by Jessica Walters

Listen to the story!

The question of whether to ban a book was raised recently to the Anchorage School District in Alaska. The book "The House of the Spirits," written by Isabelle Allende, was challenged by James Gedeites after his son was assigned to read the book in Bartlett High School's AP Literature and English class. The book, which is used in several other Anchorage schools to fulfill requirements for magical realism, female authors and Latin American literature, is an autobiographical novel based on Allende's tragic experiences under the rule of Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet.

James Gedeites and his son Daniel challenged the book for its use of explicit language, violence, and sexual descriptions. Although Daniel was offered, and chose to read, an alternate book in his AP class, he and his father felt "The House of the Spirits" is inappropriate for all students at the high school level and wanted it removed from the Anchorage School District reading list. At the school district hearing, Chad Armstrong, another Anchorage high school student, listed his personal reasons for wanting the book removed.

"The images that were put inside my head when I was reading about the rape scene, I don't think I will ever be able to get those back out," said Armstrong. "It was completely horrible reading about it, and then to have it put images in my head while I was reading it completely abhorred me, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

Several former graduates of the Anchorage School District came to testify to keep the book on the reading list. Michelle Soaper said the book and others like it are a valuable resource.

"It is important to learn about atrocities that have taken place," said Soaper. "Of course, we are all very familiar with the Holocaust and if we don't talk about it, if we don't condemn it, if we don't see what's led up to it, then we are more doomed to repeat that process and not intervene when we should."

Cheyenne Alabanzas, a senior at Bartlett High School, agrees that even with objectionable material, books provide important insights.

"My English teacher always emphasized that the main objective of teaching that particular book, or poem is to educate people make us understand what the author is trying to say," said Alabanzas.

Debates like this are nothing new. As early as 1783 under the Comstock Law, officially known as the Federal Anti-Obscenity Act, the mailing of works containing "lewd", "indecent", "filthy" or "obscene" material was banned. At the time, such works included Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" and several editions of "The Arabian Nights." In perhaps the most ironic situation of book banning, "Fahrenheit 451," a futuristic book about a society where all printed material is banned, was removed from a Mississippi reading list in 1999.

Natasha Tanaka, a senior at Bartlett High School, believes decisions like this are wrong, and feels that banning books from the public is a bad idea.

"I think book banning is wrong and just because a book has words and some mild inappropriate scenes it shouldn't be banned." Tanaka said. "You just learn people's views and differences, well you just have to put your own view aside and see what the author's actually trying to get through in the story, but I'm pretty sure a book is not directing towards somebody without a purpose, or without an in-between the lines story."

Inappropriate scenes are just what James Gedeites was worried about when his son read "The House of the Spirits." He suggested alternatives to reading the book.

"I wouldn't be opposed to showing the movie of the book as long as the nudity it does contain is edited before showing it to the children," Gedeites said.

While scenes containing nudity can be easily identified and taken out of a movie, objectionable material is harder to classify and remove from books. Anne Morgester, an ASD librarian, believes that because written material can be interpreted differently by readers, there should be greater consideration when limiting books to a certain age group.

"So much of what goes into a book is what you read into a book. When you are talking about a movie what they are talking about is what's actually said, actually visible, on the screen, and that's not really what you do with a book," said Morgester. "A book is a much more rich and extensive activity, and I think it would be really difficult to make those kinds of ratings that were not subjective to a particular group."

Although most book-challengers do so with good intentions, protecting people from horrific images, explicit language, and discriminating views, Ms. Morgester believes that no matter the reason for book censorship, banning a book deprives others of their basic rights. She also says that books are a key part of our society.

"I just think that books on the one hand can be very dangerous, because they have ideas, and on the other hand they are very necessary to a democratic society, that if you don't have an open exchange of ideas, you don't have a democratic society, and that's what we need to have," she said. "There may be some situations where removing a book from a particular group is appropriate, but we should not decide that for entire populations."

After numerous testimonials, the Anchorage school board voted to keep "The House of the Spirits" on the reading list, for now.