quotations on censorship

For censorship:

`With the abolition of censorship, everything goes now. As a result, we get the worst, artistically speaking, in all media. ' -Henry Miller

I disagree with the statement as my opinion is that perception of art is up to individuals. There is no clear cut standard to judge what is the worst artistically.Everybody have the own mindset, their own way of thinking and perceiving things. Hence, what is viewed as a beautiful piece of art by someone could be viewed as visually unacceptable by another. Hence, without censorship, there will be a larger scope of art which can be view by people.
However, without censorship, there will be undesirable pictures or sights on the Internet, videos or movies such as that of violence, sex and drugs.


`Censors are necessary, increasingly necessary, if America is to avoid having a vital literature.' -Dan Marques

What exactly is vital literature? Vital literature of a society is what society views or reads generally as a whole. Hence it could be in the positive or negative sense. For example, one positive type could be dramas, poetry, novels and current affairs, and a negative type could be undesirable content on the Internet, blogs,and other `junk' information or even online gaming online virtual world.
I agree that censorship is necessary so as to prevent vital literature. Through censorship, it will prevent society from consuming too much `junk ' information on the Internet and also games,hence avoiding a vital literature.
As America is a liberal society, it definitely needs censorship to prevent its society from consuming all the negative aspects of literature from the Internet and other `junk' information which will result in negative vital literature.



Against censorship:

`I have never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them. Censors only read a book with great difficulty, moving their lips as they puzzle out each syllable, when someone tells the that the book is unfit to be read.' -Rorbertson Davies

I do not agree with the statement totally as i think that vulgarities and undesirable expressions in books should be censored. Also, some books are censored before they are sold to ensure that it is desirable for the audience reading it. I think that censoring books is not a form of suppression but rather to ensure that the content is beneficial and not offensive to readers. It is important to ensure that there are no sensitive issues ,such as political,religious and cultural issues, in books that are sold.
However, I think that books should not be over censored as the beauty of language used may be lost .


`To suppress the freedom of the arts is not only to cut off knowledge of the actual movements of human feeling but also,and more disastrously,contacts with reality of life' -Joyce Cary

I think i agree with this statement to a certain extent as by suppressing the freedom of the arts, people do not get the full picture of what is happening in the world and the true values that society as a whole possess. It is difficult to trace the mindset and feelings of society towards certain issues that are censored as they are not openly discussed. It prevents people from having the full perception of the reality of life such as social problems like violence ,drugs and sex.
However, I think that suppressing the freedom of arts is not cutting off contacts with the reality of life of but rather to protect and prevent people from viewing undesirable content which can corrupt the human mind.


`The censor-moron does not really hate anything but the living and growing human consciousness' -D.H Lawrence

I partially agree with this statement as the main role of censors is to prevent people from viewing and hearing what is deemed to be `sinful', and censors do not like it when humans become more conscious of the realities of life such as politics , crimes,violence and other social issues. They only like people to know the nice aspects of life such as love and kindness.
However, it is more of the overall welfare of society that there is censorship, even though social problems cannot be resolved through censorship alone.



`In some respects the life of a censor is more exhilarating than that of an emperor.The best the emperor can do is snip off the heads of men and women, who were mere mortals.The censor can decapitate ideas which but for him might have lived forever.'-Heywood Brown


I agree that that ideas would not be killed without censors. However, some ideas that are not killed by censors may grow in society and even become a negative social trend.Hence, it is not necessarily a negative thing when ideas are killed by censors. I believe that ideas are ever changing and will not last forever, it will only keep developing and changing.
The negative aspect is that certain good ideas may be killed off by censors due to political, social or cultural reasons. This may result in lost of opportunities to develop the good ideas.



Posted by: Dora