We all
can agree we want books to achieve something good in this world. They open us to new ideas, share values,
educate us, inspire and motivate, challenge the establishment, honor history,
and impact us so positively. But what do
we do with bad books?
What
do we do with books that:
·
Bastardize
our language or violate the rules of grammar?
·
Intentionally
print lies?
·
Are
riddled with errors?
·
Call
for violence?
·
Preach
hate or ignorance?
·
Discourage
people from growing and seeing their dreams?
·
Misinterpret
facts and data?
·
Hype
or distort the truth?
·
Are
boring and fail to keep our interest?
An easy
answer is that one would speak out against a wrong or shun the things he or she
dislikes. Others would say you do
nothing and go about making good reading choices for yourself while making
recommendations to others on books to read or avoid. Or, should something else be done? Could anything else be done?
Would
you enact or enforce laws that call for censorship, book bans or require an
authorization to publish?
Would you stage loud protests and aggressive boycotts?
Would you move towards violence against the writer or publishers?
The
thing is, you could make allowances, excuses, and exceptions for any book. For instance, a book that’s filled with
errors still may hold something useful in it, something that makes it greater
than its weak points. Even a book that
preaches violence may be deemed acceptable if it shows a historical perspective
or it rails against a corrupt government that needs to be overthrown. No one wants to endorse the diary or memoir
of a racist or sexist, but we know that free speech demands society allows for
everyone to write what they want. But free speech also permits – and even demands -- that we counter such books and seek to correct the record.
Or
should we just shortcut all of this and find a way to ward off the publication
of useless, crappy, annoying, poorly-written, hate-filled diatribes? Should we form a panel of qualified experts
and let them decide what’s publishing-worthy?
Do we let the majority rule what we publish or read? Is it up to the librarians, bookstores,
Amazon, and other middlemen to act as quality-control gatekeepers?
We can
only let democracy take care of this.
All ideas deserve to be circulated, even ones calling for your demise,
but the hope is that an educated, loving and free society has the ability to
put garbage in its place.
READ UP!
Writers, please never violate these three rules!
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog
are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter
@theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more
important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015
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