My Essay
I love to read. In my spare time, I devour an assortment of books - some far above my age level, and some far below. So when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone hit the shelves, I was ridiculously excited. As was expected, the book was a huge success. J.K. Rowling became a widely acclaimed author in a matter of days. Mission accomplished, the book was a hit.
Well, as you can imagine, I practically ran to the bookstore to get my own copy - with no luck. Suddenly, Harry had disappeared. I went online to see if I'd gone insane,
but was assured of my sanity when I saw that the book was being sold on BarnesandNoble.com.
So what had happened to all the copies in my town? Here's a shock: it had been banned. Little Harry Potter with his funny little wand and fun little adventures had been deemed unfit for children. And why? Poor Harry was really a blasphemous heathen, bent on exposing kids to unsettling ideas and converting them into demon-revering pagans. That
evil Harry Potter was corrupting kids everywhere, slowly turning them into devil-worshippers. We absolutely had to rid the world of this wretched evil!
Sigh...
Now, I understand that certain books are a bit too, shall we say, unconventional to be read by youths. But banning has careened out of control, if I'm really supposed to believe Harry Potter is the Anti-Christ. When you've become so harsh a judge that you start banning children's books, you know you've gone too far.
Since the invention of the printing press, the media has always pushed itself to the limit, constantly outdoing itself for shock value. All degrees of controversy are the result. This sort of disturbance is necessary to earn even a raised eyebrow, as society becomes so jaded that Marilyn Manson is the norm and video games with genocide are cool.
And to counteract said controversy, there has always been an opposing force in protest against the more liberal forms of media....
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