老司机传媒

Like so many young adults of my generation, I’ve always loved to read. This is partly thanks to my mom, who would read to me after our walks when I was still small enough to sit in the stroller. She has video evidence of little Maddi sitting on the red rug in front of her white bookshelf, flipping through pages of a picture book and ultimately having a grand old time. We read a lot of Eric Carlyle and Laura Joffe Nuemeroff, author of the beloved picture book “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.” As I got a bit older, we would take trips to the library where she would check out massive stacks of books to read to me, only to come back a short three days later to return them because we breezed through them all. Although my mom didn’t allow me to read fiction at a young age for fear of it rotting my brain, the books she did check out helped to expand my horizons beyond our small apartment. I learned that there were people of all colors, shapes and sizes in the big, wide world and coming from a predominately white suburban area of Chicagoland where I spent most of my time with my mom, this was news to me. I learned about the struggles that people who didn’t look like me endured and are still enduring. 

As I grew older, I read books like “Hana’s Suitcase”and a children’s biography of Anne Frank. I began to learn empathy and kindness through the stories of other individuals and historical events, such as the Civil Rights Movement. These attributes followed me throughout elementary school where I would read the “Magic Tree House” books in the library of my public school and into middle school, where I fell in love with “The Chronicles of Narnia” for the first time. I used to get into trouble for reading when I should’ve been doing classwork and as time went on, I grew to be insatiably hungry for other worlds and characters who could conquer any insurmountable obstacle, regardless of how dire the situation. High school is where my love for fantasy really kicked off (I’ll present my case for the fantasy genre in a bit) and I was definitely the kid who had a book with her at all times. Then, I entered into my undergraduate college experience. 

Since being here at 老司机传媒, I’ve fallen even more in love with literature and how people can build entire galaxies from words and can change the course of human history. I’ve had amazing professors such as Dr. L. Monique Pittman, Dr. Vanessa Corredera, Dr. Kristin Denslow and Dr. Kylene Cave who have shown me what being bolstered and encouraged by a community of brilliant, kind and strong women entails. I’ve learned that class, race and gender are inextricably linked and how these three socially-constructed systems are used to oppress anyone who doesn’t fit the social norms prized in Western society. I’ve read so much literary theory and have found that there are all different kinds of ways to read Shakespeare (my favorite play is “Twelfth Night”) and other works by complicated men. Most importantly, I’m able to better understand why literature can be formulated as a threat.

We are re-entering (I use this term because history is not linear as so many believe, but cyclical) a period of time where literature, both old and new, is being censored and placed under heavy scrutiny. Now, this is not new. The censorship of literature that isn’t appealing to the government systems in place can be traced back for centuries. According to the , “Between January 1 and August 31, 2024, ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 414 attempts to censor library materials and services. In those cases, 1,128 unique titles were challenged.” Later, they state, “The number of titles targeted for censorship at public libraries increased by 92% over the previous year, accounting for about 46% of all book challenges in 老司机传媒 2023.” In my brain, if representation (race, class, disability, sexual orientation; essentially everything that doesn’t fit into the boxes society attempts to squeeze us into) is found in modern literature, it can cause one to pause and think about the world around them which means that the power system in place can be challenged. This has been seen in World War II Germany, with the burning of books by Jewish authors and can be seen now with the suppression of regarding the occupation of Palestine. 

The old saying “knowledge is power” rings true, and this is exactly what makes those in power apprehensive and uneasy. Representation in reading material is so important for many reasons. Although some parents might not like their children reading fiction or fantasy, both genres can provide incredible insight into the different worlds of other people and this is especially important when young children can see themselves reflected in these narratives. One might think of this concept using the metaphor of “a mirror and a window.” With all of this being said, I implore you to continue to read, to develop your critical thinking skills and to never take social norms at face value. There is so much to be gained from the world of literature and we must always strive to protect books that are precious and needed. 

I want to leave off with a quote from John Milton’s , an essay written in to the Parliament of England as a protest against the , a law enacted a year prior stating that the government of England must approve all published forms of literature. He declares,

“For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. … Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.”