous homosexuals, possibly.
A patron once complained to me about a video we had about New Orleans. It was an educational film about all the aspects of the city, politics to culture. It included a few moments of a gay pride parade. This is the part the patron couldn’t abide. She wanted me to put a warning on the video so people would know that if they subjected their children to the politics and culture of New Orleans it would include gay people.
The dark half of humanity is whatever we define it to be. For some people it’s homosexuality. For others, wizarding schools or anything that defies their God’s laws. For most of us it includes bloody violence and hate. And of course there are those who think nudity itself is dark. That you take off your clothes and you’re suddenly offensive. I wonder how they bathe.
A public library is a place where all aspects of humanity are revealed, in fiction and non-fiction. As a librarian I see firsthand what is acceptable to all, some and none. As a writer I try not to shy from my own darkness, because I know without it my writing is incomplete, a pale thing lying when it should be vivid, shouting truths. If I ever forget this, I think of Area 51 (which I am pleased to report no longer exists.) I remember I could write about a gentle kiss and someone might complain. I could write about violent murder and someone will say it’s too bloodless. There’s no way to please everyone. So when it comes to my own dark half, I must please only myself.
While I do think that having a section in the library like Area 51 does fall under censorship, a section like that would just make it easier for people like me who enjoy reading those sort of things to find those titles rather than searching through this giant catalog of books (when I get to a library, I want to get the title I want and get out – spending time staring at a computer screen while there for ten minutes isn’t appealing). I’d love to see “banned books” as a genre just for easier pickings in a library. But it’s all a matter of opinion, really. Can’t please everyone, as you probably know.
I’m glad to hear that the section would have benefited you. However, keep in mind that this section wasn’t visible from the customer side of the desk. You’d still have had to look through the catalogue to find the book you want, realize that it was behind the desk, and then ask the librarian.
Possibly what you’re thinking of is a shelf of books marked “risque” or “banned” (as you suggest.) Libraries often have those to bring attention to some of the stranger things people ban.
Amen.
Oh the banality of the uneducated and ill-informed. It makes me sad that there are people who feel it is their right to condemn certain things and warn others off them, based on their personal beliefs. Why can’t they just choose not to engage? Not to read/watch/listen? It all comes down to choices. Personal, “I’ve thought this action through and I’m going to do/not do it, on my own steam” choices, are just that. Personal.
*sigh*
I guess I’ll just rest easy knowing that my children will grow up with the ability to make informed and educated choices on what they choose to engage with. If this means they want to read Mein Kampf or American Psycho, then great. That’s their decision.
Great post, Jen
I’m one of those people who WANTS to read these so-called “banned books” to find out what all the fuss is about. Yes, American Psycho is disturbing but more for the fact that more of the book is given over to those endless lists about clothing and designer labels than it is to the actual “horror”. I agree that books aren’t as dangerous as something that shows you something explicit in graphic form but there will always be people who want to impose censorship according to what offends THEM. It’s too subjective to ever be used as a real measurement of a book’s content.