It’s Banned Books Week!<\/p>\n
This post has nothing obvious to do with games, but it is in the spirit of that whole ethics-in… thing–censorship! I’m including (after the cut below) a list of the banned or challenged books on the list of “Top 100 novels of the 20th Century” (in English), and bolding the ones I’ve personally read.<\/p>\n
And here’s why this is important. Almost half of the most important (arguably) 100 books from the 20th century were political enough that someone wanted them banned, or at least restricted. If we go back further, there would be dozens more, up to and including Shakespeare’s works (some of which–like The Tragedy of Gowrie<\/em>–were banned successfully).<\/p>\n Censorship is a real thing and a real problem, but the way many of us in the U.S. have come to understand censorship is inaccurate. Censorship renders someone unable<\/strong> to speak or write, silences them, takes away their voice. Criticism–as opposed to censorship–might challenge or call out someone’s opinion, but it does not prohibit them from speaking<\/strong>. Criticism is not censorship. Forbidding someone from reading, from writing, and, yes, from playing is censorship. Telling someone they ought to be more conscious of the problems in something they are reading or playing is not<\/strong> censorship.<\/p>\n And here’s the other proverbial shoe: political speech (whether verbal, written, or artistic) always causes criticism and often creates a call for censorship. Whether the thing that’s being criticized is a book, a film, a television show, or–yes–a game, if it’s being criticized or censored, it is political<\/strong>, even if it “seems” like it’s “just entertainment” that “doesn’t mean anything.” Even if the creator(s) didn’t intend to send a specific message (although, let’s be honest, they very probably did), if something is being criticized and\/or censored, they sent one anyway.<\/p>\n And that is a good thing<\/strong>. It is far, far better for us to be sending political messages–even ones we might not all agree with–than it is to live under a rock and pretend that nothing we see or do on a daily basis has anything to do with politics, social constructs, or ideologies. Because it does. I promise.<\/p>\n So go read something banned. Or play something political. Or, better yet, both.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1. The Great Gatsby<\/em>, by F. Scott Fitzgerald<\/strong>
\n 2. The Catcher in the Rye<\/em>, by J.D. Salinger<\/strong>
\n 3. The Grapes of Wrath<\/em>, by John Steinbeck<\/strong>
\n 4. To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em>, by Harper Lee<\/strong>
\n5. The Color Purple<\/em>, by Alice Walker
\n6. Ulysses<\/em>, by James Joyce<\/strong>
\n 7. Beloved<\/em>, by Toni Morrison<\/strong>
\n 8. The Lord of the Flies,<\/em> by William Golding<\/strong>
\n 9. 1984<\/em>, by George Orwell<\/strong>
\n11. Lolita<\/em>, by Vladmir Nabokov
\n12. Of Mice and Men,<\/em> by John Steinbeck
\n15. Catch-22<\/em>, by Joseph Heller<\/strong>
\n 16. Brave New World<\/em>, by Aldous Huxley<\/strong>
\n 17. Animal Farm<\/em>, by George Orwell<\/strong>
\n18. The Sun Also Rises<\/em>, by Ernest Hemingway
\n19. As I Lay Dying<\/em>, by William Faulkner
\n20. A Farewell to Arms<\/em>, by Ernest Hemingway
\n23. Their Eyes Were Watching God<\/em>, by Zora Neale Hurston<\/strong>
\n 24. Invisible Man<\/em>, by Ralph Ellison<\/strong>
\n25. Song of Solomon<\/em>, by Toni Morrison
\n26. Gone with the Wind<\/em>, by Margaret Mitchell<\/strong>
\n 27. Native Son<\/em>, by Richard Wright<\/strong>
\n 28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest<\/em>, by Ken Kesey<\/strong>
\n 29. Slaughterhouse-Five<\/em>, by Kurt Vonnegut<\/strong>
\n30. For Whom the Bell Tolls<\/em>, by Ernest Hemingway
\n33. The Call of the Wild<\/em>, by Jack London
\n36. Go Tell it on the Mountain<\/em>, by James Baldwin
\n38. All the King’s Men<\/em>, by Robert Penn Warren
\n40. The Lord of the Rings<\/em>, by J.R.R. Tolkien<\/strong>
\n45. The Jungle<\/em>, by Upton Sinclair<\/strong>
\n48. Lady Chatterley’s Lover<\/em>, by D.H. Lawrence
\n49. A Clockwork Orange<\/em>, by Anthony Burgess
\n50. The Awakening<\/em>, by Kate Chopin<\/strong>
\n53. In Cold Blood<\/em>, by Truman Capote
\n55. The Satanic Verses<\/em>, by Salman Rushdie *on my shelf to read*
\n57. Sophie’s Choice<\/em>, by William Styron
\n64. Sons and Lovers<\/em>, by D.H. Lawrence
\n66. Cat’s Cradle<\/em>, by Kurt Vonnegut
\n67. A Separate Peace<\/em>, by John Knowles
\n73. Naked Lunch<\/em>, by William S. Burroughs<\/strong>
\n74. Brideshead Revisited<\/em>, by Evelyn Waugh
\n75. Women in Love<\/em>, by D.H. Lawrence
\n80. The Naked and the Dead<\/em>, by Norman Mailer
\n84. Tropic of Cancer<\/em>, by Henry Miller
\n88. An American Tragedy<\/em>, by Theodore Dreiser
\n97. Rabbit, Run<\/em>, by John Updike<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"