Keep on Rockin' in the Free World

Mitchell Kaplan, president of the American Bookseller Association, had a letter in last weekend's NYTBR in response to Rachel Donadio's "Is There Censorship?", which spoke of Judy Blume's National Book Awards speech as "alarmist":

"Blume's speech perfectly captured the mood in certain literary circles these days, where air once thick with now banned cigarette smoke instead hangs heavy with talk of the C-word. But the kind of censorship Blume has faced concerns individual libraries choosing not to lend her books, or placing restrictions on who can borrow them. It isn't about government harassment, even though that's what Blume seemed to be implying."

(Gotta love that "where air once thick..." line; you can take the reporter out of the NY Observer, but you can't blah blah blah...)

Now, Donadio was absolutely right to point out that "the definition of censorship has loosened so much that the word has become nearly devoid of meaning," but as Kaplan points out, accusing book people of a "near-paranoid frenzy" over Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act (the one about seizing bookstore and library records) when they can't cite specific instances isn't quite fair, because "the Justice Department refuses to say whether it is searching bookstore and library records, and the Patriot Act forbids booksellers and librarians to reveal the fact that a search has occurred." (As it happens, Maud Newton raised similar concerns with Donadio's essay much closer to its actual release date.)

What he doesn't point out, however, is that Donadio's article fails to mention one very prominent recent case of an actual attempt to set up government censorship. Granted, Alabama state representative Gerald Allen may not get far with his proposed legislation to, as reported in The Guardian, "ban the use of state funds to purchase any books or other materials that 'promote homosexuality.'" So the censorship might not actually ever take place...but the attempt is being made, so maybe Blume isn't quite as alarmist as all that.

As far as I can tell, the entire NYT has a similar blind spot when it comes to Allen (though in Donadio's defense, it might be an issue of lead time). Author Stephen Chbosky did notice the bill, but he's confident it won't get passed and wouldn't hold constitutional water if it somehow did become a law. He's more concerned right now with efforts in various school districts to keep his 1999 novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower off curricula and out of libraries. It's a thoughtful interview worth your complete attention.