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PBS It's Lit Banned Books (Patreon)

Published:
2020-09-21 23:32:55
Imported:
2026-06

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We're back to talk about the great literary history of censorship and book banning. 

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The Fiery History of Banned Books | It's Lit

Take the PBS Digital Studios annual survey: http://to.pbs.org/2020survey For more It’s Lit, subscribe to Storied: http://bit.ly/pbsstoried_sub Since at least 213 BCE, book burnings have been a reaction to the power of the written word. When roasting paper in a giant circle went out of style (at least in the intellectual sphere), the governments would take it upon itself to ban books. However, when we talk about book bannings today, we are usually discussing a specific choice made by individual schools, school districts, and libraries made in response to the moralistic outrage of some group. This, while still hotly-contested and controversial, is still nothing in comparison to the ways books have been removed, censored, and outright destroyed in the past. So on that happy note, let’s … explore how the seemingly innocuous book has survived centuries of the ban hammer. Hosted by Lindsay Ellis and Princess Weekes, It’s Lit! is a show about our favorite books, genres and why we love to read. It’s Lit has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor. Hosted/Written by: Princess Weeks Director: David Schulte Executive Producer: Amanda Fox Producer: Stephanie Noone Editors: Stephen Fishman Writing Consultants: Maia Krause Executive Producer (PBS): Adam Dylewski Editorial Producer (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/itslitpbs https://twitter.com/thelindsayellis https://twitter.com/weekesprincess Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/itslit_pbs/

Comments

Patrick Canning

The video is a very nice primer on the topic of censorship and banning, my wife is a librarian and this topic comes up a lot especially during banned book week, but there is a slight bit of taking the easy way out to always broach the topic from the angle of "oh isn't it terrible to ban Ulysses or Dorian Gray or religious texts etc.." and not from the other angle of "it's important that we document and preserve the texts we legitimately find deplorable and not destroy them outright". We'll have popular banned book reading series where they read DH Lawrence or someone like that, but nobody seems to do Stormfront article readings or read the anarchist cookbook out loud. That might read like a shitpost but I do believe the importance of not banning books does go both ways, I'm definitely not saying they should put "They will not replace us!" in the main stacks or where kids can get at it but if someone (say a humanities student or a journalist for example) needs to find out what white nationalists or the religious right were reading in the early 20th century they should have safe access to it.

Eli Bildirici

This reads like the case for preservation. It is important work, but, let me tell you, often not terribly pleasant.

Eli Bildirici

I learned things! And got a well-placed Garak ref in the bargain!

Iochannon

Many texts benefit from historical annotations, especially because the reader may not have a detailed timeline of events and context in their head. When I took a course on the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, we read Mein Kampf in historical context. When Hitler spends the first few chapters setting out the mistakes he made in his youth, as if to say: 'but all this made me the man I am today,' I knew that he was writing the book while in jail for an attempted coup against a democratically elected government. Some of the examples you mentioned are specifically designed to teach violent people how to do damage (Turner Diaries, A. Cookbook.) This isn't a reason to ban them, but it is a reason to be selective about reading them to a wide audience, especially without context.

Tim Hammack

I found your reply well-stated, Lochannon. A friend shared a copy of Anarchist Cookbook with me in highschool. I tried (in vain) to experience "tripping" with banana peel residue. My friend blew up a mail box with a pipe bomb and was spared prison solely because he was white middle class. All that said, the friend was already interested in chemistry and didn't require the A.C. to perpetrate what he did. Meanwhile we all know how to turn a can of hairspray into a flame thrower with a lighter. Ultimately, the Anarchist Cookbook is a rather silly book (the banana peel recipe doesn't work--or else would require 100 lbs of bananas). You can't de-mystify the Anarchist's Cookbook, however, without access to it. (But that said, there's probably no harm in restricting it to adults)

Tim Hammack

I once dealt with a technical recruiter whose "employee bio" answered the question: "What was the last good book you read?" with "Lol, who has time for reading?" At this stage of the game, a savvy dictator only bans the books he wants people to read...

Tim Hammack

Mervyn Griffith-Jones' appeal to whether we'd want our servants reading such a text (as _Lady Chatterley's Lover_) did set the proper tone for who benefits from book bannings!