Fired Up for a Book Burning

Books may well become artifacts talked about in hushed tones in select company. Damn it, I am buying more books.

I was lucky because my mother taught us to read before we got to school.

Sometimes it was a struggle because, as I learned some 20 years later, I had a mild form of dyslexia but that didn’t stop me. 

I could learn at my own pace; I could delve as deep as I wanted into a topic. And reading could be very calming.

I remember an instance in my first year of teaching, Standard Two in those days, 8 year olds.

Something had happened in the lunch break. One of the children in my class had been the target of some bullying and was quite upset, as was the class. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. The class certainly was not settled so organised learning was out of the question. 

So, we all gathered on the floor in front of the class, and I began reading ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’, the first of the Tales of Narnia. The child snuggled up and the rest crowded in. There was hush and suddenly nearly half an hour had passed and there was a whole different feeling amongst the crew.

I suggested we should stop. There was resistance. We read some more. Then I had to make a deal. Every Friday, no matter what, after lunch we would all gather on the floor and all chill as I read more from ‘The Tales’.

The crew went back to work and I sat quietly with the now calmer child who was in a much better frame of mind to talk and got the story. Armed with the facts I went off to the Headmaster and he dealt with the offenders and talked with their parents.

Recently there has been this bizarre movement starting to build, to sanitise the past by expunging children’s books from our current reading list.  In the States, even The Little House on the Prairie is apparently too controversial for their libraries and the Association of Library Service to Children has publicly removed the name of the author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, from an Award for Children’s Literature. 

The first book in the series was released in 1932, and originally based on the Ingall’s family story.

Like it or not, that was America in the 30’s and whilst the stories developed more as historical fiction, they still provided a picture of life during those times. There might be things about those times we now don’t like. But like it or not, that is the way it was and attempts to sanitise history like this  simply make it harder for people to learn and understand how things were and why they are different now.

If anyone dares to interfere with the continued existence of my heroes, Aslan (Narnia) and Yoda (Jedi Knight), a whole different side of my character will be revealed.

Perhaps we have forgotten too easily and quickly that on May 10th, 1933, students burned upwards of 25,000 volumes of “un-German” books in the Square at the state Opera, Berlin, a sign of warning of an era of uncompromising censorship and cultural control. In many other university towns, nationalist students marched to torch lit parades against the “un-German” spirit. The book burnings took place in 34 German towns and cities.

In the aftermath of the book burnings, the Nazi regime raided bookstores, libraries, and publishers warehouses to confiscate materials it deemed dangerous or “un-German”. The burnings provoked international criticism – it was seen as a barbaric act that was out of keeping with a modern, civilised society.

Heinrich Heine, one of Germany’s greatest poets, who was of Jewish origin wrote at the time, “When they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people.”

The book burnings still stand as a powerful symbol of intolerance.

Through time, burning books has been carried out, usually in a public context, representing  an element of censorship. In some cases, the destroyed works are irreplaceable, and their burning constitutes a severe loss to cultural heritage. Some of the earliest on record include during China’s Quin Dynasty (213-210 BCE). When the burning is widespread and systematic, destruction of books and media can become a significant component of cultural genocide.

I was starting to give my small library away as we begin the decluttering process to sell up the farm. Given some of the recent events of book discrediting (Little House on the Prairie; Dr Suess; Enid Blyton for example) I have changed my mind – Technology aside, books may well become artifacts talked about in hushed tones in select company. Damn it, I am buying more books.

There is something assuring about holding a book and yes you can find out a lot on the interwebby these days, but siting on the veranda in peace and relative quiet, reading, nodding off as you relax, or grabbing a piece of paper to jot down some important insight – well a chunk of technology just doesn’t do it for me, especially when you read predictions like this from Harari's Homo Deus.

"Devices such as Amazon's Kindle are able to collect data on their users while they are reading. Your Kindle can, for example, monitor which parts of the book you read quickly, and which slowly; on which page you took a break, and on which sentence you abandoned the book...If Kindle is upgraded with face recognition and biometric sensors, it will know how each sentence you read influenced your heart rate and blood pressure...Soon books will read you while you are reading them." (p 400-401)

Oops, there I go digressing - back to kids books. There has been some interesting commentary, on my face book page there is a post of a British TV Newsman losing it and talking volubly about the Laura Ingalls Wilder case. At heart I can understand the frustration. One comment on my page noted “…that the issues he raises cannot be simply blamed on the PC Brigade narrative but are quite complex issues.”  And without doubt that is true. 

But how do we know about the issues if the figurative book burning continues?

In conclusion, I have a warning for Winnie the Pooh. You all know that old question, "Does a Bear Shit in the Woods?" Well I am surprised that the Brigade hasn't  got stuck into Pooh Bear for running around without pants - stand by! 

#gotohellSnowflakes  #bookburning    #burnhistory #geoffsopinion