Why Was “IT” Banned?

"What cannot be said above all must not be silenced but written."
- Jacques Derrida

According to the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, 416 books were banned or challenged in 2017. For reasons ranging from LGBT content to violence or even just general objections to the text, it seems that the censorship of literature isn't going anywhere. After all, why would it? Clearly, banning books that deal with sensitive subjects has worked wonders in the past. When was the last time you heard anyone using a curse word? When was the last time you saw a story of violence or heartbreak on the news? As long as we continue to silence the voices of authors around the world, we can avoid ever having to deal with any sort of negativity. There’s no need to expose people to works of literature that deal with sexuality, violence, or anything along those lines, because nobody will ever  encounter those things in day to day life... Right?

Well, no. Eventually, whether we like it or not, everyone is exposed to foul language, mature content, religion, racism, homophobia, violence and far more. Walking down the hall at school, you’re bound to hear a multitude of swear words and slurs. Turning on the news, it’s inevitable that you’ll hear at least one story that deals with violence. Driving through town, there’s no way to avoid seeing churches of all kinds scattered through the streets, and people of all faiths going about their lives. The issues that banned books try to suppress are deemed “inappropriate” for young audiences, but the truth of the matter is that by the time kids are at a high enough level to comprehend the situations explained in the text, it’s more than likely that they’ve been exposed to those situations in real life (or they will be in the near future). Is it not safer to expose children to potentially upsetting situations in a safe, comfortable environment? Allowing kids to step into someone else’s shoes for a while and see how things like discrimination or violence can affect people is a way to prevent them from making choices that could harm people. Similarly, allowing kids to step into someone else’s shoes and see how finding a faith that you feel comfortable with or expressing your sexuality/gender in a non conforming way can show them that it’s okay to be open and be themselves. Sheltering kids from these things only forces them to learn about them the hard way, and nobody benefits from that.

The novel “IT” by Stephen King was banned in Nebraska for violence and foul language. The book tackles issues like homophobia, abuse, suicide, racism and more, so of course it involves violence and foul language— the town of Derry is quite literally a physical manifestation of fear, filled to the brim with bigots and tormented by a shapeshifting entity that appears every 27 years to wreak havoc. While it may not seem that there’s much to learn from a book about a murderous clown in the 1950s, it becomes clear from the moment you open the book that there’s so much more to the story than you’re led to believe. It’s incredibly unfortunate that so many people are robbed of the chance to truly dig into the text and gain the perspective of a gay man murdered by homophobes, a black boy tormented by racist bullies, a Jewish man haunted by ghosts of his past, a young girl beaten and manipulated by her father, and so much more— they’re robbed of the chance to step into these characters’ shoes, just because the style of writing is deemed offensive.