A new moralism is gripping the literary world
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A new moralism is gripping the literary world
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Re: A new moralism is gripping the literary world
#2If anything, such controversies make me want to get a copy of said literature and read it at the first possible instance. Can I call it the Streisand effect? Maybe.
I have an unsubstantiated theory that this moral compassing at the institutional level (like the article mentions) has gathered more steam after the internet went into our phones and thus became highly accessible to the general public.
Re: A new moralism is gripping the literary world
#3So no more Sci-fi Books from the alien point of view?
Re: A new moralism is gripping the literary world
#4If anything, such controversies make me want to get a copy of said literature and read it at the first possible instance. Can I call it the Streisand effect? Maybe. I have an unsubstantiated theory that this moral compassing at the institutional level (like the article mentions) has gathered more steam after the internet went into our phones and thus became highly accessible to the general public.
As long as you are able to do that, is it truly censoring? No ones burning books here. To say the publishing industry is especially censoring today than before is outrageous. The point is that it self censored in the ethnicity and gender of its authors instead of the material.
There’s only one nytimes best seller that can exist about a Mexican immigrant, now do you want that to be written by a white author or a Mexican one? If the white author writes objectively better, why is that? Perhaps encouraging minorities to write about themselves is just one of the methods we can use to solve the social problems these factoids represent?
Oh no! White men can’t write from the perspective of groups they have historically dominated and ruled! Cry me a river!
Re: A new moralism is gripping the literary world
#5> In March 2020, staff at the publishing house Hachette in New York, including employees of Little Brown and Grand Central Publishing, walked out over the planned publication of Woody Allen’s memoir, Apropos of Nothing, because the film director was the subject in the early 1990s of a molestation allegation, for which he was twice investigated without charge. Hachette caved to employees’ demands and canceled the release, which Allen later published elsewhere.
I don't really think defending Woody Allen is a good example of any of the purity politics that was first opened up with, and its use makes me suspicious of the entire essay's goodwill otherwise. It's super weird to rope in "these people don't like white people writing brown protagonists" and "the employees of this company do not want to participate in publishing the nonfiction of a credibly accused child molester".
I think the essay is significantly weakened by conflating the two in any respect.
Re: A new moralism is gripping the literary world
#6It's gripping the entire world.
When things are judged, not by how the author intended, but by the readers interpretation, it's a bad situation.
Re: A new moralism is gripping the literary world
#7So no more Sci-fi Books from the alien point of view?
If it meant an alien race living among us can’t write about themselves, then yes.
Re: A new moralism is gripping the literary world
#8This article is ridiculous. The current wave of book burning, censorship and denunciation is completely different from previous ones, because I support the positions of the mob. I know that this wave of book burnings, censorship and denunciation will lead to a brighter tomorrow.
I should point out that I don't support 100% of the positions of the mob, but I won't say which ones I disagree with because I don't want to be next. The differences I have are minor, and I'm willing to change them immediately if necessary.
Re: A new moralism is gripping the literary world
#9> In March 2020, staff at the publishing house Hachette in New York, including employees of Little Brown and Grand Central Publishing, walked out over the planned publication of Woody Allen’s memoir, Apropos of Nothing, because the film director was the subject in the early 1990s of a molestation allegation, for which he was twice investigated without charge. Hachette caved to employees’ demands and canceled the rele…
I disagree. Living in a free and open society means defending everyone's right to have a voice, and that means defending the free speech rights of those we despise.
Re: A new moralism is gripping the literary world
#10None of this will stop until people stop listening to these puritanical prigs and their endless pronouncements. People have to stop ceding the public square to the most shrill.
Unfortunately, shrill lunacy drives "engagement", so media and social media alike swarm around it.