S Poddar
What was once the land of sunshine has now become a shadow state for lovers of literature. In one of those shocking twists, 23 Stephen King novels were banned from school libraries by 2022 legislation propelled by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The move, at the behest of complaints by conservative groups such as Moms for Liberty, has fired up a heated debate on free speech, education, and the right of tender minds to survey thoughts from all persuasions.
The law bans books that include sexually explicit material and for that reason, classics such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer have already been removed. Not even non-fiction books spare such as Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl. King’s novels that have gone under the censor axe are Carrie, It, The Gunslinger, The Running Man, and The Long Walk.
King has never held back from speaking his mind, and when word of the bans reached him, neither did he. Outraged and incredulous, he tweeted: “Florida has banned 23 of my books. What the f***?” His reaction echoed that of many who were outraged by the censorship.
Aside from public outrage, the ban has engendered legal action. Six major book publishers-Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, and Sourcebooks-have united to challenge the “sweeping book removal provisions” of the law. They say the law is too broad and permits arbitrary censorship based upon subjective judgments as to what constitutes “sexual conduct.”
They point to a critical fact: students’ reading of a variety of texts constitutes a vital part of their education and maturation. As such, publishers emphasize, teachers and librarians should be free to choose texts for their use with students without threat of censorship.
But defenders-which include the Florida Department of Education-argue that sexually explicit material does not belong in schools. Critics call the definition of “sexually explicit” too vague-a catch-all excuse to remove books dealing with mature themes or displaying human sexuality in a way that is realistic.
Wrapped up in this latest salvo in the Florida fight over banned books is a larger struggle over the future of education and free speech. It’s about who gets to decide what kids are allowed to read and how we secure their rights to be exposed to all manner of ideas. As this legal challenge plays out, its ruling is sure to go on and determine the availability of books to students in schools throughout the state and will more than likely set a legal precedence for others.
