BAN BABY, BAN!

So, banning books is back in the news again. This is nothing new; maybe the concept never left. "They" were burning books back in the 1600s.

Rather than revisit the controversy itself, I want to relate something that happened in one of my classes.

When I was teaching, many of the books we read were banned somewhere. One of my absolute favorite and important books to read is Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. It was offered in a science fiction class I taught. Overall, there were no issues with that or other books I taught, except once. I remember a girl telling me her religious family didn't want her to read it, but she said she really wanted to. 

I wasn't sure what to do. I wouldn't go against her family's wishes, but I think the book is important enough for everyone to read. I ended up leaving a copy on the corner of my desk and telling her that I wouldn't give her a copy, but I had left a copy on the corner of my desk. I left it up to her to do whatever she wanted whatever, she felt comfortable doing.

Sometime later that day, the book disappeared. It showed back up a couple of days later. 

We never spoke of it after that, and the whole thing slipped from my memory. It's probably been forty or so years after that that I recently remembered the incident and wondered about whatever happened to her and her exposure to that classic book.

Did it ruin or enhance her life? Or was the book met with a shrug.

Maybe I will look her up and ask.

Or maybe I won't.