The Good Earth Revisited

If you are like me, you had only a handful, if that, of really memorable teachers in your lifetime. Teachers that excited you about learning. They usually had a unique way of presenting material and most of all they loved teaching. My sixth grade teacher, Miss. Gilbert was that kind of teacher. I had her sister for first grade. They were both exceptional. And, of course, you never forget the person that introduces you to a favorite author.

I'd always been a reader. My father read everything in sight, including our set of encyclopedias and anything I brought home from school or the bookmobile. So, it was natural for me to be curious when Miss Gilbert began telling us about an author who had Christian missionary parents and grew up in China. She had me right there. A far away land, a girl who's life was changed because of circumstances. What would such a girl have to teach me? What adventures could I live through her that I would never otherwise know? Her name was Pearl S. Buck. The Good Earth was more than I dreamed it would be.

Later when I was in my teens and lived in closer proximity to a public library, I went on to read every book of hers I could find. I believe she wrote over a hundred books. I'm sure I never read them all. However, now that I've revisited my old friend, Pearl S. Buck, I think I should have a full collection of her works in hardback. I checked on Amazon and saw that I could purchase a first addition of The Good Earth from $25.00 to $165.00 depending on the condition. It may be some time and a lot of birthday and Christmas wishes to complete the set.

As I opened the soft bound version, I own, of The Good Earth to a random page, I began to read.

Only a few of the beans did Wang Lung hide in his own hand and these he put into his own mouth and he chewed them into a soft pulp and then putting his lips to the lips of his daughter he pushed into her mouth the food, and watching her small lips move, he felt himself fed - Pearl S. Buck (page 85, The Good Earth).

(Interesting that I should find this passage after previously writing about my own father's words, from his lips, feeding me. When life gives us synchronicity we should pay attention)

I loved this book, The Good Earth, and checked it out of the bookmobile three times. I look back and see, even at eleven years of age, that spark that is still me, but expanded and grew richer because of such books.

Fast forward to twenty-five years later, I'm walking through a strip mall to one of my favorite bookstores in Bend, First Chapter Books. I see in their window case a large grouping of books with a sign above that says, "Banned Books Take Freedom From All of Us." Each book had a small paper introduction in front of it that said, "Banned." Yes, right in the middle of the window was The Good Earth. I started counting backwards from 100 as I always do when in public and I feel the tingle in my chest, the stiffness of my shoulders and the tears welling up in my eyes.

Someone is always trying to squelch someone else's freedom of speech. It's nothing new. It doesn't just happen someplace else, it happens everywhere. These are some of the books that have been banned or challenged at one time.

Ulysses by James Joyce was banned from the United States for fifteen years and was seized by the US Postal Service from 1918 to 1930. The ban was lifted in 1933 after advocates fought for the right to publish the book.

Fanny Hill has been frequently suppressed after it's publication in 1749. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared it from obscenity charges in 1966.

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman's famous collection of poems was withdrawn in Boston after the District Attorney threatened prosecution for explicit language in some of the poems.

The Rights of Man, Thomas Paine was indicted for treason in England for this work which defended the French revolution.

The Call of the Wild by Jack London was banned in Italy and all of his work was later banned in Yugoslavia - as being too radical.

Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley was banned in South Africa for being indecent, objectionable and obscene.

The Bible and the Quran were both banned from the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1956.

Lady Chatterley's Lover ran through numerous obscenity trials in both the UK and US into the '60s.

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were banned the Concord, MA library. There have been many suits and parental complaints regarding these books remaining in school libraries.

The list goes on and on - The Merchant of Venice, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Gone With the Wind, Silas Marner, Grimm's Fairy Tails, Origin of Species, Catch 22, Catcher in the Rye, Fahrenheit, Flowers in the Attack, From Here to Eternity, Grapes of Wrath, Lord of the Flies, Pentagon Papers, Search for Truth in History, Waco the Davidian Massacre, Bridge to Terabithia, Death of a Salesman, East of Eden, several of the Harry Potter books, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Little Red Riding Hood, Of Mice and Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Prince of Tides, Ordinary People, Tarzan and the Apes, The Chocolate War, The Color Purple, To Kill a Mockingbird, Doctor Zhivago, and many, many more.

Book banning is still happening today. Here are some of the books that have been banned within the last year.

The Da Vinci Code was banned in Egypt. They ban any book that may insult any religion. It was also banned in Iran.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou was banned from the sophomore advanced English class of Fond du Lac, WI due to Angelou's description of her rape. This book has been removed from any school reading lists and libraries. (Interestingly, this was another book I was introduced to by my sixth grade teacher - and one of my favorites).

And Tango Makes Three about two male penguins who raise an egg together. Based on a true story. Banned from the children's section at two libraries in MO, pulled from four elementary schools in NC.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakban, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone said to promote witchcraft. Challenged in Bend (OR), Cedar Rapids (ID), Salamanca (NY), Whittier (CA), Arab (AL), Fresno (CA), Bristol (NH), Cedarville (AR), Gwinnit (GA), Russell Springs (KY), Ontario (Canada), Santa Fe (TX), banned in Queensland, Australia

Personally, I feel strongly that books should not be censored/have parts removed, be banned or burned. Books like The Good Earth, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, To Kill a Mockingbird, although may have controversial subject matter, gives us an opportunity to teach and learn where no other way might be possible. Books are written in a way that allows time to stand still. We can't change the way people were treated, the language they used or how they saw the world at any given time. Censoring, banning or burning books will not erase history or the spirit of the person who wrote them.