Uninformed Censors and Harry Potter

One of the things that bothered me the most while reading this article was when it mentioned the school board member who was “the only one who reported actually reading one of the books from the series all the way through.” (DeMitchell). Although the article did not address this particular issue in how it relates to censorship, I always have been surprised at how many authority figures attempt to censor or restrict books without ever actually reading them. I think that this is highly irresponsible, and also might be part of the reason why censorship cases or issues seem to lead right from one to another – how much of the issue is word of mouth and how much is the text itself? If there is this distance from the text, censorship becomes not about the text itself and what it is teaching or the impressions it is making on students, but on the personal beliefs of the readers, which obviously will not always be in alignment. Perhaps at some level controversy over texts and content is inevitable, but it always amazes me how many censors do not make informed decisions or arguments. Censors are worried about the effect that Harry will have on the children who read the books, but I think they should also worry about children seeing them making unfounded arguments.
I also wondered while reading this article how much the censorship surrounding Harry Potter was heightened by “the series’ high visibility.” A lot of the issues that the censors cited, for example, when one board member claimed that Harry breaks rules and is disobedient, and therefore sets a bad example for children, are incredibly common in young adult literature. The argument that “the books might promote disobedience and disrespect for authority” seems weak, especially when one considers so many classic stories in which characters act against the norm or do what is not expected of them. If we prohibited this particular aspect of a story in schools, there would be no coming-of-age novels left. In reading this article I thought of many books I read when I was younger, for example Edward Eager’s “Half Magic” series, that seem to have a lot of the same content and emphasis on fantasy and magic, but because they never reached the same heights of popularity as Harry were never challenged. In some cases, and in the case of the Harry Potter series, I get the sense that the challenges tend to snowball and together cause the controversy.