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A quote: “Literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor.” ~~ William O. Douglas
I’ll start with a story …
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Gone With The Wind went last December.
A couple of months later, all my Jane Austin books disappeared from the cloud. Then Heinlein, Clancy, Fleming — beloved books that allowed me to escape into distant and different worlds.
There was no one to tell me why my eBooks were gone or refund my money. So I walked the blocks, braved the bus, ending up at the library.
The librarian looked over my list of titles, her face growing more pinched..
“We don’t carry those. They are culturally inappropriate. The authors have been permanently retired.”
She reached for her phone …
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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license.
Phoenix says: The door creaked as I opened it. The ancient house smelled musty and of old dust. I crept down the long, dark hallway, flashlight weaving two and fro, hearing the squeaks of mice or rats, but never quite catching them in the light.
I checked each room as I came to it, flashed the light across bare walls and torn carpeting. Until at last I found it.
The treasure room. Floor to ceiling bookshelves, filled with old books, authors no longer allowed by the censors.
I stepped to the closest shelf, pulled a random book out.
Heinlein. I’m in Heaven.
Cameron says: “Professor?” the student asked.
“Hm?” I grunted, focused on writing out the class presentation.
“I found the books you were requesting from the library. But…”
I looked up. The boy was frowning in worry.
“What happened?”
“Saw some rats in the east wing. They were gnawing on some books. I couldn’t stop to call for an exterminator but I wanted to let you know.”
I waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. Those used to be textbooks.”
The boy looked more worried. “But why-”
“They were from a high level Women’s Studies class. It’s more humane than rat poison.”
cold pizza says: “I’d like to check out a book, please.”
The librarian glared at me, then at my yellow request slip, then back at me.
“It’s on the prohibited list,” he said. “It’s exclusionary, counter-revolutionary, misogynistic claptrap. It should have been burned with the rest back during the Great Weeding.”
“My request has been approved by the Committee” The embossed stamp in box 17C winked.
“Maybe they did. But I don’t approve.” He walked away from the barred window, disappearing into the stacks. He surfaced a few minutes later with the volume I’d requested.
“Green Eggs and Ham,” he sniffed disapprovingly.
cold pizza says: BTW, I never read any of the other stories before writing my own. If mine looks derivative, it’s because great minds think alike (*grin*), But it is entirely coincidental.
Navig8r says: That doesn’t look very tasty or nutritious. Why are you chewing on that?
It isn’t. I’m just making a few nicks so the termites can get started and finish the job.
That doesn’t answer why, and why annoy the humans?
Necessary risk. You like dining on the wonderful food scraps the humans leave, right?
Well, yeah.
See that “CCP” in the title? When those ideas take root, humans get really hungry and don’t have food scraps to leave. There also end up being a lot fewer humans to not leave scraps.
Let’s pee and poop on it when you’re done.
Brian Brandt says: all of these are great renditions of “Books Are Dangerous.”
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