Banning Shakespeare, AIBU to think

[FluffBalled]

it's about time isn't it?

All that transphobia, prejudice and antisemitic language - it is amazing schools have allowed this stuff to continue.

The Faerie Queen is the most rambling, drawn out text I've ever read. Have you tried Middlemarch or Bleak House?

This is pathetic.

I want to say more, but just cannot form the words, I open my mouth and screams come out.

Three decades too bloody late.

Couldn’t they have done it back in 1986 and saved me the tedium of O’level Macbeth?

@Ilovetolurk

Three decades too bloody late.

Couldn’t they have done it back in 1986 and saved me the tedium of O’level Macbeth?

The Scottish play?

I went on to study Othello at A Level.

You want it banned because you’re too thick to understand it op.

Dfod 😄

NO its not "about time"

What is it with you cultural Marxists and wanting your own way ?

I did Macbeth for O level. In 1986, too.

And appreciated the Lady Macbeth moment in Killing Eve.

A few people in this thread are being quite ridiculous and it's not the OP, who has their tongue quite obviously in their cheek.

You want it banned because you’re too thick to understand it op.

Dfod

I think perhaps you misunderstood the OP.

Ironic

@MitziK in which case I have no sympathy for you

Best season of blackadder. Although in need of a ban as xenophobic to the French with their Revolting Garlic Smell

The Faerie Queen is the most rambling, drawn out text I've ever read. Have you tried Middlemarch or Bleak House?

I'll see your Middlemarch and raise you La recherche du temps perdu.

I'd totally get behind banning anyone who claims to enjoy Proust.

I read Proust when I have insomnia. If it's not in translation, it sends me off even quicker. I like madeleines dipped in tea though.

Perhaps we are both wrong and it should be Little Nonmen?

No, no, no. Beings Of Reduced Stature Who Identify As Carbon Based Life Forms.

Think someone needs to write a book "1984 revisited"

I don't think it's as straightforward as saying free expression is the best protection for minority groups.

Of course it isn't straightforward, the balance between allowing free expression and preventing promotion of hatred is difficult- but in countries without free expression there are no protections and minorities are often treated a lot worse.
There are pretty good reasons why Germany is especially cautious about Naziism.

I don't think offence mongering and virtue signalling have any effect on racism, they just divert the argument.

Material changes are what is needed. The mechanisms by which the wealthy and powerful accrete more wealth and power need to be removed and structures put in place that provide opportunities for everyone.

I did Julius Caesar at school, with R&J for O level. A level was the Knights Tale (Chaucer, vvv dull), Paradise Lost, and for Shakespeare Ant and Cleo. We also did Auden, Keats, Great Expectations, Death of a Salesman and the Bell Jar.

French Lit was Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and other stuff of that ilk.

Think someone needs to write a book "1984 revisited" Try Ben Elton Blind Faith. Chilling and I thought when I read it about 10 years ago, that we were heading to where we are now.

@CHIRIBAYA

How about the bible? Can there be anything more presumptuous and racist than the claim that we are ALL descended from a white man and a white woman? Ban all religious script. Burn the churches! No more Christmas or Easter! I respect your autonomy and free choice to read whatever you want. Please respect mine. & just out of interest are you equally vocal about art and literature that oppresses women?

And where in the Bible does it say that Adam and Eve were white?

A: no-where. That's your assumption, maybe you should question it.

@InfiniteSheldon

Policing our language, culture and history is the common theme. The far left BLM movement has much in common with the the TRAs. The BLM movement is no more about racial equality than the TRA extremists are about gaining rights for the real Trans population. Both have been taken over by extremists with their own nefarious agendas. Taking the mickey is fair game imo.

[eyeroll]

I've not heard any serious proposals to ban Shakespeare. That said, a few days ago I was under the impression that people were able to watch Fawlty Towers and understand that it reflects actions which were very prevalent at the time. If people watch Fawlty Towers and come to the conclusion that, because a TV show several decades ago used the word N*** (and not in a promotional manner, if I'm remembering correctly), then it's okay to use it now then the problem is an exceptionally ignorant individual, not the TV program.

Missing the irony here methinks.

Fahrenheit 451 /burn all books

@dreamingbohemian

There are currently ZERO books banned in the UK

This is just a goady thread

Aye, last person who tried to ban a book here was, let's see, oh yes, Margaret Thatcher.

Great champion of freedom and democracy that she was

Some hymns have wonderful but dated words. Perhaps people will ban children from singing them next......

When we were digging sods out of the lawn yesterday I was reminding my son and daughter about Good King W carol - heat was in the very sod... etc... She said school they always sang that word very loudly indeed as it was a rude word in a different context. You can learn a lot from old language, the bible and hymns never mind many other older books - lilttle house on the Prairie stories give a good picture of life in the US frontier in the 1870s etc.

Everyone will calm down soon as we return to work and cv19 recedes and all will be peaceful again.

They do call the summer the Silly Season in the UK (although that is because people are out and about at events or usually are....) and this year has been worse than most.

Some hymns have wonderful but dated words. Perhaps people will ban children from singing them next......

All Things Bright and Beautiful ?

Mind you, I'm going to hazard a guess that there will be a backlash to the backlash insisting that "religious" texts are exempt from all this frippery as being "from God" (not sure which one though).

A couple of offensive tv shows have been removed from certain platforms. You can still easily go and watch them on the Internet, or buy a box set if you're so sad about it.

Black people shouldn't have to feel mocked like minstrels because you don't like the status quo changing.