Something Banned, Nothing New
By Chloe Hunt
Image by Elle Klaus
I read a banned book in February. It was called Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Which is funny because I remember when I was in elementary school, it was part of battle of the books. I loved it. Inhaling every paragraph, something resonated within me once again. I had read it before and I was brought back to my younger self. Both of us still trying to make sense of the world.
I then found myself reading another one. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. The stinging poetry of her words left me with a rawness. An open wound. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Censorship is an ugly word. Oppressive and twisted. Wrapping its gnarled limbs around the expressiveness of art. Trying to snuff out its inextinguishable qualities. It will never succeed. But it also begs the question: can art be censored?
Even when looking back to all the restrictive measures placed on films, books, and artistic movements- there’s still something that peeks through. An undying fight that pushes to come out. Finding new ways of marching on. Adapting and readjusting to survive. Establishing its own immortality.
These books are purposefully regulated to hide the truth. Dishonesty and the rewriting of history under the disguise of protection. To save young minds from the dirtiness of reality. Robbing the education system of one of its most important tools in the hopes of creating compliance. A monolith of false knowledge. Intentionally targeting some of the most beautiful of stories because it can lead to the uncomfortability of questioning. The world will still come, however, no matter what is attempted to be hidden.
I carry their words. Let them slosh around my mind. Hold them in my mouth. Squish them into sentences. I wouldn’t be me without them. Their inky tattoos pressed onto pulpy pages. A luxury to know them.
Read a banned book. But It’s important to know that there can never be such a thing. Art can never be contained in the way that oppression wants. It always finds a way to prevail. To outsmart the rules and thrive.
I like knowing that resistance is alive. Found in the pockets of time. Lingering in my writing. I have that power. And so do you.
