A few weeks back, I wrote what is essentially my love letter to all adults who indulge their desire for the fantastic with a willing dive into the world of children's fiction. Where books have been the principal markers through which I remember significant moments in my life, there is an incredible amount of sentiment attached to … Continue reading Monday Musing: How Children’s Fiction Has Made Me A Better Reader (And Person)
Tag: Censorship
Monday Musing: Literary Censorship And Political Control
In Elif Shafak's excellent TED talk on the ways in which fiction can combat the restrictions of culturally-boundaried identity, the author discusses her own history of literary controversy and its intersection with political censorship. Shafak - a Turkish author, whose most recent work deals with the story of a murdered sex worker - is no … Continue reading Monday Musing: Literary Censorship And Political Control
Monday Musing: Should Authors Be Exempt From ‘Cancel Culture’?
There are many contemporary online trends - particularly those that have to do with social media - that cast a problematic light on the way that consumers interact with the work that they're consuming. Social media has brought us closer than ever before to the people from whom art emerges - musicians, authors, and other … Continue reading Monday Musing: Should Authors Be Exempt From ‘Cancel Culture’?
When Books Burn: Libraries, Looting, And The Destruction Of Culture In Conflict
"Throughout Bosnia, libraries, archives, museums and cultural institutions have been targeted for destruction, in an attempt to eliminate the material evidence - books, documents and works of art - that could remind future generations that people of different ethnic and religious traditions once shared a common heritage in Bosnia." (Andras Riedlmayer) In 1992, Bosnia's National … Continue reading When Books Burn: Libraries, Looting, And The Destruction Of Culture In Conflict
The Right to Write: Censorship and Literature
For those of you who are frequenters of The Book Habit, my odd references to a life outside of literature may come as something of a surprise. Reading is, amazingly, only a part-time gig for me. Most of my week is in fact spent finishing up an MSc Human Rights at the LSE and getting … Continue reading The Right to Write: Censorship and Literature