I began to research this subject at the time I was writing my column on the difference between Russia and the west back in January.
I specifically had a go at where the west was headed, and our fixation with trying to micro manage every aspect of our lives, and our so-called “outrage” at what others say.
I said: “We are becoming a laughing stock, and we’d lost all perspective… we don’t know what we stand for anymore… Big Brother and/or the nanny state in the west has never looked so powerful.”
Thanks for your feedback on that column by the way. Heartening to read that so many of you agree. We are the silent majority I feel.
With this topic firmly in my mind, I started to come across some reports of what is going on in the world of publishing. I myself am currently working on a new fiction novel for children/young adults. When working with my editor, she made clear to me on numerous occasions: “Oh, you can’t say that these days…”
I dug deeper, and it’s not just me of course, the classics are currently taking a bashing. You may or not be surprised to learn the following. It makes for, in my opinion, worrying reading . We really seem to be heading down a very slippery slope at a heck of a speed.
Numerous movies we all loved, now come with warnings. Films include Peter Pan, Dumbo, Lady and the Tramp, The Jungle Book.
I’ve seen such warnings as “This programme includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures”.
“These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now.”
“We want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.”
You may feel this is warranted. But I’d say to anyone who agrees with such warnings and potential banning and/or erasing or editing of old movies or books – be very careful what you wish for, for once we start down this path, who knows where it will end.
JK Rowling has, of course, endured much criticism for her views on gender/sex. But I’m not getting into that one here. For that subject is currently a near no-go area, unless you want to bring the wrath of those with their own agenda crashing down on you.
But what can possibly be wrong with her tremendous Harry Potter books? They’ve brought pleasure to countless millions of children the world over and got them reading again.
Well, apparently the University of Chester has given a “content warning” to its students that the first Harry Potter book contains “difficult conversations” about gender, race, sexuality, class and identity.
If students were concerned at what they’d just read, then they could “raise concerns”, the uni said.
There have even been claims of antisemitism in the Harry Potter books. This refers to the goblins who run Gringotts Bank. It is claimed that they are caricatures of Jewish people, and are therefore “offensive”.
Also, the character who bullies Harry Potter, Dudley Dursley, who in the book and films is portrayed as a chubby lad, is now being viewed by some as “fattism”.
At this rate, any character out of any book or film is under threat, for someone somewhere out there will always be “offended”.
Where do we stop? Put warnings on every book? Ban everything? It seems to be heading that way.
Why would anyone want to write a book these days? The months of locking yourself away and hammering out the words, then the endless editing is difficult enough, and even if you’re lucky enough to get it out there, you’re then just lining yourself up for a heap of criticism.
Being accused of fat shamming or racism, or being culturally inappropriate is quickly becoming an ever-growing headache for writers.
Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist: this wonderful piece of literature, published in 1838, doesn’t hideaway from the realities of life at such time. We learn of the likes of Fagin and his band of boys, criminal Bill Sykes, not forgetting Oliver himself who runs away from the poor house and ends up in London in amongst it all.
However, staff at Royal Holloway, the University of London, feel the need to alert students to Oliver and have given the book a “trigger warning”. They fear that the book set in Victorian London with its descriptions of poverty and crime could cause anxiety or distress to student readers.
They defended their actions by saying they had a responsibility to support the mental health and wellbeing of their students.
Have you ever heard such nonsense?
Salford University also got in on the act by warning that Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre may be “distressing”.
What is happening to our society? Who runs these universities? What is their agenda here?
I worry about how the next generation of adults will turn out if they’re being brought up on a diet of advice like that mentioned above.
I can only image what may be next. I’d say the entire 1970s children’s classic books Mr Men, by English author Roger Hargreaves, could soon get the chop. Think about it…
Mr Greedy? Oh, definitely fat shaming there.
Mr Happy? Discrimination against sad people.
Mr Christmas? Prejudice against non-Christians.
Mr Skinny? Insulting to underweight folks.
Mr Snow? Surely he must be a candidate for being labelled a climate change denier?
As for the loveable – and my personal childhood favourite – Mr Tickle? He must go! Most definitely inappropriate behaviour there!
The list goes on; poor little guys.
But the gold star for ridiculousness surely has to go to staff at The University of Northampton, which recently issued a trigger warning over George Orwell’s classic 1984.
This, more than any example, to me anyway, sums up how bad things currently are. 1984, the novel that warned us of censorship, loss of individual thought, the banning of books, about tyranny and our freedoms being taken away, has now fallen foul to just that.
The university warns it students that 1984 contains explicit material and it may cause the students who read it to become offended and upset.
Remember, these are not kids, they are young adults.
Universities should not be giving 1984 content warnings, instead they should be encouraging every student to read this book. 1984 matters, more now than ever.
As Orwell may very well say himself if he were alive: “Well, I did warn you…”
“Trigger warnings”, I feel, are the first step on the road to the outright banning of books.
I think if things keep going the way they undoubtedly are, the books and movies mentioned in this column may well be, one day soon, banned.
The Soviet system banned and/or edited nearly anything and everything that didn’t fit in with it’s dogma.
Now us, the supposed free speech liberal west, is doing exactly the same, albeit for our own reasons.
This should concern us all. Where is this all headed? I shudder to think.
If we are not careful, the free western society is heading down the pan.
A society that warns us that 1984 is “offensive” is a society that isn’t losing the plot. It’s a society that has already lost the plot.