Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body. ( ) it is done in a variety of ways, and by many different groups of people. It can be done to books, movies, shows, music, radio, internet, and even speech.

There are different kinds of censorship. Things can be censored because of morals, by the military, the government, faith, or even corporations. When morals are concerned, it is often things that a majority of people find objectionable or wrong that get censored, such as pornography. Military censorship is used to protect military intelligence from the enemy, such as tactics, plans, and locations. Political censorship is when the government holds information from the citizens. This is done to prevent anything that might form a rebellion. Religious censorship is when people of certain faith systems don’t agree with a material that is objectionable and they remove it, such as another religion’s work. Finally, corporate censorship is when a corporation edits or removes anything that could project the company negatively.

One thing I noticed that was frequently banned was fantasy books. Books that had to do with the supernatural, such as vampires, werewolves, witchcraft, etc. Most often these things are banned for religious reasons. The two I decided to focus on were vampires and witchcraft.

Vampire-like creature stories have been told all around the world for centuries. For example, in Ancient Babylonia they had tales of Lilitu, who was a demon that lived by drinking the blood of babies. There are also some creatures in Greek and Roman mythology that have many vampire-like traits. Empusa was the daughter of the goddess Hecate, and was described as a demonic, bronze-footed creature who feasted on blood by transforming into a young women and seducing men as the slept before feasting on their blood. ( ) Early on in Europe, vampires took on some very Christian-like traits. They were beings that died and returned with life from the grave, very much like the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but as Christianity spread throughout Europe, the Christian church decided to reinterpret the story of the vampire into minions of Satan that came back to corrupt Christians. Which brings be to why vampires as a subject in books are often banned. They are still believed by some people to be evil creatures who are sent by the devil, for this reason many parents of very religious families do not want their child exposed to such evils.

Moving onto witchcraft, a witch practices witchcraft or magic. Early on sorcery became associated with the devil. People became so afraid of witches that witch-hunts began happening. Thousands of accused “witches” were killed, as well was tortured, imprisoned, or cast out. The majority of the accused were women. It is this association with the devil and belief that they will harm people that has caused the banning of books having to do with witches.

The book I read is called Dead To The World by Charlaine Harris. It is the fourth book in the Southern Vampire Series. These Books inspired the very popular television show on HBO called True Blood. This particular book follows the main character of the series, Sookie Stackhouse, who is a telepath, as she tries to protect her friend(and vampire) Erik Northman. Erik has had a spell cast on him causing him to lose his memory. This spell was cast by a group of witches lead by a women named Hallow. However, these witches aren’t ordinary witches. They are also werewolves who are addicted to V(which is vampire blood, and the most popular drug on the streets.) V makes the user very strong, and extremely difficult to