I have a lot to say about this, because I have a problem with people who make banning books a political agenda. However it might increase book sales because they sometimes buy the book and might go burn it with their church later lol. The first issue is what you mentioned, a family problem becomes a problem for a school district or library. To me, reading a book is a choice like watching a movie. And I've decided in my lifetime it is my choice not to watch a Clockwork Orange. If someone else wants to, they can go ahead.
I was warned by a teacher in high school to not read certain pages in the book The God of Small things if I didn't want to, so some high school teachers do warn children about those controversial things.
The other issue is that art and entertainment can be subjective and have nuance. So I can interpret art in different ways, and if you choose to interpret some part of the art in your own perspective, that doesn't mean you should be able to make that decision for a whole library. Case in point, there are theories about the end of the same book The God of small things. I also could write various papers about the heart of darkness using a feminist lens, a queer lens or a Freudian lens and all those papers would be different.
Some people also miss the mark in their banning endeavors. I bet they don't even read the whole book sometimes, and just start jumping on the part they didn't like or the part they found their kid reading. I read shortly after Trump's election that To Kill a Mockingbird was being banned somewhere in Virginia for being racist. But that book is about people in the South being racist, which did happen. It's not there to propagate racism against black people.
I have a lot to say about this, because I have a problem with people who make banning books a political agenda. However it might increase book sales because they sometimes buy the book and might go burn it with their church later lol. The first issue is what you mentioned, a family problem becomes a problem for a school district or library. To me, reading a book is a choice like watching a movie. And I've decided in my lifetime it is my choice not to watch a Clockwork Orange. If someone else wants to, they can go ahead.
I sometimes wondered if books should have ratings like movies do. We have evolved at least to have trigger warnings about books: https://booktriggerwarnings.com/Book_Trigger_Warnings:Category_Tree
I was warned by a teacher in high school to not read certain pages in the book The God of Small things if I didn't want to, so some high school teachers do warn children about those controversial things.
The other issue is that art and entertainment can be subjective and have nuance. So I can interpret art in different ways, and if you choose to interpret some part of the art in your own perspective, that doesn't mean you should be able to make that decision for a whole library. Case in point, there are theories about the end of the same book The God of small things. I also could write various papers about the heart of darkness using a feminist lens, a queer lens or a Freudian lens and all those papers would be different.
Some people also miss the mark in their banning endeavors. I bet they don't even read the whole book sometimes, and just start jumping on the part they didn't like or the part they found their kid reading. I read shortly after Trump's election that To Kill a Mockingbird was being banned somewhere in Virginia for being racist. But that book is about people in the South being racist, which did happen. It's not there to propagate racism against black people.