Books Worth Dying For

Is a book worth dying for?

Perhaps a better question might be, “what makes a book worth dying for?”, since a long list of men and women throughout history, both famous and obscure, have died for a book. Looked at in a certain light, it seems profoundly irrational, or at least profoundly un-Darwinian, which is what makes it such an interesting question for me. For a long time I've been fascinated by certain uniquely human passions that are as difficult to describe scientifically as they are undeniably compelling. What is it about music that stirs us so powerfully? Why do we inhabit imagined worlds in stories and film so eagerly? And, getting back to my initial question, what makes a book worth dying for?

It seems to me there are two things that make people willing to die defending or disseminating a book: either the ideas it contains or a commitment to the universal right of other people to read it. The first is more obvious. People have often proven willing to die in defense of a compelling idea that gives their life meaning. But if you boil it down the book itself is really just the vessel for the idea. In most cases any vessel would suffice, as long as it preserved and spread that idea efficiently. The second is more elusive. Some few individuals who have died in defense of books seems to have been doing so more in defense of what access to that book represents than what it specifically says. Namely, freedom. Not just the freedom of the author to say what he or she will, but the freedom of every person to bring themselves face to face with challenging ideas on their own terms, to wrestle with them, to accept or reject them as they will, regardless of whether or not that process is convenient to those in power.

Taking it out of the philosophical realm:

I believe that 12 year olds in Quattar should be able to read cartoons and comics from America.

I believe high school students in Boise, Idaho should be able to read blogs and diaries written by their peers in Syria.

I believe that citizens in Myanmar should be able to read CNN and BBC, even if those networks are reporting unfavorably on the abuses their government keeps inflicting on them.

I believe that farmers in the Chinese heartland should be free to carry on an email dialog with their counterparts in France without fear of the government punishing them for the tone of their questions.

On October 6th in 1536, William Tyndale was publicly strangled and then burned at the stake for insisting that every man, woman, and child in England had the right to read the bible in their own language, even as King Henry VIII was fighting viciously to consolidate religious control in his own hands. In high school I was taught that Tyndale was a martyr because he died in defense of the bible. That is certainly true. But I believe Tyndale would deserve that title if he had died defending the people's right to read a one act comedic play. When it becomes a question of the freedom of information and expression, either every book becomes one worth dying for, or none of them are.