Rebecca West On Book Banning

“God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is as indefensible as infanticide.”

— Rebecca West

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8 Responses to Rebecca West On Book Banning

  1. CityIslandMichael says:

    Do you agree thoroughly with this? Does she except libelous books?

  2. red says:

    What do you mean by libelous books? Isn’t that in the eye of the beholder?

    I don’t post stuff just as endorsements, by the way … I just like her clarity of statement, her way of writing.

  3. red says:

    Actually, come to think of it: Yes, I do completely and unequivocally agree with her words. I don’t agree in banning books, period.

    It’s a free society. You don’t like the point of view put forth in one book? Write your own and get it published. I don’t think access to information, access to controversy, access to any literature or any trash should be limited.

    Because if I think one book is terrible – so terrible that I don’t think ANYONE should read it … you can bet that there’s someone on the other side who wants to ban one of MY favorites.

    It’s indefensible, yes indeed.

  4. CityIslandMichael says:

    I mean by libelous a book that details how Sheila A-Stray is a serial child abuser and murderer who buys kittens and puppies so that she can starve them and then make xylophones from their skeletons, i.e., a book that tells lies, especially lies that people want to hear. Not all speech is protected. Libel and slander are punishable by law, most of us would say rightly. Shouldn’t libel laws encompass books?

  5. red says:

    Any book that said I made XYLOPHONES FROM LITTLE KITTEN SKELETONS I would burn myself. In the middle of Barnes and Noble. And then I would dance around the fire.

  6. red says:

    Yeah, I see what you’re saying – but I suppose it would have to be taken in a case by case, and by that I mean – and I suppose you mean, legal basis.

    This already occurs. National Enquirer prints some horribly slanderous thing – a celebrity sues – and sometimes they win.

    The market already supports this.

    Like: when that Reagan mini-series came out and all the conservatives were whining and carrying on – I just didn’t get it. Like: okay, so there’s an INTERPRETATION you don’t like. So make your own damn movie, then, where the man is heroic and lionized!

    But that’s not what Rebecca West is referring to here. I think she’s talking about censorship, and having some higher authority decide what it is the populace should be “allowed” to read.

    If you get my drift.

  7. CityIslandMichael says:

    I get your drift.

    Also, I like that what bothered you wasn’t the serial-child-abuser-and-murderer idea, but the xylophones-from-kittens idea.

  8. red says:

    HAHAHAHA

    Well. I guess murder seems pretty run of the mill. But xylophones from kitty-skeletons REALLY shows a dangerously unbalanced and ritualistic mind.

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