Can you imagine that famous novels like The Da Vinci Code and Harry Potter series belong to the list of banned books?
However such books are, from time to time, brought to the people's attention by various actions.
In Kassel, Germany, the art exhibition documenta 14 is displaying a replica of the Greek Parthenon made of steel, plastic sheeting, and over 100,000 banned books.
Built behind the Fridericianum museum, where Nazis burned some 2,000 books as part of their “Campaign against the Un-German Spirit” in 1933, this is considered as “a symbol of opposition to the banning of writings and the persecution of their authors,” a kind of celebration of the written word and its threat to those in power.
The artist behind the project, Marta Minujín, has used banned books in her work: in 1983, she built El Partenón de libros after the fall of the U.S.-supported military junta in her native Argentina. This Parthenon featured all of the books that the junta government had banned. After five days, Argentinians were encouraged to take titles from the installation and bring them home.
In preparation for the installation in Kassel, the art festival requested that authors, publishers, and individuals donate their banned books. With the help of professors and students from the University of Kassel, a list of 70,000 banned books was compiled. It includes titles like Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Alchemist, The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity, The Poet in New York, The Sorrows of Young Werther, The Metamorphosis, The Satanic Verses, and The Grapes of Wrath.
Have you read any of the books mentioned in the list above? Do you consider them dangerous?
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