There’s no question that “Maus: A Survivor’s Tale” — the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust by Art Spiegelman — is a provocative piece of literature.
But does that mean it should be banned, as has happened in some states in recent years?
“The powerful graphic narrative hits young people where they live, it makes them uncomfortable — and that’s a good thing,” said David Lynn ’76, professor emeritus of English and editor emeritus of the Kenyon Review. “I don’t think that we’re doing our young people any service by trying to protect them from the world.”
Lynn will be part of a panel discussion about “Maus,” book bans and the First Amendment on Oct. 7 at the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County’s main facility as part of a slate of local events for Banned Book Week, which takes place Oct. 1-7.
About 200 copies of “Maus” — which touches on themes including religious persecution, surviving Hitler’s regime, mental health and family conflict — are being made available for free to students, faculty, staff and local residents for free at the Kenyon Bookstore and the main library in Mount Vernon as part of a collaboration between the public library and Kenyon’s Office of Community Partnerships. A limited number will be available at certain events.
Other activities at the main library include a lunchtime book discussion about “Maus” on Oct. 3, and a “Countering Book Bans” workshop on Oct. 7, the same day that The Gund’s new Annex in downtown Mount Vernon will host comics drawing workshops for all ages.
Details about these events and more can be found at www.knox.net.
Spearheading the efforts are Jamie Lyn Smith-Fletcher ’96, development and writing program manager for the library, and co-chairs Alyssa Gómez Lawrence ’10, assistant director of community-engaged learning and research in the Office of Community Partnerships, and Debbie Nabubwaya Chambers of Mount Vernon Nazarene University.
The goal of partnering with the local library is to join broadly — not just on campus — with like-minded people in support of freedom of expression, according to Gómez Lawrence, who grew up in Mount Vernon.
“We want to be part of our surrounding community,” she said. “We chose ‘Maus’ this year because it has the potential to introduce graphic novels to a whole new audience while also allowing us to address the trend of silencing diverse stories that is the animating force behind book bans.”
Across the country, book bans are on the rise. PEN America, a nonprofit that works to protect free expression in the United States and that is providing the media sponsorship for the local panel discussion this year, found 1,477 instances of individual books banned in schools across the country, affecting 874 unique titles, from July to December 2022. That’s an increase from 1,149 for the six months prior to that.
The types of books that have been banned span a wide spectrum, and Kenyon interns at the public library are curating a selection of those in the library’s collection for a “Banned Books Tasting” that will be on display Oct. 7.
“An illustrated version of Anne Frank’s diary was just banned in a school district. We have religious and sacred texts that are being banned as well.” Smith-Fletcher said.
And even though the PEN America report included no incidents from this area, Smith-Fletcher stressed that censorship is everyone’s problem.
“What people don’t realize is that these bans that are happening right now are very widespread, and people often don’t engage with an issue until it directly affects them. Book bans are a threat to everyone’s freedom, and it’s incumbent upon all of us to be aware of this sort of crisis of the freedom to read.”