Quote:
Originally Posted by caleb72
What I find interesting in this discussion is that so many people are talking about rights and law in the first place. ...
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Some interesting thoughts Caleb. I suggest that self-censorship is happening automatically anyway - even on this forum, despite some fairly emphatic posts. I would argue that some self-censorship is good and appropriate. If we expect to live harmoniously within society we must learn to respect the sensitivities of others and modulate our behaviour accordingly. Not that we can't say what we mean, but that we can find ways to say things without being so abrasive or confrontational. Good authors find ways to say things without discouraging readers from participating, yes this is a form of self-censorship, but it is also part of living in a mixed society.
As I suggested earlier, I think the title of one of the dropped books "How To Rape ..." actually singles it out for exactly the attention it received - I also believe this was intentional on the part of the author. Such a title automatically excludes some readers,
possibly some readers who may otherwise have picked up the book and found it to be of value once they read the actual text, but if the author is more interested in getting attention, bad as much as good, then encouraging people to read the book is a secondary issue.