You know by now that I’m not just a collector, not just a lover of stuff, but a hoarder — but there is one act of collecting I do not like: When a group of objects is rounded up for the sole intent of being removed from society.

Yup, it’s officially Banned Book Week and I feel compelled to mention it, celebrate it, again.

Under our First Amendment rights our right to free speech protects our right to ideas, and so no book is to be banned from publication or distribution. There are some who say that Star Wars was a commentary on such freedoms, a portrayal of the archetypal political cycles of tyranny and rebellion (and many others see and use Lucas’ films as litmus tests of capitalizm for creatives and legal tests of copyright issues). If enough were to see Star Wars as a threat to our society, then the books, films and action figures would be burned first… But how long before the ban on Luke Pez dispensers would errode your rights to your Kermit Pez?

They came first for the books, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a book collector…

History shows that when books are taken, banned and/or burned in the name of protecting society from ‘bad ideas’ even worse things are on the horizon. The most famous example was in 1933 when books with “unGerman” ideas, including works by Freud, Einstein, Thomas Mann, and H.G. Wells, perished in flames under Nazi salute. But this is not the only example, which is likely why over a century earlier Heinrich Heine said, “Where books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned too.”

Obviously a person who saves empty boxes feels that every object has value — it’s merely awaiting the arrival of an owner who will appreciate it. Books are no different.

Even in sleepy-small-town Winona, Minnesota, there are people want these ‘bad’ works. As Shelley Olsen, co-owner of Winona’s Paperbacks and Pieces, says, “We have customers who come in with the goal of owning every one of them.”

So collect all the ‘outrageous’ books you want — this Banned Books Week and beyond. Just don’t be a Strom Trooper and collect them with the intent to keep them from others.

Should you not like some books, just leave them for those who do.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 6:47 am and is filed under collecting fyi, events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.