Book bans often carry a whiff of desperation.
The powers that be assume that suppressing a text will suppress its ideas, but history tells a different story: the harder you clamp down on a text, the more resourceful readers become.
America’s recent wave of censorship throughout its schools and libraries is a case in point. Like other examples of censorship, this suppression is symptomatic of a conservative overreaction to a changing society.
Stephen King – leader of the banned
Take Stephen King, for example. According to PEN America’s 2024-25 “Banned in the USA”report, the master of horror was the most-banned author in the US, with 206 instances of his works being restricted, across 87 titles, in that academic year. Most of these bans are concentrated in several US states, namely Florida, Texas, and Tennessee.
Many of these bans are pre-emptive. Libraries and school boards are removing titles “just in case” of outcry, and not in response to complaints. This reveals the true ideological panic behind the moves. Classics like Carrie or The Stand are under fire not for their supernatural contents or because of any real threat to readers, but often because they deal with transgressive ideas and themes, or deal with more sensitive ideas, often around gender, race, and sexuality.
Of note here is the popularity of the author in question. Stephen King is one of the world’s most famous and prolific authors. That a writer of such stature should become a target underscores how these bans are less about the content of the work and more about asserting control in a culture war.
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By GlobalDataThe Uncensored Library
As history teaches us, despite the breadth of the bans, the texts often survive. For centuries, readers have found loopholes, from smuggled books to illegal reproductions. In today’s technological and online world, it is almost impossible to ban a book completely, and digital formats make accessing content much easier.
One particularly ingenious way of sidestepping restrictions is the “Uncensored Library” in Minecraft. Built by Blockworks and compiled by Reporters Without Borders, it is a virtual library inside a Minecraft server, housing hundreds of previously banned or censored journalistic texts. Even in countries with the heaviest media restrictions, Minecraft often remains accessible, making this server a clever and simple way of bypassing these restraints.
This is not a quirky exception, either; it demonstrates that when an authority attempts to restrict ideas, creative distribution methods follow. If you ban physical books in libraries and stores, people will trade existing paperback copies, share PDF versions, or post excerpts online. If you shut down a website, people will use virtual private networks (VPNs) or proxies to reach it.
Ultimately, the big risk around bans is that they make the banned material more alluring. Banning books and texts draws attention to the very thing those responsible for the ban want to hide. For many, a banned book becomes the one they want to read most.
The wider takeaway
Bans reflect a broader shift in politics. Globally, factions of the right have moved towards a kind of moral puritanism, policing speech and art, as well as education, personal identity, and morality. Against this backdrop, books that deal with sexuality and gender identity, race, historical injustice, and transgressive ideas become potential threats to the social order.
This becomes especially apparent when considering the states where most of these bans are in place. The political leaders in Florida, Texas, and Tennessee have strict cultural agendas, and school boards and libraries will try to toe the line. The result is books being banned out of fear, not because of any real concerns.
Ultimately, bans are performative, sending the message that the powers that be can control what you read and consume. But as history shows us, this message is usually hollow. Readers will find gaps and loopholes, often online, and the bans will fall short. The Uncensored Library is just the latest reminder that important ideas will eventually find their way out into the world. And often, the more you try to bury it, the bigger it grows.
