Freedom to Publish

October 5th, 2006 · 17 Comments
Discussion Topics

In The Day They Came to Arrest the Book, Nora Baines says, “…freedom to publish is useless if people are not allowed to read what is published…”. What does this mean? Do you agree? Why or why not? What are our responsibilities to maintain freedom?

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17 responses so far ↓

1 brianna // Oct 6, 2006 at 9:09 pm

This quote answrs the question that why are you going to publish a book if you know that it will soon be banned? this quote is so important because Nora Bains is wondering what si the maun point of having books at all if they become banned in the first place.yes i do agree with this quote because I have been asking myself this question since we have done banned books week. Our responiblities to maintain freedom is to fight for what we believe in.
2 Mrs. Houtchens // Oct 7, 2006 at 2:31 pm

Hello Mr. Wegner’s classes,

I am a teacher from San Bernardino who is taking a class today (Saturday) with Ms. Milis. This topic intrigues me and reminded me of Judy Blume’s book, where she has many authors whose books have been banned, write stories. In her introduction, she says that if she worried about what people would think about her book before she wrote it, she wouldn’t be able to write anything. I think that’s great information for any writer! Too many of my students (I teach junior English in San Bernardino) worry about what people will think about their writing and they get blocked. We should all just write!

Mrs. H
3 Timothy Holland // Oct 8, 2006 at 7:15 am

I agree because this is one of the many flaws in today’s democracy, it gives the populace too much power. In order for us to maintain the freedom of the book, we must maintain prejudice against it. I think the populace needs to learn how to “shut up” and go through life. There are going to be more serious problems than a measly book …

If the populace won’t “shut up” might as well burn all the books we have…
4 Giovanni P // Oct 8, 2006 at 5:58 pm

Well, the obvious meaning to that quote is if something is going to be published, and nobody reads it, whats the point of someone taking the time to write and publish the book in the first place? Nora Baines also says:

“Show me a book that offends no one, and I will show you a book that no one, in the whole history of the world, has ever willingly read.” (Page 34)

I completely agree with this quote because i think that if you look closely enough to even the most innocent of innocent books, some one, somewhere will find a flaw in it, they will be offended by even the most innocent thing, and they would want to take that book of the shelves.

I have a great Idea… Why don’t we just abolish all books off the face of this planet? we can throw them all into the atlantic ocean…. And while we are at that, lets burn down MTV studios because of their provocative shows… Ive heard some bad words on comedy central, lets burn down their studios also… You know what? lets get rid of telivision, and the internet (because we all know theirs no real use for that except for something illegal or worng) I think that will solve all our problems…. get rid of everything… that way NONE of us will be corrupt… HA ya right.

And parents: just think about that, if you keep your child, and everyone elses child from reading a certain book or watching a certain show about something you dont feel is right for them, just think of when they go off to school, or meet friends. Someone, Somewhere is gonna bring up the subject, and your child will be socially retarded. They will be made fun of. I’ve seen it happy many times. I mean, do you want your child going off to college thinking that he/she was delivered to you 18 years ago by a stork? And that girls and boys have the same body parts? No, im pretty sure you dont. That would be a little embarassing dont you think?

Anyway, My point is, sit and think about your actions…we should all worry less about what children are exposed to than what they are actually doing… get more ivolved in their school work, And let them know early on, This is right, that is worng…. Don’t censor them from it, just let them know that certain words arn’t aloud in your house, that theirs a certain age for everything, so on and so forth.

So there you go…. I don’t know… thats just my opinion… What do you all think?

STOP BANNED BOOKS!

-Giovanni
5 Sindy // Oct 8, 2006 at 9:46 pm

It means that if you have no freedom to publish a book then why make a book in the first place. The rieson you make a book is to have others read it. Am I wrong?
I strongly agree with this because there should be no rieson why people should not have the right to read what they want. I think that if a parent wants to bann a book because it hase too many bad words so thier children wount have to read it. Well, the child will learn about the words one day and I think its better if the child knows from a younger age and that its bad rather than from friends who say them all the time. You cant stop people from wanting to read what they want to read. Some of the books they are banning might be educational for some and people are depriving them of that sertain book. If you dont like what the book contains you dont have to read it, but dont deprive someone eles from reading it. People are always learning a new thing when they read.
I cant think of any ways to maintain freedom right now. BUT, one thing that I can think of is to let everyone have the freedom to read what they want. DON’T BANN BOOKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6 Paravee // Oct 9, 2006 at 12:38 am

I totally agree! In our period 3 class. Mrs. Milis had us do group presentations on a quote that we thought was the most powerful and we picked the exact same quote. This quote is right and true. If a book was not meant to be read then it wouldn’t be published. But if it’s published then that means that it is suppose to be read by others that are interested in the book. People shouldn’t desicde what other people should or should not read. I believe that this quote is great to use against censorship. So basically, if books were published and no one is able to read it then what’s the point of publishing it in the first place?
7 Lindsey // Oct 9, 2006 at 10:08 pm

What i think this quote means is if we are free to publish what we want then what is the point of it if no one can read it. We publish it for people to read it, we don’t watse our time and write something down just for it to be played with or trashed. We write it to make a point for other people can see our point of view. I definately agree with Nora Baines she makes an excellent point. It is the truth whether people like it or not. Our responsibility to maintain freedom is huge we have to maintain not just for us but for everyone. Freedom is a major part of world today.
8 Milis // Oct 10, 2006 at 12:09 am

I think Giovanni had an extremely persuasive arguement. If a parent challenges a book, I will send them here first to read what educated, thoughtful students have said. I’m so proud of you guys.
9 Erika Garcia // Oct 13, 2006 at 2:36 pm

I agree to the quote above because then whats the point of people to write books if they can`t read them. This is a strong point because its obsurd that anyone can take a persons education away it makes no sence. So i totally agree withe the quote stated above.
10 Cristian V. // Oct 13, 2006 at 6:07 pm

Well i feel the quote speaks for itself because it isn’t freedom of speech or Freedom of publish if an author cannot state his or hers opinion on a book without it getting challenged. Although I do understand that some books can be offending and may contain some foul language.
11 Jackie Leonardo // Oct 18, 2006 at 8:18 pm

I strongly agree with Giovanni because all the things he stated were all true and actually do happen in real life. Why do they even hire people to become writers if OTHERS are just going to ban their books? Why do they allow people to go to college to become writers and in the end, not allow people to read their stuff? It just doesn’t make any sense at all. Why do they censor “unappropriate” books when we’re all going to learn about it eventually? We’re growing into mature, young adults and we’re slowly learning about everything whether it’s on sex, race, religion, etc. So it doesn’t matter if you censor books, people learn about it anyway through a different resource and people gossip about it everywhere. It’s seen everywhere in the media, news and whether people like it or not, banned books is hiding the real truth.
12 silina ouzounian // Oct 24, 2006 at 12:56 am

I agree with Giovanni because as he said nora beins is saying that almost every book is going to affect someone and this is one of the books that happens to affect black people. At the same time it’s not only that book other books affect white, and a whole bunch of other races. In some books they may say some racist things, but they don’t really mean. sometimes they jsut say it to entertain people. That what I thik about that quote.
13 Stephanie Scott // Oct 25, 2006 at 2:23 am

Nora Baines was completely valid in saying that “freedom to publish is useless if people are not allowed to read what is published.” It seems almost ridiculous to ban books just because they have a moment of violence, a death, or “inappropriate language.” Most students will be exposes to these things sooner or later, so it seems that it would be better for them to learn about them in a safe classroom environment rather than from television or their friends. As many have said in the postings before mine, it is our responsibility to stop the banning of books to maintain freedom because no matter how seemingly innocent a book is, someone will be able to find a flaw in it and want it to be banned.
14 Rubi Ortiz // Oct 30, 2006 at 6:45 pm

I don’t aree with what she said “freedom to publish is useless if people are not allowed to read what is published” that is pretty ridiculous, i think its really pathetic how they ban books just by something bad they have to say like sex, and bad launguge etc. I think we as responsible teenagers should try to stop banning of books!!

:]
15 Erin Lanagan // Nov 7, 2006 at 2:34 am

I think that the quote by Nora Baines encompasses so much about the issue of freedom of expression and the attempts to supress it in our society. It is not a given in all countries that authors can publish anything they want to…in many places, there is rigid censorship going on to prevent people from being exposed to daring or “dangerous” ideas. We should fight as hard as we can to preserve this right, and it can happen on a very local level like our high schools. It seems so absurd to me that there are people in education who feel that teenagers have to be protected from the realities of the world – how can people learn to solve problems or deal with important aspects of life like sex, racial issues, poverty, for example, when as young adults someone has shielded their eyes from the truth?
And what would it do to a writer’s creative spirit to know that if he or she ventures into ‘prohibited’ territory in a book aimed at young adult readers (or any age, really) they won’t get published? Writers write about the world as they see and experience it, and the whole point of reading books is to open our minds to perspectives and observations that we might never otherwise have realized. This adds to our understanding of life beyond our own experiences, but it can also touch nerves within us and help us know ourselves better.
Everyone should have the right to choose not to read a book they find offensive…but they should not make that decision for anyone else.
16 luke salzarulo // Dec 15, 2006 at 1:54 pm

I am not quite sure this quote is purely a political statement, I think it is more an ideology, or an idea to think about. Yes, Americans have the right to print (just about) anything legally. What this quote is implying is firstly that the power of the press is in the people reading the material, not the actual text which is innate. This quote is a call to conscious literacy on the part of teens and adults. The probelm is not WHAT kids are allowed or not allowed to read…I think we would all agree that the problem is that most youth do not read enough!

The concern should not be on the type of materials that students are using in the classroom, the focus should be on decoding and analyzing messages period-at this point, who cares what the messages are… Students and faculty need to focus energy on these topics and not on whether or not the students are allowed to read “Where’s Waldo?” As long as this is a free country, there will be strange people complaining about books and ruining them for everyone else. If these kids were reading at home and going to the library, would they care? I do not think so. The problem is that most students do not read much of anything outside of the classroom. Let’s focus on getting these students reading before we get distracted with the materials that the students are allowed to read.
17 David Rodriguez Per.3 // Mar 26, 2007 at 10:17 pm

This means to me that, why do we publish a book even though we wont be able to read it. I agree with this quote because if we publish a book and if it gets banned, why did we publish it if we cant read it. Our responsiblities are to let the people choos if th book can be banned.