Sunday, May 26, 2024

Triggered Literature, by John Sutherland

This is an odd book, covering some aspects of the cancellation and censorship that some would impose upon literature, of which trigger warnings (about potentially uncomfortable content) is amongst the worst. John Sutherland writes from the bemused position of an old literary man, taking various examples from the daily newspapers and recounting them, putting (needed) context around the texts, but never really taking a stand for denouncing the busybodies who want to erect barriers or put up prohibitions between people and the books they might want to read. Which is not to say this is a bad book per se. There is a lot of interesting context on various challenged books. But Sutherland's overall attitude seems like that of someone who doesn't want to stir the pot. Too bad.

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