DOREEN VIRTUE and DAVE of SERVANTS OF GRACE YOUTUBE CHANNEL ADVISE BOOK BURNING

Because of commercials I'm sending you to the link rather than embedding this video: SERVANTS OF GRACE : THE DANGERS OF JESUS CALLING BOOK BY SARAH YOUNG

Brace yourself for listening to a sexist woman who says women come second, women are "too emotional" and get "easily hooked" to false Jesus and beliefs... including going against the new Jesus film, The Chosen (called hokey)...  Christianese - now that's a new word!  (Just in time for the stereotyping of men and women that leads some people to erroneously think they are not male or female!)

She's entitled to her opinion and OK, maybe Sarah Young's book does not reflect Bible interpretation as Doreen and her kind do, but...

I CONSIDER THAT SARAH YOUNG'S BOOK SOLD, not just because her version of Jesus and God is a loving, tolerant, and accepting friend rather than a punishing, mean, demanding person, but BECAUSE THAT IS THE JESUS and GOD THAT PEOPLE in 2023 WANT and NEED...

My posts are not pro New Age Movement by the way, as I have my own experiences and attitudes about it over all, at least some aspects of it, but I wonder if any conscious Californian had not encountered notions such as that your thoughts create your life, that you can't afford a negative thought, and so on.

(My anti-positive thinking position is expressed elsewhere in this blog.)

A few years ago, a woman who was going through a hell time in her life, went out to the store on her day off and bought me Sarah Young's book. It's a daily meditation - thought - prayer type book (not to confuse it with Hindu or Buddhist inspired meditation) and I read it fairly consistently for some time. Did it help me?  It lifted my thoughts at least temporarily. I knew this woman's devotion to Jesus was what was allowing her to cope. I could not fault or condemn her for that. 

C 2023 Christine Trzyna

1933 BOOK BURNING BY NAZI'S : 20,000 BOOKS : WHERE THEY BURN BOOKS THEY BURN PEOPLE AS WELL

BERLIN ART MEMORIAL BOOK BURNING 

1995 this art installation in Berlin commemorated one of the largest book burnings in 20th century history.

Now.... isn't censoring books to make them "politically correct" or WOKE a way of lighting a match to a book?  Maybe the book won't be entirely turned into ash and be no more but it will show the damage.

SALMAN RUSHDIE and BRIAN COX PROTEST THE WOKE CHANGES TO CHILDREN'S BOOKS BY ROALD DAHL : SHAME ON THE PUBLISHERS

I dread to think what my old college creative writing program has turned into, since it was pretty damn Woke already when I attended; overall in literature discussions there was the attitude that if you wrote a character who was of a certain culture or sexuality, a Chinese transexual or a Jewish bisexual, as examples, you damn better BE a Chinese transexual or a Jewish bisexual. Everything you wrote was assumed to be coming from your own experience and some sort of personal point of view, even an agenda of activism, that characters were representative, not that your IMAGINATION was at work or even that you RESEARCHED to come up with a character.  

AT THE SAME TIME in literature classes author's writing was being deconstructed and had various THEORIES such as Marxism or Freudism applied, without regard of the author ....  We were to know nothing of the author, their heritage, background, politics, or point of view at the time in their life when they wrote what they wrote....  Try doing that to ARTISTS.

I wonder what would be SAFE to express verbally or in writing in that program today, how a student who wrote without concern for pleasing professors or TA's or fellow students would be treated by WOKE peers. (I can tell you that if their characters were perverted, that would likely fly.) I think of the day I made a comment about a Native American character and my peers seemed to bristle, as if they did not know if I had the right to make that comment out of some percentage of Native American in my DNA or if I could not be right because I had no percentage.  (I had taken a college class at another college about Native Americans of the South West and California and had also done quite a bit of research for myself on those who had lived in my neighborhood historically.)

I was witness to a vegan staring down another student who dared eat a tuna salad sandwich, kind of like the way young environmental activist Greta Thunberg stares down people with hatred, appearing to want to kill someone with intent. 

I wondered if my TA who smoked and ate lunch meat was doing so just to hold onto his own culture or as a kind of autonomy...

***

Salman Rushdie I last saw at a UCLA LA TIMES Book Fair.  I didn't get into his presentation, but as the fair was closing down I saw him alone, rolling his suitcase behind him, going to his transportation like all other stragglers. I thought about how he'd had to go into hiding because of a book he wrote that was deemed against Islam.  He has paid the price for being an author in this world. So I am glad that the attack hasn't censored him.

It is horrible  that he was attacked and lost his eyesight in one eye because of one more mentally ill, demon possessed person who kills others just because. I used to be one of those people who said that if killing was wrong we should not have the death penalty. (I should research to see how many states that have the death penalty are also against abortion.) Lately I rethink that. I'm through feeling sorry for criminals. 

This article from the Daily Mail is typical of their newspaper on line. You have to deal with irritating popups, articles that are clearly ads, articles that are duplicated in more than one space, a lot of celebrity trash including all those desperate for attention and showing off their selfies such as the Kardashians, and the chronic hatred of President of the United States Joseph Biden and all things Democrat (except for rock stars). I have sworn off reading it - I started during the Edward Snowden and Julian Assange reportage - and am weening myself. Finding what you're interested in reading in Daily Mail is like trying to find a diamond that fell in a pile of shit, icky but possible.

DAILY MAIL : RUSHDIE and COX LEADING BACKLASH AGAINST WOKE PUBLISHERS

EXCERPT:

'Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship,' Rushdie wrote on Twitter.

'Puffin Books an the Dahl estate should be ashamed.'

PEN America, a community of some 7.500 writers that advocates for freedom of expression, said it was 'alarmed' by reports of changes to Dahl's books. ' If we start down the path of trying to correct for perceived slights instead of allowing readers to receive and react to books as written, we risk distorting the work of great authors and clouding the essential lens that literature offers on society,' tweeted Suzanne Nossel, chief executive of PEN America. 

Laura Hackett, a childhood Dahl fan who is now deputy literary editor of London's Sunday Times newspaper, had a more personal reaction to the news.  'The editors at Puffin should be ashamed of the botched surgery they've carried out on some of the finest children's literature in Britain,' she wrote ...

C 2023  Christine Trzyna

BRITISH UNIVERSITIES WITHDRAWING BOOKS - WARNING LABELS ON CLASSIC LITERATURE ? MOLLYCODDLED STUDENTS! EXPOSE!

DAILY MAIL : REMOVED BOOKS READING LIST  by Laurence Dollimore

"Universities are accused of 'mollycoddling' and 'patronizing' students as books are removed from reading lists over 'challenging' content and trigger warnings are slapped on 1,000 texts including works by Dickens, Shakespeare, and Chaucer."

 ****

I know I swore off reading Daily Mail UK but sometimes Daily Mail UK is the publication that breaks the news, and has articles like this one that make me come back for more. 

Excerpt: The University of Sussex has 'permanently withdrawn' Miss Julie from an undergraduate literature module due to its discussion of suicide - a decision made after students complained about the potential 'psychological' and 'emotional effects' of the material.

*****

I was in the fifth grade when forced to read Anne Frank.  My focus was on Anne's crush on Peter. I start realizing humans could be more horrible than I could, in my innocence, imagine.  I preferred reading two Nancy Drew Mystery Stories a night. Nancy was independent, fast-thinking, adventurous and clever; she always solved the mystery.  (She was also a motherless only child with a father who was supportive of her and she had a mention-worthy boyfriend who could be called in if she really needed help as well as having some nice girlfriends.)

I think fifth grade was too soon for The Holocaust. That year, because I was a very advanced reader, I was also forced to read British classics including Dickens and recall hating the world he depicted - the real world he lived in by the way - so much I swore I would never be an English major or an English Literature major. By the time I did go to college one could, if they found the right college and program and qualify for it, study literature in the English language without having to focus on the whole English historical and cultural dominance, 

If a student is intelligent enough to qualify for college, subjects such as suicide should not be too hard to handle. 

I'm beginning to think there is a genetic problem in younger generations, that the average one of them could never have survived daily life in the past when it was so much more harsh.  What no hot shower? 

So many on prescription psychotropics!  Self-spared the full range of human emotions through these prescriptions or self treatment with pot or booze or substances.

SHOES : EXPERIENCE TWENTY-SIX CHRISTINE TRZYNA WRITING WORKSHOP

 

SHOES 

Write about shoes:

Your favorite pair, your first pair (if you can remember them), when you last wore leather shoes, whatever you write for this exercise include SHOES!

Christine Trzyna

This exercise is part of a series of writing exercises and to bring up the whole series use the tag Christine Trzyna Writing Workshop. 

C 2018-2025  Christine Trzyna 
All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
OK to use this post in not for profit situations. Please credit me. Send me love.  It's karma.

SELF- CENSORSHIP : EXPERIENCE TWENTY-FIVE CHRISTINE TRZYNA WRITING WORKSHOP

 

When have you SELF-CENSORED?

Why?

Christine Trzyna

This exercise is part of a series of writing exercises and to bring up the whole series use the tag Christine Trzyna Writing Workshop. 

C 2018-2025  Christine Trzyna 
All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
OK to use this post in not for profit situations. Please credit me. Send me love.  It's karma.

ANNE TYLER TOO! : THE PULITZER PRIZE WINNER IS SPEAKING OUT ON CANCEL CULTURE

Author Ann Tyler is now part of the conversation about CANCEL CULTURE and the censorship of books, that includes that writers making apologies for their past publications, and limiting themselves to the kind of books they write.

I failed to find the original article in whole from which many other publications on the net quoted or used material. The Times (United Kingdom) published an interview last Sunday.  So in these articles the interview is referred to as the Sunday Times. THE TIMES UK - ANNE TYLER : I SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO DO IT  The Times requires that to read whole articles you have a subscription - not a bad idea for publications with an intent to survive.

Excerpt: She has been heralded as the Jane Austen of our age, making up for what her novels lack in plot with rich emotional drama -- and a new Anne Tyler is always an event, French Braid, which comes out on Tuesday, is Tyler's 24th novel and eagerly anticipated, even though the Pulitzer-prizewinning novelist is the last person on earth to make noise about her books.

VIGOUR TIMES : I SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO DO IT

Excerpt: One of America's most acclaimed authors is wading into the culture wars, saying she believes she should be able to create characters from a diverse range of backgrounds.

Anne Tyler, 80, spoke out on the issue in an interview with the Sunday Times, stating "I'm astonished by the appropriation issue. It would be very foolish for me to write, let's say, a novel from the viewpoint of a black man, but I think I should be allowed to do it."

MY OPINION : She should not only be allowed to do it, but black men authors should be allowed to write white woman characters.  

EIGHT OF TEN ARTS AND CULTURAL EMPLOYEES SELF CENSOR CONSERVATIVE VALUES

DAILY MAIL - STUDY 8 out of 10 in Arts and Cultural Affairs STAY SILENT on CONSERVATIVE VALUES 

Excerpt: ArtsProfessional Editor Amanda Parker said the findings show 'deep division between public perception and the reality of working in the arts and cultural sector.'

'Our survey shines a damning light on the coercion, bullying, intimidation, and intolerance that is active among a community that thinks of itself as liberal, open minded, and equitable.'

A QUARTER OF COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE SELF CENSORING THEIR OPINIONS TO SUCCEED IN COLLEGE

DAILY MAIL : QUARTER COLLEGE STUDENTS SELF CENSOR DUE TO WOKE CULTURE ON CAMPUS  by Max Aitchison for the Mail on Sunday (Daily Mail UK)

This was going on when I was in college and I felt as if I was being indoctrinated rather than being taught to think for myself or rely on my own experiences,  I can only imagine how horrible it must be for creative writing students there today.  I felt like I was going to a religious school rather than a university with government funding.  The notion that you could only get away with creating characters whose ethnicity, race, religion, sexuality, or values were yours was strong.  The notion that there is no such thing as fiction or imagination really - that cut creativity.

Excerpt:  In the latest evidence of the free speech crisis engulfing campuses across the country, 27 percent of students said they have actively 'hidden' their opinions when they are at odds with those of their peers and tutors.

More than half of those who 'self-censored' did so because of their political views A further 40 percent withheld their opinions on ethical or religious matters for fear of being judged.

***

YOU CAN BE DOWNGRADED IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THE PROFESSOR'S OPINION.  I experienced it.

JOHN GRAY - EXCERPTS FROM AN IMPASSIONED ARTICLE

DAILY MAIL : JOHN GRAY : IT IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION  Full Text

Here are some highlights of this impassioned article by John Gray entitled  IT IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION TO COMPARE THE METHODS USED BY THE NEW WOKE MOVEMENT TO THOSE OF MAO'S RED GUARDS.

"It is not far fetched to compare the methods of this 'woke movement' to those of Chairman Mao'es Red Guards, who terrorised the Chinese people half a century ago.

The so called 'cancel culture' - publicly shaming and trying to undermine the professional standing of anyone who deviates from ever more extreme standards of political correctness -simply the latest expression of this intolerant, baying movement.

***

Why are our police officers virtue-signalling their wokery? The task of the police is to enforce the law and maintain public peace, not show sympathy for any political movement.

One reason why British institutions have been captured by the forces of illiberalism is contagion from the US, where the movement has been most extreme.

WHITE PRIVILEGE IS NOT A THING by SYDNEY WATSON and other CENSORED SYDNEY WATSON OPINION YOUTUBE VIDEOS

Refound video April 2021

Well thought out, well said, I honor Sydney's right to have an opinion I might not agree with.  Though, surprisingly to me, I did agree with her on several issues.  If you want to be a well rounded person, you should seek out a wide variety of opinions and see where you sit with them.

Last night on my cell phone I bookmarked two of her videos.  One called I'm a Conservative and I've Had Enough and the other called White Privilege Is Not A Thing.  This morning, neither video was coming up on my computer when I searched YouTube for them to post on this blog.  I will try again and post them if I can.

Listening to Sydney I learned I'm a "Classical Liberal" as opposed to a Radical Leftist.  (What a relief!)

Free Speech is of supreme importance to me as it is to all writers - all creatives.

I've written in the past about Writer's Block. 

Fear is now creating Writer's Block in many who are afraid to accidently (or perhaps purposely) upset someone else in the world. It begins when you are afraid to admit who you are and what you think because the indoctrinaters are everywhere and people - including writers - out there are loosing their jobs, or quitting, even being bodily injured and maimed or killed. 

There is no longer a sense of humor or any love, kindness, understanding, or patience.  I feel that the anxiety and depression common due to Coronavirus-19 is part of that.

I dealt with this years ago when I went to a college that was so thick with political correctness (of that era) that I seriously questioned what a creative writing program was doing there.  Overall, in society, it has only gotten worse.

NO MATTER WHAT YOU THINK OR SAY, these days there is someone who is going to POWER OVER YOU and be insulted.

So let me affirm that you can be against prejudice and bigotry and still want to distance yourself from the tactics of Black Lives Matter.

You are not a Radical Right Winger just because you want police to be retrained but not defunded.  (And know that riots in the streets and nightly gunfire as there is in parts of Chicago and Baltimore is not what you want in your neighborhood.)

That you were not a racist asshole when you bought Aunt Jemima pancake mix or Trader Ming's frozen dinners.

That Agreeing to Disagree as Gentlepeople is still an option.

C 2020 Christine Trzyna

FREE SPEECH AND CENSORSHIP : EXHIBIT AT THE SKIRBALL

SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER

 

Hello Mudda, Hello Fudda...  The Skirball presents songwriter Allen Sherman in two days... and for some reason right now I want to eat a massive amount of jelly beans! 

 

Seems I head out for an afternoon to Skirball almost as often as I head out for the Getty for an afternoon.  Seriously though, a couple months ago I went to an exhibit there, the title of which I'm ashamed to not remember, and they had copies of books that had been banned including Little House on the Prarie, as well as a row of T-shirts hanging on wire hangers.

Each T-Shirt had gotten a kid who wore it to school thrown out of school, or at least sent home to change.

It really got me thinking about the Ist Amendment and Free Speech and whatever it was that our Founding Fathers intended.  (At the same time there was a Founding Fathers exhibit with original documents, some which had never been let out of the National Archives.)

I once, as a teenage, got thrown out of a candy store because I was wearing a T shirt that was for a Democratic candidate.  The owners were Republicans.  Not only did they refuse me a sale, but they wanted to know WHO MY PARENTS WERE!

What a load of shit!

Dates me, doesn't it!

 

 

HAVANA NOCTURENE by T.J. ENGLISH : BOOK EXCERPT

Page 110

"The casinos were in fine fettle and the Havana Mob was beginning to assert itself in the early months of 1953, but all was not right in the land of Christopher Columbus. Batista's golpe had created a mood of unrest that would not go away. A tradition of rebellion had been reawakened, though it was difficult to gauge the actual level of resistance. Censorship was rigorously enforced on the island. The regime enacted the Law Of Public Order, which had a subset of Legislative Decree 977, a law that made it a criminal act to release any statement or information against the dictatorship. Through SIM, the government maintained a network of spies and paid informants who passed along information regarding "subversive activities." Newspapers were a common target, their offices trashed and editors threatened or imprisoned if they published anything even remotely contrary to the wishes of the government. In fact, anyone who disseminated anything perceived to be anti-Batista - pamphleteers, political activists, or rabble-rousers of any kind - was met with harassment, imprisonment, or death.

C 2007, 2008 T.J. English

Published by William Morrow an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers