Censorship and book burning are still present in our lives. Lawrence Hill shares his experiences of how ignorance and the fear of ideas led a group in the Netherlands to burn the cover of his widely successful novel, The Book of Negroes, in 2011. Why do books continue to ignite such strong reactions in people in the age of the Internet? Is banning, censoring, or controlling book distribution ever justified? Hill illustrates his ideas with anecdotes and lists names of Canadian writers who faced censorship challenges in the twenty-first century, inviting conversation between those on opposite sides of these contentious issues. All who are interested in literature, freedom of expression, and human rights will enjoy reading Hill's provocative essay.
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Threat of book burning ignites passionate discussion about censoring, banning, and other responses to books.
Back Cover In 2011, Canadian writer Lawrence Hill received an email from a man in the Netherlands stating that he intended to burn The Book of Negroes, Hill's internationally acclaimed novel. Soon, the threat was international news, affecting Hill's publishers and readers. In this provocative essay, Hill shares his private response to that moment and the controversy that followed, examining his reaction to the threats, while attempting to come to terms with the book burner's motives and complaints. Drawing on other instances of book banning and burning, Hill maintains that censorship is still alive and well, even in this age of access to information. All who are interested in literature, freedom of expression and human rights will appreciate this passionate defence of the freedom to read and write. Front Flap "In June of 2011, less than a month after launching the Dutch edition of my novel, The Book of Negroes, in The Netherlands, I received the most surprising email of my life. It is worth quoting verbatim: 'Dear Sir Lawrence Hill, We, descendants of enslaved in the former Dutch colony Suriname, want let you know that we do not accept a book with the title "The book of Negroes." We struggle for a long time to let the word "nigger" disappears from Dutch language and now you set up your book of Negroes! A real shame! That's why we make the decision to burn this book on the 22nd of June 2011.. Sincerely, Roy Groenberg, Chairman Foundation Honor and Restore Victims of Slavery in Suriname' I wrote a reply that, in retrospect, seems outrageously Canadian in its politeness and tact." Back Flap: Lawrence Hill is a Canadian novelist and writer of non-fiction. His best-known work, The Book of Negroes, won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Roger's Writer's Trust Prize, and CBC's Canada Reads; internationally it was nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. It has sold more than 600,000 copies in Canada alone. In 2012, he received the Freedom to Read Award from the Writers' Union of Canada. Lawrence Hill lives in Hamilton, Ontario. Visit him at www.lawrencehill.com.
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"Those who engage this work, subtitled "An Anatomy of a Book Burning," will find much to like, not least Hill's generous capacity for integrating autobiography - around the racial and cultural experiences of three generations of his own family - with historical commentary on book-burning and censorship campaigns, and also on the institution of slavery, specifically in its Dutch and British Empire-era Canadian versions as well. He pays particular attention to the racial textures and even blase racism that informs some Dutch words to this day." Randy Boyagoda, National Post, May 13, 2013 [Full post at http://bit.ly/11mCc9V] "Hill delivered a lecture on the incident to the Canadian Literature Centre which has recently been published by The University of Alberta Press. In Dear Sir, I Intend to Burn Your Book he offers a thoughtful, sometimes comical, very personal meditation on literary censorship. Far from an isolated incident, the subject of censorship has been a recurring theme in his life." Donna Bailey Nurse, Toronto Star, April 26, 2013 [Full post at http://bit.ly/12q6w3S] # 5 on the Edmonton Journal's Bestsellers list (Edmonton Nonfiction) for the week of August 2, 2013. "Lawrence Hill's approachable and thought-provoking book takes censorship as its main topic. Its inspiration was an incident in which the cover of Hill's novel The Book of Negroes was burnt in protest... Hill takes the original incident as a starting point to discuss large topics of power, communication and conflict. The overarching message of the text is that censorship and racism are complex issues which require further discussion." Lian Beveridge, CM Magazine, August 2013. [Full review athttp://umanitoba.ca/cm/vol20/no1/dearsir.html] "The essay locates itself in a long tradition of correctly reminding readers about the multiple pitfalls of book censorship. But Hill is historically minded and thoughtful enough to not just produce anti-censorship arguments outside of other historical concerns. He presents the ethical dilemmas of racist literature as a backdrop to working out how he comes to his positions on anti-censorship." Rinaldo Walcott, Literary Review of Canada, July/August 2013 "[Burning the book cover serves] as the point of departure for a meditation on book burnings and censorship and it forms the basis for an impassioned plea for freedom of expression, even in cases when one can understand the undeniable hurt experienced by some readers." -- Maureen Moynagh Canadian Literature "In this great read, Hill explores the idea of censorship in the modern world..." LitFest 2015 LitFest 2015
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Foreword/liminaire, introduction

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780888646798
Publisert
2013-03-20
Utgiver
Vendor
University of Alberta Press
Vekt
94 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
133 mm
Dybde
4 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
56

Forfatter

Biographical note

Lawrence Hill is a Canadian novelist and memoirist. His best-known work, The Book of Negroes, won multiple awards, including the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.