Forbidden Books
Books are very dangerous. It's a virtual death sentence to posses, read and talk about some books.
With all that’s going on these days with politically correct language and thought-control, and hyperbolic racist consciousness and policing in society, it would be impossible to talk about (not to mention teach) the important Quebec separatist manifesto White Niggers of America (Oxford, 1968) by Pierre Vallières (1938 - 1998). I have a copy. I've read it. I imagine in Canada today I could be reprimanded at my work for having a copy, and maybe even fired for discussing it - especially on today’s various social media. I would never be allowed to speak its title on a broadcast or in a lecture. But if I want to study my country I must learn about indigenous people; I must learn about European colonization and settlement; and, I must learn about Quebec’s history and Quebec separatism - which included reading and talking about White Niggers of America.
It's like Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (1988) that earned Rushdie a fatwā calling for his death, issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Supreme Leader of Iran, on February 14, 1989. I have a copy of that, as well. I also own a copy of the commonly outlawed The Anarchist Cookbook (1971), Mein Kampf, Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book, and The Communist Manifesto, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. I also own and have read several times Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which is a perennial favorite of book-banners, and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), too. It’s easy to imagine how the Bible could be next. So, books are dangerous, especially used books, which are less traceable because they have no designated owner and an itinerant nature that defies control.
Finally, words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking. Words should assault you. And, if you are offended - if your feelings are hurt - so what? Censorship is motivated by a desire to control. It’s unseemly in a democracy. As for forbidden words - there are no bad words. As long as a word means what it says, it’s a good word. How people feel about word meanings is their own problem. I mean, it's less a problem of language than of psychology. One doesn't throw away words, because they might be useful some day.