Read a banned book today and celebrate free speech.

How is your Banned Books Week going? Agata Popęda here, with a reminder to pick up and read something controversial this week. This exciting tradition dates to 1982, when the American Library Association organized the campaign in response to a surge in the number of book challenges in libraries, bookstores and schools.

This year, Banned Books Week started on Oct. 5 and will last until tomorrow, Oct. 11. With the ongoing political assault on arts and culture by the current administration—the attack on the independence of American universities, the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution—the idea of a “banned book” becomes less of a symbol, but a disturbing reality. (PEN America has documented nearly 23,000 book bans in American public schools since 2021.)

Politics aside, local institutions are still committed to the free flow of information. Monterey County Free Libraries branches are displaying once-banned titles this week, and encouraging visitors to share their favorite banned books. I recently revisited Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller, mainly because I’m currently writing a story about Miller—see the Oct. 16 issue of the Weekly—for the occasion of a large Miller conference starting Oct. 16 at Asilomar Conference Center, “Henry Miller in the 21st Century.” 

It’s hard to believe now that Miller (1891-1980) had to wait almost 30 years after his Paris-released Tropic of Cancer was finally published in the United States. The book, circulating in artistic circles since its 1934 publication in France, had been considered “obscene” in the conservative America of the 1940s and 1950s. In 1937, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the book not only from publication, but also from importing it into the country due to its overly explicit erotic themes. The ban was lifted in 1964. It is now considered by many critics and readers to be one of the most important books of the 20th century.

The novel is set in Paris, where Miller lived after abandoning his conventional life in New York. It depicts the world of Parisian bohemia and people on the fringes of society. The author often touches on erotic themes, using explicit, almost vulgar language—for example depicting his meetings with prostitutes. 

Throughout his life, Miller defended this and his other books, explaining that being honest in sexual matters was important to his self-liberation as a writer and a human being. His conviction was it’s important to say it all, to not omit any parts of reality, even if ugly. He considered the assault on his works an affront to fundamental values of artistic liberty—and free speech. 

What are you reading this week?