[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Eric

I have to disagree. All books are meddled with. There has been, and there still is, much critical debate on the nature of the text, and many bibliographers, me among them, have some serious questions to ask about the confusion of text with artifact ... or confusing the artifact with the experience of reading it. In a real sense, all texts are continually re-written. The English critic, Terry Eagleton, once wrote (I think in his excellent "Literary Criticism") that "every reading is a re-writing." In other words, the experience of reading a particular "book" is unique to every reader; we all read a "different" book, even though we read the same words. Someone mentioned Shakespeare. There are many textual problems with Shakespeare. Most readers are unaware of the problems. And many of the issues do not really detract from the pleasure of reading him. Readers can enjoy "The Merchant of Venice" even tho much of it was not written by Shakespeare. "Hamlet" is as corrupt as most politicians. Students still, no doubt, read "O that this too too solid flesh would melt" ... something that many women would go for ... when any bibliographer can tell you that the Bard wrote "O that this too too salad(dirty, corrupt) flesh would melt." And writers were not, and are not social commentators. When Shakespeare wrote "Othello", I doubt that he considered Iago's actions were motivated by the fact that a nigger was banging a white chick.

What seems to be at issue here is censorship. By the way Milton's "Areopagitica" is still a good read. And works of art have always survived censorship. Indeed, Shakespeare has survived Thomas Bowdler. Twain will survive small-minded middle America. Methinks "where's it all going to end" smacks of the laddie doth protest too much.

Eric you've got to live in this country to get the gist of the PC brigade, which to me seems far more active than in almost every other country, it won't be long before somebody comes up with an objection to the Black Ball in Snooker or the 8 ball in pool