Ban Banning Books

Censorship has no place in the literary world. In certain circumstances, some restrictions are required to limit access by certain age groups to reading or viewing potentially offensive content, pictures and video. However, in the case of books or simple text, censorship is unnecessary. While some strong words may be offensive to readers, Vonnegut uses profanity to intensify the narrative in Slaughterhouse 5, to make the situations he is describing more realistic and to reveal specific traits of various characters. Profanity is commonplace in the vernacular of a large cross-section of people and while it may be considered vulgar by some, Vonnegut's incorporation of profanity into his writing is essentially an art form and for these reasons  I support its use in the novel. In my opinion art should never be censored. In those rare cases in which the content may offend people, instead of banning a book maybe its circulation should be restricted, thereby maintaining its access by all those others who would enjoy reading it. It is rather cavalier to censor a writer's work and prevent it from publication because it includes some unacceptable words or phrases. Censorship of this kind minimizes the author's work focusing on a few words and ignoring the bigger picture of the remaining content,not to mention the time and effort that the author devoted to the development of his work. Ultimately, each individual always has the option not read a book, not to listen to music or not to watch a video that he or she deems offensive.Censorship dampens freedom of expression and free will. Books were not written to be banned so why do we do it?