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Sherman Alexie's avatar

I'm not sure what you mean. It sounds like you're saying the left doesn't ban itself? An overwhelming percentage of the book bannings in the USA are led by conservatives (thought there are certainly plenty of people on the left trying to control what we read, see, and hear). In the past, these conservative banning efforts also included movies, TV, and music. I think of the conservative Christian censorship efforts in the 1970s. On my reservation, the conservative Christian Indians (including my mother!) were throwing books AND albums onto the fires—the literal bonfires! But music hasn't been getting protested by conservatives, even as pretty much every potentially-upsetting song ever written is sitting in that mobile phone jukebox in all of our pockets.

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Claudine Notacat's avatar

What about the “revisions” to books by authors such as Ian Fleming, R. L. Stine, Roald Dahl, and now even Ursula K. LeGuin?

Much more insidious than book burning, IMO, and being perpetrated by purported representatives of the Left.

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Felix Purat's avatar

Just looked it up and...fuck me, they do want to revise Le Guin. Amusing how her son is tiptoeing on a labyrinth of abstract eggshells to justify his actions because of the Roald Dahl backlash. This shows that strong reactions like this work! When many prominent Brits, Salman Rushdie and even the Queen Consort pushed back, it was apparent they didn't see that coming and it embarrassed Penguin. As it should have.

But while Roald Dahl was an opinionated individual liked by everybody despite that, Le Guin was left-leaning. The big irony is that left-wing authors don't have the same protection from their own side, since those conservatives currently outspoken about book revising have little incentive to defend an author associated with gender fluidity in the epoch of drag queen story hour. Nor will left-wing groups like Antifa push back: they couldn't give a hoot about the artistic integrity of literature. It's a sad fate for somebody as amazing as Le Guin.

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

The right can get a book banned after it's published. The left can get a book banned before it's published.

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Felix Purat's avatar

Too true. I hope self-publishing changes that. A balanced literary output is the best, like some European countries have. (particularly France and the V4 countries) Neither "side" needs to burn books because both have a healthy influence in the mainstream culture of their respective countries. Translators into English don't always respect that balance, however.

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Sherman Alexie's avatar

Yup, that's where the left is being culturally totalitarian and subconsciously and consciously camouflaging it as moral(ism).

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