Disturbing.

[boxofrocks]

Calm down, or you'll pee in your pants.

Yep. They're wet, but only from seeing you

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

That is such crappola. You sound like a fundamentalist.

Perdita

Maybe I am then.

Just cause a man had sex with one little book, they think that he's some fun...dy...oh dear I shouldn't have said that out loud, should I?

*Sigh* Listen everyone, I seem to be pissing in everybody's soup pot today. I didn't really mean to be, but it seems to be today's little stunt. I am a heavy duty lover of books. I really love fiction and especially love imaginative fiction. However, I believe that books, all books, should not be burned. I'm not saying that it should be outlawed (why would I invite the all-too-likely censorship backlash) but that the people who would do such a thing are sick little fucks and most likely are ignorant little wastes of life. Too many libraries of glorious Hellenic knowledge were lost forever by psychotic Christian fucks with torches. Too many works of architecure and art were lost by invasions and looting. Am I wrong to speak out against all that? To hope that these precious artifacts of brilliance were spared from the ignorant fuckwit's divine flame?

-

 

[Guest]

LC: you have not pissed me off. Don't take criticism so personally, this is a forum not group therapy. I disagree with you at times is all and I speak up, sometimes less eloquently than other times.

I really really wish we could all converse and give our opinions without feeling like egg shells are under our feet.

Be yourself, but don't get apologetic when you get peed on. I don't.

Perdita

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

LC: you have not pissed me off. Don't take criticism so personally, this is a forum not group therapy. I disagree with you at times is all and I speak up, sometimes less eloquently than other times.

I really really wish we could all converse and give our opinions without feeling like egg shells are under our feet.

Be yourself, but don't get apologetic when you get peed on. I don't.

Perdita

It's not that. It's just I feel I'm coming off more confrontational and assholic than normal and I don't like coming off that way unless I mean it, if that makes any sense.

Egg shells....*shudder* With the series I'm reading now, that statement has a lot more meaning. Eggs are a type of sorceous bomb that in the current book I'm on are buried under the ground like mines as well as being used conventionally as dropped bombs from dragons or as hurled artillery fire from egg-tossers. But I digress and plug.

 

[shereads]

Luc, I share your loathing of book-burners. But it's their fear of ideas that disturbs me; the books are replacable. Historically, that hasn't always been the case. Before the printing press and amazon.com, every book was priceless. In its pages were ideas that would never be expressed in the same way, and destroying it was a powerful act. It's only powerful now if we allow it to have an affect on us. The best reaction is to find out what was burned and buy a copy for your local library.

Then write a note to the book-burner and thank him/them for inspiring you to make the donation. Better yet, tell them that for every one they burned, you bought two.



Of course, I'm talking about individuals burning books, like the one Joe wrote about at the start of the thread. When it's done by people in power, it's a serious threat. That's why it's important that you hate it. Just don't confuse the suppression of literature by a society with an individual's right to show his disgust with the ideas in a book. When that becomes illegal, the next thing to go will be your right to criticize what you despise.

There's a book about the value of books, and the danger they represent to the status quo, that you would love. In fact you've probably read it: The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco.

 

[Dream Keeper]

I saw a chap burning a Bible, today. I confess it was one of the more disturbing things I've ever seen, personally. Such people...

I don't believe in any religion, but I am still offended by this. Although there are many of them, hundreds of years were spent making a book like that and burning one is just wrong even if it is just a copy... If anyone burned my literature I would get right up of my holy throne and start hurling some lightning! Sorry, a bit of humor to calm myself down. That is wrong to do to anyones religion no matter how much you hate it. I think we should make him write a book for decades then burn it and laugh in his face just to watch him cry. That'd teach him. http://graphics.gaiaonline.com/forum/images/smiles/icon_twisted.gif

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

Well, for my money I've never really bought into the "religion has caused countless deaths" thing... that's not really an easily quantifiable proposition--no moreso than "religion has preserved more life than" arguments. I think religion is a fantastic thing. Its practice an encouraging humane notion. Its long-livedness a great achievement.

So, I walk by one of the apartment complexes in the area and a bunch of chaps are standing around laughing--which is cool, good times aren't offensive. I stopped by for a moment and introduced myself and turns out they were torching a Bible and finding it funny. I'd heard, while there for a minute before leaving politely, a lot of anti-religious sentiments.

Such people.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Well, for my money I've never really bought into the "religion has caused countless deaths" thing... that's not really an easily quantifiable proposition--no moreso than "religion has preserved more life than" arguments. I think religion is a fantastic thing. Its practice an encouraging humane notion. Its long-livedness a great achievement.

So, I walk by one of the apartment complexes in the area and a bunch of chaps are standing around laughing--which is cool, good times aren't offensive. I stopped by for a moment and introduced myself and turns out they were torching a Bible and finding it funny. I'd heard, while there for a minute before leaving politely, a lot of anti-religious sentiments.

Such people.

They should have burned a witch instead.

I don't know how much "religion" itself has done, but fanatically religious people have proved some of the most sanctimonious mass murderers and torturers. It's strange how some people can misinterpret a work so much to justify the great evil they do in its name. Oh well, more business down here I suppose.

I stand by my anti-book burning stance but I refuse to hold any work above any other in the shame hierarchy. I will make a practical sin hierarchy for the sheer difficulty of ever finding that book again. The burning of say "The Orphic Hymns" probably would piss me off just slightly more than something as easily replaced as a "Gideon's Bible" but both would piss me off quite a bit.

On anti-religion....my position is...complicated. And I won't likely share it here.

 

[sincerely_helene]

Save the forests!

(Burn bras instead)

 

[shereads]

Nuke the baby seals!

 

[Boota]

I love books, but I'm not about to get upset about someone else burning their own property. Like shereads said, they are replaceable. Maybe burning the last existing copy or an original manuscript is different, but you could burn a million copies of any Harry Potter book and still be fine.

I am against censorship in all forms. That includes the notion of outlawing a person's right to destroy their own property. Granted, they are probably complete fucking idiots, but it's their right. They don't realize that they are not killing ideas, they are merely burning paper. Much like those so outraged by the book burners. It's only paper. The idea is still intact. In this day and age of mass media it is virtually impossible to eliminate all copies of a work.

I wish someone would burn a million copies of my book. First, they'd have to buy a million copies. Then, a publisher or agent would see that I had sold a million copies and come looking to give me a book deal.