"...As I've written elsewhere, the the right-wing are censorship vikings and the left wing are censorship ninjas." Author Sherman Alexie. That seems very much like what I have seen in nearly fifty years of being a librarian's husband (both city and school).
The full quote:
My YA novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is one of the most challenged and banned books of the last 20 years. According to the American Library Association, my book was the most banned and challenged book in the United States 2010-2019. (AVI note. It has a paragraph about masturbation in it, which seems to be the main trouble.) So I have more personal experience with the right-wing's vilification of books and writers than just about everybody. But I'm also highly aware of the way the left censors and silences writers. And a lot of this silencing and censoring happens before a book is even published, with sensitivity readers who demand changes based on ever-shifting moral standards and definitions of "triggers" and, more dangerously, by creating an environment where writers silence and censor themselves because they fear professional and personal excommunication. As I've written elsewhere, the right wing are censorship vikings and the left wing are censorship ninjas.
CBC censors me quite often. They really don't like a great deal of what I have to say.
ReplyDeleteA relevant story from academia about censorship in philosophy publishing.
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