Book View Cafe is observing Banned Book Week with a series of articles. The first post is, “50 Shades of Burning Books” by erotic romance author Marisa Day, responding to the burning of 5o Shades of Gray. “The attempt by any would-be moral elite to control access to ideas, even profoundly icky ideas like women expressing their sexuality in a socially unapproved fashion, is profoundly dangerous.  Because it never happens once.  Sure, it starts with banning depictions of women enjoying recreational sex, but after that it spreads to banning depictions of homosexuality as a normal variant on human behavior (an ongoing effort) or to depictions of racial tension written where kids can see them, (as in the Arizona public schools), or positive depictions of other religions, or political systems.”