I am falling down a rabbit hole lately; I feel like I am chasing approval, because there are many issues being raised within the book review and writing community which state certain likes and dislikes regarding various ideologies or classic works of the past – that seem to clash with my own work.
What I mean to say is, I am discovering as time is going on that the Western World is becoming increasingly intolerant to many subjects that is severely stifling not only personal freedoms of speech, but creativity – society is going on a big ban of almost everything collective mind-set, which is dangerous because, intolerance is suffocating the world.
Yes, OK, I understand that certain subjects in literature can be triggering, but you can’t keep sweeping things under the carpet – these things go on in the world and did go on in the world, yes the world changed, but to lock it all away and forget it is dangerous – dangerous because history will repeat itself if it is forgotten.
Yes certain subjects like suicide, rape and violence are horrific and should never ever be glorified, but to ban literature for having those themes will simply make these things manifest further underground and we really don’t want to make things go more underground – these things need to be exposed and these things need to be remembered.
For me personally, my rape and sexual abuse was absolutely horrible and I don’t think I could ever have got over it, if I had not have read other people’s biographical accounts of what happened to them! It made me feel less alone and understood, before I read those books, I felt like nobody really understands what it is like to be a rape victim.
Same with suicide, if the literary works that contained suicide scenes and biographies of those going through that dark mental state had been banned, I would never have learned to cope with my own dark thoughts – I would have literally have been left in the dark…
Books such as Mein Kampf have been banned in many countries over the years and I have read this book, because I wanted to know why he hated certain people so much. It did not make me sympathise with him in anyway whatsoever, but it enlightened me to the true horrors of the war with its depths and behind the scene snippets.
There is another book I read called The Women of Hitler, which again, mentioned events that I had no idea went on during the war – it is an eye opener and the scariest thing I have ever read. The idea that a woman could do the things that they did to babies, it goes against feminine nature. Absolutely no words can describe how this book made me feel… more than just shocking… I really don’t know what word can describe more than shock for the description of how I felt reading this book! It is more than horror, for no horror book could ever top what is mentioned and described in this book!
Having very close Jewish blood, it makes me understand why over half the members of my family in my great grandmothers generation decided to become Catholic and pretend that they were never Jewish – this startled many Jewish families into going into hiding on a permanent basis.
My mother is still terrified about anti-Semitism still existing in the world today, that she begs that I never mention my ancestral past, but I won’t do that. I am not ashamed of it, I defy the haters. Paul my partner, is also scared about me getting too involved in my Jewish roots and teaching my son of them – but why? Why has the world still not accepted a culture that has been around for millennia?
Why are some people still terrified to the extent they deny their roots and urge their friends of those cultures, to abandon those roots too for their own safety sake?
I did not enjoy reading what I read, but it helped me learn a lot about humanity.
It is vital that no area of life and events should ever be banned in literature – the world needs to know – it has a right to know! And I for one will fight hard and true to ensure that nothing is swept under the carpet and hidden – for those who don’t like it, all I can say is… this shit happens, stop living in cloud cuckoo land!
I am learning more and more classical literature is becoming out of print because it upsets people. The world shouldn’t be pandered to regarding this, they need to learn! Future generations need to learn!
If we don’t get a handle on this soon, book burnings are going to be so commonplace, that it will revert society back to the dark ages! That’s a scarier place to be than those offensive books!
Please, please, please… think about this!
You don’t have to like it, you don’t ever have to give the books a stunning review, in fact do the opposite if it upsets you – but never, ever vouch to hide it!
I said in a recent post – you can tell a lot about an author based on what they write… you don’t have to like them, but you need to know those people still exist, they need to be exposed and they need to be watched.
I don’t mean stalked – just watched, carefully… watch their fans more so… only then will the world stamp out such things. But do it mindfully, carefully, never with hate and malice and certainly don’t try to supress it… because what happens when people try to suppress others? It causes anger and anger causes violence and violence turns into bloodshed and war that is what we as a species are trying to prevent. We are trying to bring peace to Earth; no negativity is going to do that, even if it is so-called positive negativity! No negativity is ever positive!
So where was I going with this post?
I became a writer because I want to write mostly movies – my second motivation is healing from the crap I have experienced in my own life… so that does that mean?
It means in order for me to heal from what has happened to me, I need to write similar scenes in my stories to get it out there – off my chest, but also into the open to let people understand how certain people think and work…
I have a lot of very useful and needful information to share with the world through my fiction, but I feel as though I can’t do that anymore, because it might upset people. It is actually damaging my mental health a lot more, because of this feeling of more suppression… a thing I have been fighting against most of my life!
Isolation and suppression!
I had hoped that my descriptions of scenes, though they will be horrible, will also help others who have experienced similar things. Helped some isolated and supressed people learn how to get away from it and heal – but if my books are going to be rejected by agents and publishers because of awful and ban-able content, how can I do that? How can I help those people?
How can I heal myself?
It’s fine to be all righteous about taboo subjects in literature when you have never experienced such horrors, but please learn to understand that the world isn’t all about you – it’s about all of us and the whole world!
Some people need to read it – others don’t, so please don’t suppress those who need it, for your own selfish reasons!
Because, ultimately, you will be contributing to a world where individualism and freedom becomes rarer and that’s terrifying!
Happy reading…
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