tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post1786520408007724373..comments2024-03-19T02:14:31.704-04:00Comments on <center>OnFiction</center>: Most Challenged Books of 2010Keith Oatleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16419339550879570935noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post-66025872838802369112011-04-26T12:08:30.912-04:002011-04-26T12:08:30.912-04:00I certainly agree that censorship of cultural prod...I certainly agree that censorship of cultural products (and ideas) is a dangerous road to tread. So, yes, all of this can be quite distressing to think about. On the up-side, it is not clear how many of these books were actually banned; this is merely a list of books that attracted complaint. Certainly, in the case of the more popular books on this list, these complaints did little to affect their distribution and access it would seem. This is likely little comfort when placed next to the overwhelming and omnipresent culture of puritanism that you mention, unfortunately.Raymond A. Marhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07521492403638340957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455277388900637928.post-72920651226182950792011-04-19T13:48:00.567-04:002011-04-19T13:48:00.567-04:00Recently I enjoyed watching the movie adaptation o...Recently I enjoyed watching the movie adaptation of Virginia Woolf's book, "Mrs. Dalloway". I was, however, taken aback by the warning label on the case the DVD came in: "Emotional Elements and Brief Nudity".<br />I've never before seen the phrase "Emotional Elements" --presumably as a warning to parents. Considering that the movie shares with the book something like artistic truth and insight, I don't myself feel any optimism about a system which reacts in that way to cultural achievements. <br />For many years my Slovak students laughed at American puritanism. When you actually live inside the country, it is omnipresent and overwhelming, and it's not very funny. The fact that universities or university towns might sometimes represent small islands of sanity amidst the madness has never been very reassuring to me. If the contributors to "On Fiction" can manage to achieve some distance toward such phenomena, so much the better.formerly a wage slavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16064562730082906589noreply@blogger.com