How Stephen King became America’s most banned author: “See what all the pissing and moaning is about”
The banning of books has always been a notoriously fascist idea, limiting people’s views of the world and closing people’s minds to many great works of literature.
Ray Bradbury imagined a world where all books were burned when he wrote Fahrenheit 451, although he was hardly working within the realm of fiction. He took inspiration from the Nazis’ staunch banning and burning of books that didn’t suit their ideology, something that still rings true today under Donald Trump’s administration.
Since Trump came to power, the number of books banned in US schools has soared into the thousands, aligning with his view of an America lacking in diversity and inclusion.
Titles ranging from The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood to Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin have been banned in many schools across the country, not because of hardcore pornographic content or graphic violence, which might make their bannings slightly more understandable, but because they present the grim realities of a world where racism, sexism, and homophobia are rife. The government doesn’t want you to think about that, especially not impressionable children, as they try to replicate tried and tested methods.
It’s a sad state of affairs when even JK Rowling‘s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was once accused of promoting the occult and subsequently banned in different parts of the world, even before proof of her transphobia became all too revealing. Additionally, Stephen King has also been subject to plenty of book-banning during his career; he once wrote an essay about it in 1992.
He explained, “Please remember that book-banning is censorship, and that censorship in a free society is always a serious matter, even when it happens in a junior high, it is serious. A proposal to ban a book should always be given the gravest consideration.
“Book-banners, after all, insist that the entire community should see things their way, and only their way. When a book is banned, a whole set of thoughts is locked behind the assertion that there is only one valid set of values, one valid set of beliefs, one valid perception of the world. It’s a scary idea, especially in a society which has been built on the ideas of free choice and free thought.”
Years later, King can now claim “the most banned author in the United States” title, where 87 of his stories have been banned across certain schools and institutions in America, preventing easy access to his work. “May I suggest you pick up one of them and see what all the pissing and moaning is about? Self-righteous book banners don’t always get to have their way. This is still America, dammit,” he continued on X.
Many of King’s classics have been banned, particularly in the Florida district, with popular titles like The Shining, It, The Green Mile, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and The Long Walk, which has recently been turned into a film, facing the dreaded stamp.
In his 1992 essay, he further elucidated that his job is forever going to be writing new tales, and if he spends too much time preoccupied with advocating for his own written words, he will lose out on precious time to build and maintain his legacy. It is true of a man who’s spent so much time being read and prolific in his career that he doesn’t need to bother himself with state-sanctioned ill-moves.
However, he does believe in the fight against censorship overall, noting in the same essay, “Do I believe a defense should be mounted? Yes. If there’s one American belief I hold above all others, it’s that those who would set themselves up in judgment on matters of what is ‘right’ and what is ‘best’ should be given no rest; that they should have to defend their behaviour most stringently. No book, record, or film should be banned without a full airing of the issues.”
