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Lolita was published in the US, which has protected freedom of expression; Australia does not.
by DiscourseFan 8mo ago
Lolita was published in the US, which has protected freedom of expression; Australia does not.
- Insanity 8mo agoBooks banned in US schools: https://pen.org/banned-books-list-2025/ https://pen.org/banned-books-list-2025/ Books banned generally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_banning_in_the_United_States_(2021%E2%80%93present) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_banning_in_the_United_Sta...
- DiscourseFan 8mo agoThat’s local school boards—other schools and libraries have entire “banned books” sections because of that. Nobody is getting arrested for it.
- Insanity 8mo agoIt still restricts access to literature. It is still a ban, and it is a limit of freedom to explore literature. But I agree with you, different scale of a similar problem.
- jimmydddd 8mo agoIn high school, I read Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five entirely because it was on a banned list. So it can go both ways.
- DiscourseFan 8mo agoIts not a similar problem. In one case a school board bans books from being in school libraries, in another someone is charged with a sex crime for their literary production. There are magnitudes of difference here.
- bloak 8mo ago> Lolita was published in the US According to Wikipedia it was first published in France: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita#Publication_and_reception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita#Publication_and_recepti...
- DiscourseFan 8mo agoThat’s a fascinating publication history but does in the end demonstrate my original point: once the french government got word of it they banned the book, whereas in the US, once it got a publisher, it basically proliferated unchecked, probably on account of the strong norms around freedom of speech.