As this year’s Banned Books Week draws to a close, I thought I’d list the banned (self-imposed or otherwise) books in my life (and the books with which I violated these bans):
- As a 16-year-old converting to Mormonism, I committed to not read anything that would make me question my faith (after A Wrinkle in Time left me plagued with doubt).
- After my Dad discovered the note I wrote to remind myself of the above commitment, he expressly forbade me to read any Mormon books. I returned or gave away most of my books, but I surreptitiously kept a copy of the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith (with the cover torn off) and a copy of the LDS Triple Combination (hidden under my mattress).
- During my two year mission, we were forbidden to read almost everything that wasn’t published by the LDS Church. I broke this rule only a few times–I read some manga on p-days and the Japanese version of the Wizard of Oz when I was sick in bed. After one trip to a bookstore in Tokyo that had an entire floor devoted to books in English, I read one of the most influential books in my life: My Life Between Japan and America by Harvard scholar and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Edwin O. Reischauer. His autobiography inspired me to become a scholar and a bridge-builder.
No more banned books in my life since my mission. How about the rest of you? Have you experienced (and broken) your own book bans?
12 responses so far ↓
1 Elise // Sep 30, 2006 at 11:45 pm
John - I thought your post was fascinating. Not having served a mission, and not having many qualms about reading controversial material, I can’t say I’ve ever experienced what you described. That must of been difficult to convert to a new faith as a teenager, and then be forbidden to read material from said new faith by your parents. What did you think about your parents at the time? Did you feel they were inhibiting your relationship with God and new-found faith, or did you respect their concern?
I think Sunstone is the closest I’ve come to reading banned material. I remember the first time I curled up in the corner of the Periodicals section on the second floor of the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU - with a stack of a half-dozen or so Sunstones - and began reading. I looked over my shoulder a couple of times to make sure no one was noticing what I was reading.
Strangly in that moment of uncertainty, I felt the strongest sense of community and acceptance I had felt as an adult. What I read was real and genuine. More real than “approved” material I’d read in the past.
Do you allow your kids to select anything and everything from your library collection to read, or do you monitor their selections a bit? I don’t agree with banning books completely, but it seems that kids need some sense of direction in what is appropriate for their age levels. I’m certainly glad I wasn’t exposed, for example, to Sunstone when I was 12 years old.
2 Chris Rusch // Oct 1, 2006 at 4:44 am
I’d have to agree with Elise that Sunstone is the closest thing to banned material that I have read. I took a Mormon studies class at BYU-Hawaii where I learned about Sunstone and Dialouge and actually read a few articles.
Richard Bushman’s book about Joseph Smith has been interesting and I know that it has made the “banned” list of a few people that I know.
3 jjohnsen // Oct 1, 2006 at 6:10 am
The NO BOOKS ALLOWED rule on the mission was a tough one for me. I managed to slip in a History of Australia somehow convincing myself it would help me connect to the people ;).
4 pilgrimgirl // Oct 1, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Wow, i can’t even imagine how difficult a no-books rule would have been for me. I’m usually rather grumpy unless I’m reading a book for pleasure in addition to the reading I must do for teaching and school.
When I was growing up there were a few books my Mom told me not to read. I think a few by Judy Blume were on that list. As soon as I could, I dashed off to the library and surreptitiously read them to find out why they were forbidden (yah, I was just that kind of kid–my poor parents…). I remember wondering _why_ they were forbidden, as they weren’t any more sophisticated than other books that I’d already read. I was reading at such a high level at a young age that I often ended up reading rather ‘adult’ stuff. I’m still not sure if that was a good or a bad thing.
As for my kids, I generally try to make sure that the books they read aren’t too violent or too out-of-touch with reality (meaning that they aren’t high romance stuff). But, really, we’ve never banned anything, just guided them towards appropriate stuff. An example: Catgirl is reading a book about animal behavior (Silent Thunder) that goes into great detail about elephant mating rituals–including their 5 ft long penises and various hormonal responses durig mating. I’m comfortable with her reading that, though she and I had a talk about it first and I encouraged her to ask me questions if the text ever confused her.
Our kids have grown up with Dialogue and Sunstone lying around the house. I doubt they know of any stigma attached to such publications (if anything, they are thrilled to see their parents’ names appearing in the TOC. They’ve been attending the Symposia since they were toddlers and are comfortable with an intellectual/critical approach to Mormonism. They still enjoy reading The Friend and The New Era, but they are well aware of the breadth of Mo publications.
5 Miko // Oct 1, 2006 at 6:22 pm
although my gut reaction to this post was, “dear god, no! how horrible to be banned from reading!!” the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I’ve been banned on numerous occassions…although it worked to the opposite effect. My sister had a great collection of scifi/fantasy books that she believed were poisonous to my young mind (but not, apparently, to hers) and so I would sneak into her room for the few minutes each day that she was still at school but I was at home and read them. Over and over. Some of them weren’t even very good…they were just delicious for having been banned :-p My father had the complete (and explicit) Thousand Nights and One Night (12 volume set) which I vaguely knew contained specifics about sex (whatever that might have been). So I snuck into my parent’s room to read that and his book of dirty limericks…then in high school, my English teacher felt it his duty to make us read things our parents would hate. And so we did! Before he assigned a new book, he’d always preface it with, “this used to be banned in (insert country of the week here).” Maybe that was just to get us to read them, but my parents were always duly annoyed at the selections, tee hee
6 Loyd // Oct 3, 2006 at 7:32 am
I remember FARMS being banned on my mission because according to my mission president (now in the 2nd Q of the 70), “One of their articles claims that Joseph Smith translated the BofM by placing a STONE INTO A HAT! and then placed his face IN THE HAT! That IS JUST STUPID! We all know that Joseph Smith didn’t translate the holy scriptures in that way. THE SCRIPTURES TEACH US THAT HE TRANSLATED IT WITH THE GIFT AND THE POWER OF GOD!” He liked to yell a lot. He also claimed that FARMS was merely a means for its authors to make a profit.
He and I didn’t get along very well. In my interview with him afterwards, I told him about the historicity of the hat and how FARMS policy was non-profit (and how it acts as a place for tenured professors at BYU to remain published). That didn’t help our relationship.
I continued reading whatever I felt like.
7 lorie // Oct 3, 2006 at 12:00 pm
My husband studied with Reischauer at Harvard. We’ll all have to get together for dinner sometime so you can compare notes.
As to banned books, I can’t remember my parents ever forbidding me to read anything. They were not very well read and probably had no clue about what I was reading. Ideas, however, were a different matter. When it came to challenging LDS Church norms, my mother would often say, “You shouldn’t think about that.” My response was always, “How can I not think about it?” To her credit, her feelings for me didn’t change no matter how controversial my thoughts and public statements became.
8 Lianne // Oct 3, 2006 at 1:55 pm
Well, I don’t know why Madeleine L’Engle left you with doubts, because for me ALL of her books are just infused with faith, especially about Jesus Christ.
While on my mission I read Mary Stewart novels while my “sick” companion refused to get out of bed.
I don’t really believe in banned books… I read a ton of things, and now especially in the metaphysical realm. And somehow, I am able to remain an active Mormon.
Glad I found you.
9 Kita Kazoo // Oct 3, 2006 at 10:31 pm
When I was in my 20’s I read the biography of Joeseph Smith, written by his mother. The Bishop found out and warned me not to look any further into Joe’s life! Immagine that!
I never do what I’m told…
Question Authority!
10 John // Oct 4, 2006 at 10:53 pm
I can’t believe I forgot to mention Sunstone and Dialogue, and all the critical scholarship about Mormonism!
Loyd, I’m glad you stood up to your mission president. I didn’t have that level of maturity then.
Lorie, I’d love to hear about your husband’s experiences under EOR!
Lianne, L’Engle left me with doubts because of the parallels I saw between IT, mind control and the Church. I’m glad that you had a different experience.
Kita, it took awhile for this military brat to learn to question authority.
11 Zhenya // Oct 9, 2006 at 9:59 am
I love the image accompanying “Mind on Fire”, a personal Pentacost. But what about “Heart of Fire”? Both women in the picture have their hands on their breasts.
12 Zhenya // Oct 9, 2006 at 10:08 am
Oops, I just noticed that there are lots of different pictures, besides the one with the caption of “a personal pentecost” and that they can be scrolled by simply clicking on the pictures. Still, my question remains: What about “Heart on Fire”?
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