Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to A list of evil books.

Interesting...
Fox — (archived)

There's not a single work of fiction on that list (except, perhaps, Coming of Age in Samoa, if Meade's posthumous critics are to be believed).

None of them are books I would consider reading -- excepting Darwin -- and I doubt the Sixpacks (Joe, Jane, and the kids) have heard of most of them.

It's already been said here that books themselves are not evil, but actions of poeple inspired by them can be. If you'll pardon the sarcasm: a case might be made that those books, gleaned as they are from the 19th and 20th centuries, were the most influential in making the 20th different from the 19th, for good or ill. It dovetails nicely with my impression that the sort of people who made up the committee for this list think "evil" includes any social evolution later than around 1840.

And that makes me contemplate a hypothetical list drawn up by equivalent "conservatives" of 200 years ago. Locke, Hulme, Adam Smith, Jefferson, Adams, and Paine, among others, would be high upon it. "Evil" is as evil does.

It's also already been said here that lists of "evil" books can themselves be dangerous. I wonder how long it will be before someone cites this particular list as sufficient cause to challenge the presence of any or all of these books in their local school or library... if it hasn't happened already.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (37 posts)