Night

Because the fascist right wing in America is hell bent on turning the United States into a version of either Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Russia, I felt the need to start reading all books being banned by those animals. I read Maus before it won the Pulitzer, and own a copy in hardcover. Pantheon House. I've read The Color Purple also, as well as Huckleberry Finn, 1984, Animal Farm, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Catcher in the Rye, to name a few. But I hadn't read Night by Elie Wiesel.

So read it, this evening. In one sitting. It's only just over 100 pages of text. I got a copy from the library for Kindle, because they don't have a physical copy of it. I find that shocking.

In simple crisp prose, Elie Wiesel portrays his time as a Jewish boy from his home, at the age of twelve, to life in Auschwitz up through Buchenwald, where he was freed. He showed how true that old wives tale is about a frog in a pot of water that is slowly growing hotter and hotter. How it won't jump out until the water is boiling and it's too late.

He does not stint on the denial of Jews leading up to those days...and the horror and despair...and the occasional kindnesses. And the nearly incessant brutality. Small wonder the fascists want this book banned. It points to the evil of their intentions.

I despise censorship. I don't believe in shutting anybody up, so long as they are not calling for the violent overthrow of a democratic government or out to get people killed. So having a governmental body like a school board or city council determine what books shall and shall not be read is the wildest violation of the 1st Amendment I can think of. What's ridiculous is, wealthier people can get around the bans, quite easily.

What's sad is, this will mainly impact kids who don't have ways around them. Middle class children can buy the books or read them on their tablets, iphones or laptops. But kids in poor neighborhoods who don't have access to well-stocked libraries or the tools to work around there not being copies for them to read are left in the cold. So having wealthy white people like Stephen King tell them to find the books themselves reeks of casual privilege.

I've had my books sort of banned...by Amazon, WH Smith and Kobo. But I had alternatives to get them out there and sold. I know this gives me an edge against those who would deny my work. But even though my sex scenes are only about as graphic as what you'd read in a Jackie Collins or Judith Krantz novel, theirs are MF while mine are MM...so I can't get put into libraries.

That's why I howl at censorship and those who would decide for themselves what is right and proper to read. It's what I have to do as a writer.