The Banning Of The Catcher In The Rye Novels & Stories

The kind that felt like a weapon. 'Stop it,' I told myself. Look at the blonde boy. Look at the safe boy. I wrote the date at the top of my page. February 14th. Valentine's Day. Naturally. *** The class dragged on for another forty minutes. I wrote down words I didn't care about. Elasticity. Equilibrium. Deadweight loss. When the professor finally dismissed us, the room broke out in the sound of zippers and shuffling feet. I shoved the notebook into my bag. Desperate to get out before the recycled air suffocated me.

He began to pace with his drink in his hand. "How do we initiate this without them raising an objection? And if we succeed, how do we single out Hayland and leave the rest?" He said, voicing the challenging part of the situation. Indeed, Hayland wasn't the only territory that an embargo was placed on; Kaizen, Braile, Maines and Tealwood were also banned. Moving to release Hayland might cause others to demand freedom, too. Cains and Grizlo would have been banned, too, but the crime network wasn't widespread in Grizlo and Cains, so they were spared.

“Stop.” “No, seriously.” I wiped my eyes. “In my city? That shit’s straight-up prohibited. Like, banned. You watch that, you get fined. Or worse. Elders think it ‘encourages bad behavior.’ So yeah, I’ve never actually seen it. Never had time anyway…. too busy cramming protocols and dodging my roommates.” He stared at me for a long second. Something shifted in his expression. Not disgust this time. Curiosity, maybe. Or pity. “You’ve never…?”

They light up. Actually light up. Like humor is bouncing around inside them. “Am I right?” I ask. “Or at least close?” He shakes his head slowly. “Not even remotely.” “Fine,” I say. “Educate me. What’s a book ban?” He sighs dramatically, but his eyes are still sparkling. “It’s when a responsible citizen decides to stop buying books for a while,” he explains, “because their bank account is begging for mercy.” “Oh,” I say slowly, glancing at the stack in his arms.

And how had it survived? That thought was disturbing. It was clear based on my own research that packs united on this front; an unprecedented, unanimous front in which there had been little to no debate. They had agreed that Nyllan was an outcast, a threat, and notably, that his entire life’s work should be destroyed. In modern times, this would have been viewed as censorship. Controversial in the extreme. But one hundred years ago? Humans had banned books from their own schools for lesser reasons.

Mia asked and I had to wonder too, after an incident that caused my mom to leave the pack while pregnant with me, wolfs bane was banned from pack grounds, there was a serious punishment if you were caught with it. “We‟ll find out after they get discharged” Britney said and I frowned, it seems mom didn‟t heal them, maybe it‟s part of their punishment. “We really need to find out where they got it” I mumbled, “yeah, we can‟t have teenagers playing around with wolfs bane when it‟s banned from pack grounds” Mia said with a straight face, a face only a Luna on a mission can pull off. “Maybe we can convince our parents to let us interrogate them” Britney said with a little frown.