“Censorship and the suppression of reading materials are rarely
about family values and almost always about control; About who is
snapping
the whip, who is saying no, and who is saying go. Censorship's bottom
line is this: if the novel Christine offends me, I don't want just to
make sure it's kept from my kid; I want to make sure it's kept from your
kid, as well, and all the kids. This bit of intellectual arrogance,
undemocratic and as old as time, is best expressed this way: "If it's
bad for me and my family, it's bad for everyone's family."
Yet
when books are run out of school classrooms and even out of school
libraries as a result of this idea, I'm never much disturbed not as a
citizen, not as a writer, not even as a schoolteacher . . . which I used
to be. What I tell kids is, Don't get mad, get even. Don't spend time
waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead,
run, don't walk, to the nearest nonschool library or to the local
bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned. Read whatever
they're trying to keep out of your eyes and your brain, because that's
exactly what you need to know.”
Stephen King
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