What are you currently reading?

[ShineyMcShineShine]

As I said: censorship.

"Winston's greatest pleasure in life was in his work. Most of it was a tedious routine, but included in it there were also jobs so difficult and intricate that you could lose yourself in them as in the depths of a mathematical problem—delicate pieces of forgery in which you had nothing to guide you except your knowledge of the principles of Ingsoc and your estimate of what the Party wanted you to say. Winston was good at this kind of thing."

[Florestan]

"Winston's greatest pleasure in life was in his work. Most of it was a tedious routine, but included in it there were also jobs so difficult and intricate that you could lose yourself in them as in the depths of a mathematical problem—delicate pieces of forgery in which you had nothing to guide you except your knowledge of the principles of Ingsoc and your estimate of what the Party wanted you to say. Winston was good at this kind of thing."

Aye.

I was born and raised în the Socialist Republic of România, so I know a thing or two about censorship.

[ShineyMcShineShine]

Originally written in English but translated into Spanish.

[SimonNZ]

"Winston's greatest pleasure in life was in his work. Most of it was a tedious routine, but included in it there were also jobs so difficult and intricate that you could lose yourself in them as in the depths of a mathematical problem—delicate pieces of forgery in which you had nothing to guide you except your knowledge of the principles of Ingsoc and your estimate of what the Party wanted you to say. Winston was good at this kind of thing."

If Winston Smith in his job was doing the toning down of racism in Agatha Christie books, then that would mean altering or destroying all previously existing copies.


TD:

finished:



starting:

[vers la flamme]

Originally written in English but translated into Spanish.

Thoughts?

[LKB]

Sounds like an euphemism for censorship to me. 

+1

[Ganondorf]

War is never fun but you can make damn great books about it. And so far, this has been very interesting, concerning the Franco-Prussian war. This is the longest of the books in Rougon-Macquart and, IIRC, also the best received at the time of its publication.

[Spotted Horses]

Sounds like an euphemism for censorship to me. 

Censorship is when authorities prevent you from publishing something. When the owner of a book waters it down to make it more innocuous or appealing to a mass market, that is crass commercialism.

[Florestan]

Censorship is when authorities prevent you from publishing something.

Uhhmmm, no, not quite.

A sensitivity reader is someone who reads a literary work, looking for perceived offensive content, stereotypes and bias, creating a report for an author or publisher with suggested changes.

Well, precisely. The censorship in the Socialist Republic of Romania did exactly that: they suggested the author or publisher to change this or that word, phrase or paragraph. If the changes were agreed upon, the book was printed. If the changes were rejected, more often than not the book was not printed.

Remember:

I was born and raised în the Socialist Republic of România, so I know a thing or two about censorship.

 

[Florestan]

Now, if someone argued that the  Romanian censorship was more lenient than the Soviet censorship, I'd agree. After all, Mussolini's regime was more lenient than Hitler's. 

[Florestan]

sections of the government which are supposed to be non-political

I am not aware of any section of any democratic government which is supposed to be non-political.

OTOH, the claim of technocracy is typical of undemocratic governments.

[ShineyMcShineShine]

Thoughts?

I'm learning Spanish so I'm reading the translation primarily to improve my vocabulary; comprehension is a secondary concern. But recently I read The Last Emperor of Mexico by Edward Shawcross, which got me interested in this period and region again, so afterwards I went looking for histories of the Mexican-American war and this one kept coming up on lists. I just started it so can't say too much about it yet. It's "woke", but that's to be expected of any academic history published in this century.

[ShineyMcShineShine]

If Winston Smith in his job was doing the toning down of racism in Agatha Christie books, then that would mean altering or destroying all previously existing copies.

Yes, in his world all previously existing copies were altered or destroyed, but if a school provides only the bowdlerized version to its students or Amazon provides only the bowdlerized version to its customers, and they never know any other version exists, what's the difference? And if Google decided to block access to uncensored versions all previously existing copies would effectively cease to exist for a large percentage of people.

[ShineyMcShineShine]

...non-political, surely.

I expect the mods will soon censor this thread.

[Florestan]

I expect the mods will soon censor this thread.

Not the mods I know.

[ShineyMcShineShine]

Not the mods I know.

Well that's good to know. There are other forums where Big Brother would have locked the thread by now.

[Florestan]

Well that's good to know. There are other forums where Big Brother would have locked the thread by now.

This is still a free country. 

[Bachtoven]

Not the mods I know.

What—-you get a free pass? I've already reported it to a moderator—don't know who will read it.

[DavidW]

I've cleaned up the thread. There is no locking (as there is no heated debate). I only removed the posts that went into Big Brother with the orange complexion.

[SimonNZ]

Yes, in his world all previously existing copies were altered or destroyed, but if a school provides only the bowdlerized version to its students or Amazon provides only the bowdlerized version to its customers, and they never know any other version exists, what's the difference? And if Google decided to block access to uncensored versions all previously existing copies would effectively cease to exist for a large percentage of people.

We weren't talking about the entirely hypothetical "but ifs". Not everything need be a fast rocket down the slippery slope.

War is never fun but you can make damn great books about it. And so far, this has been very interesting, concerning the Franco-Prussian war. This is the longest of the books in Rougon-Macquart and, IIRC, also the best received at the time of its publication.

One of my favorite novels. But I persuaded a friend to read it and he found it harrowingly bleak.