The Ban on Knowledge

For this weeks journal entry I did some research on a rather controversial topic that has been relevant for thousands of years. Books. I know I was surprised too. Although literature is not the kind of controversy people are used to today like immigration policies or hate crimes, books are a significant source of controversy. I found famous classics that have been deemed illegal in some place in the world with famous names like John Steinbeck and Kurt Vonnegut. In fact one banned book I recently read was actually The Complete Persepolis. As an English class we went over this book and someone or some group in the world thinks it deserves to be censored and taken off of shelves. They do not think it is suitable literature accusing it of such crimes as adult themes or "explicit" substances like alcohol. Or it could be banned for something as small as conveying a negative theme like sadness or depression. While many think they are protecting society from dangerous literature, this censorship of knowledge seems to only remind me in other times in history such as Nazi Germany and the Communist Revolution in China. In my own opinion there is no good reason for destroying or hiding literature.