James Joyce’s much studied novel, Ulysses, was banned in 1918 even before he finished it. It was “liberated” by a U.S. court in 1933. Its initial banishment was due to content thought to be obscene, as in depicting acts of sexual intercourse. Shocking! Sex is a natural biological act. Birds do it, bees do it. Even educated fleas do it, as the song reminds us. Regardless, the prudes are always ready to voice outrage as far as acknowledging it exists. The hypocrisy of such protests, huh? It’s how we all got here, I do believe.
Banning books is a creepy symptom of that saying about history repeating itself. The history of especially the last 10 years has been, for reasonable people — to paraphrase a passage from Joyce’s tome — a nightmare from which they want to wake up. But our national descent into up is down, wrong is right, and might makes right, is ongoing.
In a very similar fashion, the last seven-plus months have been a particular nightmare for reasonable people. Both national parties has succumbed to an upside-down discourse on what is acceptable and what is not. As in, don’t ask for a ceasefire on the part of Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza. To invoke such a seemingly humanitarian desire is somehow a sign of antisemitism. Does writing that last line make me antisemitic?
The court of international law considers the attacks on a huge civilian population a human rights violation. Oct. 7 is now a convenient retort to why the assault must continue. Nonsense! And now Oak Park’s trustees are struggling to find the backbone to officially support a ceasefire.
Why should such a proclamation even be debatable? Sex is a natural act, but killing innocents — including thousands of children, and bombing hospitals and schools — absolutely is not. It is horrific. Our current government is shamefully succumbing to a foreign country’s crimes against humanity. The dissenting segment of our country, even our Oak Park community, who yell “antisemite!” are complicit in this ongoing nightmare.
Will these naysayers demand that future pro-Palestinian books be banned? Right now, I’d say, no doubt.
Joe Harrington
Oak Park