Random Things Tours: Writers vs. Censorship

 

The worst thing it can happen to a writer or a journalist writing in a world regulated by censorship is to interiorize the pace and rules of the forbidden words. Self-censorship is the final stage of a social illness induced with the fist of political randomness. Actually, it´s impossible to predict which topics may be more dangerous than the others, as the list of potential risks is permanently expanding. The criteria are mostly random, as influenced by the personality and fears of the censor as well. In some dystopic context, even a childish line about blue flowers in the park can be considered subversive because, who knows, the author wanted to send a secret message calling for a protest in the park.

I´ve read those stories of writers facing different kinds of censorship from all over the world with a wide curiosity. The styles are different and so are the topics and personal experiences. Writers from London, Capetown, Manchester, US, Chile, Iran, Zambia and Nigeria are offering first hand literary stories about the pervasiveness and complexity of censorship. Controlling the body or the mind or both is the final aim of the censorship and the mortal danger for the workers with words.

With a foreword by Guardian journalist Coco Khan (The Good Immigrant, It´s not about the Burqa) and illustrations by Daniel Clarke, Aiden Shaw´s Penis & Other Stories of Censorship from Around the World is a wide opening testimony that should definitely continue. Only the power of stories about censorship, revealing how naked the king is in fact, can break the long lists of forbidden words of censorships. Thus, the writers and journalists writing under pressure will know that there is in fact an end and their words are powerful enough to break the walls. One story at a time.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered part of a book tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own.