I just finished watching a Netflix series called 13 Reasons Why, about a teenage girl who kills herself.
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Some people wanted the series banned because it might spur individuals to suicide. I say no to banning the show because I believe in freedom of speech and because I think the net effect of the series on suicide will be nil.
However, I am sure it is banned in many countries because of its sexual content.
I have read books that have been banned by governments or schools. I liked Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger and Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence. Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (pictured) seemed like gibberish to me.
I have also watched banned movies. Long ago I watched Deep Throat along with hundreds of other students at the University of Colorado. Last week, as I wrote this column, I watched another movie famed for once being banned: I Am Curious (Yellow). I checked it out of the town library. How times change.
I am proud to say that I teach a course, Behaviour Modification, that was once banned.
A university administrator eliminated it from the curriculum over my strong objection.
I then told students it was being offered for the last time, and the course had by far its biggest enrollment ever.
After a year or so the administrator left the university, and I went back to teaching Behaviour Modification. It is hard to ban something forever if people want it. Think of the oldest profession.
Now I want to write a book that gets banned. The banning would make me a literary outlaw and trigger mega-sales to people who want to see what all the fuss is about.
But It is not easy these days to write a book that gets banned. I don’t have enough hate inside me to write a book condemning a specific ethnic or religious group.
I lean more toward mockery, but mockery does not get banned in Australia. My evidence: The book Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah MacDonald.
I could travel to a country with a dictator and mock him in writing, but I would not expect to survive the experience.
Look at Galileo. He came close to getting burned alive because of his crazy writing about the earth going round the sun.
So I may never write a banned book. That won’t be my only failure in life.