#writersCoffeeClub 3/22: Are there any books which should be banned, or is book banning always wrong?
I draw a line between fiction and non-fiction (or fic presented as non-fic) intended to persuade or make an ideological argument. Clearly-identified fiction shouldn't be banned. Presenting-as-non-fic like "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is flat-out toxic to a society, as is non-fic crank science and "scientific racism", eg. "The Bell Curve".
The Bible? Toxic AF, presents as non-fic: ban!
@cstross Stepping back to the purely writing question of this: I sometimes teach a course called "Psychology in Science Fiction." One thing the students and I discovered one semester is that you can set up a solid dystopian world in a few tried-and-true ways, including: A reasonable-sounding rule or law is administered in technically consistent but problematic way (often by a bad actor or someone/something with no consideration for kindness, harm, etc.).
It actually feels (to me) difficult to find any generalized rule that couldn't be used to create a dystopia this way.
Hm. Now I want to test that proposition.
@cstross I'll be thinking about this for a while.
It certainly seems valid. the people who would see my dystopias as utopias are people I don't want to be in charge of things.
@cstross I'm now thinking of Mel Brooks crowing, "It's good to be the king!"
I think this is my core disagreement with a batch of tastemakers and politicians in the USA (and elsewhere): I want systems that radically encourage broad sharing of power and happiness, not systems that trend toward only a few people getting their utopias at everyone else's expense.
@cstross I was religious (very authoritarian church) for 40 years. Then I left. I am finding now that the closest thing I have to religion in my heart is anti-authoritarianism.
This causes problems at American universities, as it turns out.
@cstross
O'Brien clearly values his hobby of torturing people more than material comfort.
I don't know whether that's a functional system of government to select leadership on that basis...
@guyjantic
Charlie Stross
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