The latest book ban craze in this country prompted me to take a deep dive into which books now and in the past. In Florida, this book banning is facilitated by our ridiculous governor, voted back into office by a large majority of voters as deluded by him as they were of trump.
Okay, the books. For a mean of comparison, let’s look back. In the 60s & 70s: To Kill a Mockingbird, Slaughterhouse Five, A Wrinkle in Time, Rabbit, Run, Catch-22 Tropic of Cancer, Forever, Lord of the Flies. These titles and others were were identified by the American Library Association. On a Reader’s Digest site, you’ll find the alleged reasons these books were banned.
In 2022, the most banned book has been – no surprise! – The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
Penguin Books UK in 2019, said this about the ban of the 1985 book:
“Margaret Atwood’s fable about women’s power, fertility and the patriarchy may be so well-known that people dress up as its titular Handmaids for Halloween, but that hasn’t stopped it from being repeatedly banned over the past four decades. The Handmaid’s Tale has been criticised for a long list of reasons – for being anti-Christian and anti-Islamic and for its portrayal of sex and violence, among others. It remains the seventh-most challenged book on the American Library Association’s list of frequently challenged books. But, if The Handmaid’s Tale – and its author – teach us anything, it’s that resistance is power. “
They note that with book banning and gag orders becoming so prolific in Republican-led school districts across the U.S., Penguin Random House took did an unusual thing: they created a flame-proof copy of The Handmaid’s Tale. The You Tube video they made is at the top of the page.
Other books banned in 2022? To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Kafka on the Shore, Beartown, Thirteen Reasons Why… Every banned book holds a core idea that conservatives find offensive. A theocracy where women are used as sex slaves, teenage suicide, LGBTQ, racism, anti-war, book burning in an autocracy…
Here in Florida, the main idea is that removing certain books will make white kids and their parents feel better about themselves. DeSantis abhors what he calls the “woke” and passed a law – Stop Woke – that restricts certain race-based conversations and analysis in colleges.
“The law prohibits teaching or business practices that contend members of one ethnic group are inherently racist and should feel guilt for past actions committed by others. It also bars the notion that a person’s status as privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by their race or gender, or that discrimination is acceptable to achieve diversity.” wrote the AP.
The AP was reporting on how a federal judge in Tallahassee – a judge appointed by Obama – issued a temporary injunction against the Stop Woke act. He called it “Positively Dystopian.”
Since Covid, a lot of people have moved to Florida. Some came during the pandemic because they bought into the governor’s insistence that Florida was the freest state in the union – no required masks, no required Covid tests, no more lockdowns. Never mind that Florida lost more than 80,000 people to Covid.
So welcome to Florida, y’all, where we ban books, have election police, and love liars (trump) do nothings (marco rubio) and alleged sex traffickers (matt gaetz). As long as you fall into line with the governor’s vision, you’re welcome here.
