Freedom to Savor the Salacious and Sample the Staid

I went to see my cousin's CofC class production of the play, Quills.  The play is about the Marquis de Sade and is quite provocative.  It was made into a movie starring Geoffrey Rush.  It brought to mind discussions I had in library school with fellow students about censorship and "thought crimes".  Banned Books Week starts tomorrow, too, so the subject of intellectual freedom is at the forefront of my mind.

Personally, I don't think that knowing and thinking about things is the same as doing them.  Thought crimes don't exist in my world.  Even thoughts/concepts that may be unpleasant to me are fodder for books, articles, and discussion.  I believe people should be free to think and write about anything they like as long as they are not planning or inciting crimes.  Not everyone agrees with this and I do find hateful pundits to be extremely unpleasant but I think that holding the ideal of intellectual freedom above all my personal inhibitions and preferences is essential for my practice as a public librarian. 

To paraphrase Ranganathan, "Every book its reader and every reader its book."  Yes, indeed!

Picture from http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/23/115523-004-FA619CA3.jpg .  Accessed 12/8/08.