Censorship Is So 1984: UB Libraries Hosts Banned Books Week

To mark Banned Books Week, the University Libraries asked the campus community to share banned or challenged works that left a lasting impact. From classic novels to contemporary poetry, the responses celebrated the right to read freely. Highlighted below is a snapshot of submissions by UB faculty. Additional reflections are on display in the Lockwood Library second-floor lobby. These books show that restricting knowledge doesn’t protect us — it only limits our vision of what is possible.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Nominated by Claire Schen, Associate Dean and Associate Professor, Undergraduate Education and the Department of History

“Persepolis was my introduction to graphic novels, what Satrapi herself called a “comic” when she spoke at the Babel series in Buffalo in 2009. The spare colors of the comic, expressive features of the characters, and sparse dialogue and descriptions were a revelation to me. Satrapi evokes powerful emotions and thoughts through her limited palate and words. In my “World History to 1500” we linger on the ancient city of Persepolis and its ethnically and culturally diverse history. That the remains of ancient Persepolis were threatened with retaliatory bombing by the United States in the twenty-first century only makes the comic more potent as a tale of freedom and repression.”

Reasons for being banned or challenged: gambling, offensive language, and political viewpoint. Additional reasons: politically, racially, and socially offensive, graphic depictions.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Nominated by Kim Diana Connolly, Professor, School of Law

“Long before it became a popular and beautifully made television series, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood was an important (and frightening) book to me. In college, I even included it in the analysis for my final Women’s Studies paper, highlighting it as a chilling warning about a world that should never exist, in which women were returned to a state of terrible subjugation. Years later, my now-23-year-old child read it in high school, and we had thoughtful discussions about it when its dystopian parallels still seemed impossible. Atwood’s writing is both gripping and prophetic, and this book should remain publicly available in libraries across the country for all Americans to read.”

Reasons for being banned or challenged: profanity, vulgarity, and sexual overtones.

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
Nominated by Elizabeth Bartelt, Clinical Assistant Professor, Community Health and Health Behavior

“My research is and has always been centered on LGBTQ+ youth - this book provides validation, support, and creates space for young people who grow up being told their very essence is not okay. LGBTQ+ youth suicide, mental health conditions, and isolation grows larger when communities are less supportive - this book changes that landscape. And on a personal note: I saw myself in this book in a way I have never seen another text explore. I could not recommend it more for every library and person to read and learn from.”

Reasons for being banned or challenged: LGBTQIA+ content and sexually explicit material.

1984 by George Orwell
Nominated by Helen “Nellie” Drew, Professor of Practice in Sports Law; Director, UB Center for the Advancement of Sport

“First, I wrote about it on my AP English exam in high school, giving the protagonist a Christ complex. At the time (1981), I thought it was dystopian and post-apocalyptic. Now, we are living it. People need to see it, recognize it and resist it.”

Reasons for being banned or challenged: pro-communist and explicit sexual matter.

A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Nominated by Henry Berlin, Associate Professor of Spanish, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

“I still remember the first poem that moved me, “Arrows,” from Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic: “I shot an arrow toward the sky, / It hit a white cloud floating by. / The cloud fell dying to the shore, / I don’t shoot arrows anymore.” Although I couldn’t have put it into words at eight years old, I was amazed by the power of four short lines that made me feel so sad, and I was transfixed by their invitation to live a more thoughtful and compassionate life. The people who try to ban books like A Light in the Attic don’t want you to think or feel. They want your world and your mind to be very small, so that you won’t think twice about shooting the next arrow at the next cloud. Don’t shoot arrows anymore.”

Reasons for being banned or challenged: disobedience and anti-parent material.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Nominated by Janet Werther, Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Theatre and Dance

“I was first introduced to Alison Bechdel's work through her "Dykes to Watch Out For" comic strip series during my master’s program. I read her graphic novel Fun Home voraciously, and Bechdel's description of adolescent neurodivergence (in her case OCD) was just as life affirming for me as her description of coming into queerness in the context of her father's inability to grapple with his own queer desire. My high school teachers assigned many books that frequently appear on banned book lists, though I had no idea at the time. Now, as a queer parent of kids entering elementary school during a time when book banning has become increasingly frequent and queer literature increasingly controversial, I'm even more grateful to those artists and educators who put their names--and in theatre, also their bodies--on the line to support diverse narratives and literature.”

Reasons for being banned or challenged: violence and other graphic images.

Beloved by Toni Morrison
Nominated by Claudia J Ford, Research Professor, Department of Environment and Sustainability

“Banning Beloved, The Bluest Eye, The Color Purple and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings not only attempts the censorship of excellent literary talent and compelling story-craft, it also attempts to censure African American women. Yes, Black women and our narratives are inconvenient to the false story of American greatness and exceptionalism—if you attempt to view it that way. No, we are not going anywhere and our history, no matter how uncomfortable, cannot be erased. I am deeply proud of these books and I will remain so.”

Reasons for being banned or challenged: sexually explicit material, religious viewpoint, and violence.

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Nominated by Damien Keane, Associate Professor, Department of English

“Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot is one of the most famous plays of the twentieth century. Since its first performance in 1953, the Irish author's work has not only played in theaters around the world in a number of languages, but found special resonance in situations of great difficulty, whether in stagings in prison drama workshops, in Sarajevo under siege, or on a ravaged intersection of post-Katrina New Orleans. But one place the text was banned, for no stated reason, for almost two decades: the reading room at the detention camp the United States operates at Guantanamo Bay. The ban was eventually lifted, again for no stated reason, and a copy of the play now sits on the shelves. A victory over censorship or a demonstration of the arbitrary powers that enable it? Still waiting on that...”

Reasons for being banned or challenged: banned by the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in the 1980s due to its themes of existential futility, which were seen as a challenge to the prevailing ideology. Reasons for the initial exclusion at Guantanamo were never stated.

Nickle and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Nominated by Edward Steinfed, SUNY Distinguished Professor (Emeritus), Architecture

“This book provides an inside look at the life of the working poor. It illustrates the impact of a system that exploits and debases workers who do so-called unskilled jobs. It is unbelievable that a book that simply documents direct experiences could be banned. This is an attempt to deny these workers the right to be represented in the conscience of the public.”

Reasons for being banned or challenged: sexism, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group.

Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962 by Yang Jisheng
Nominated by Kristin Stapleton, Professor and Chair of the Faculty Senate, Department of History

“This book is not available except illegally in China. The author, a journalist, meticulously studied the number of deaths that occurred during China's Great Leap famine, the result of seriously misguided policies on the part of the Chinese Communist Party. Many, many people in China lost their loved ones, and some entire villages starved to death. Yang's painstaking archival work and interviews produced the most reliable account of an event that the Chinese government wishes no one remembers or learns about. It is a powerful, almost unreadable book in its depiction of one of the most terrible tragedies in human history. As a historian, I honor Yang Jisheng and his work.”

Reasons for being banned or challenged in China: offered a controversial and detailed account of the famine that contradicted the official Chinese Communist Party narrative by focusing on human agency and misrule rather than natural disasters or external factors.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Nominated by Carrie Gardner, Director, Internships and Experiential Learning, School of Management Career Resource Center

“As a young author and poet, this book changed my entire approach toward writing because of the usage of multiple character perspectives and narratives throughout the story, which provided an emotional texture I had never encountered in other readings. As an adult, going back to read the book again, I was astounded by the power of Addie, the matriarch, and the loyalty and dedication her family demonstrated to grant her last wish. The image of her watching them construct her casket from her bedroom window taught me a great deal about life and death.”

Reasons for being banned or challenged: offensive and obscene passages referring to abortion, using God's name in vain, profanity, and questioning the existence of God.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Nominated by Jessica Huber, Professor and Chair, Communicative Disorders and Sciences

“I read this book for the first time as a junior in college. I immediately fell in love with it. In fact, I read it front to back on a Friday night, so engrossed that I missed my friends coming to get me to go out. I was taken with Janie - her strength and eventual independence from men. The characters came to life off the page through her writing and the use of dialect in the language. Her story was compelling to me. I ended up writing my undergraduate thesis on Their Eyes Were Watching God and Dust Tracks on the Road, comparing Janie's developing voice and independence with that of Hurston in her autobiography. I think this book came to me when I was searching for my independence and my own voice. I felt a real kinship with Hurston and Janie. I have read it many times since then, enough that I am on my second copy. It makes me sad that young women might not find this book because it is often banned.”

Reasons for being banned or challenged: language and sexual explicitness.