Back to literature! I finished da Vinci code last night, which is not literature but page-turning, with naturally enough for the topic, a slightly unsatisfactory end.
End of a book is one of the most important things, but authors seem to ignore that. One has to start and leave on an impact.
Impact must be established with the opening sentence. You must draw the reader in immediately.
Immediately, I agree with Firefly. 'Though, many people now consider 'impact' something completely unneeded.
Unneeded is a screen door on a sub-marine! Impact is a necessary and good thing. A writer must create interest!
Interest is growing about a bigot using a nom de plume to criticise all Muslims as being terrorists. Should he be allowed to write this?!
This shouldn't be. To accuse a whole group of people is racist, plain and simple.
Simply put, you both might enjoy - enjoy being a stretch, but consider that I mean you both might be interested in an a2k thread on racial profiling. Hope to post a link.
Link is a character in the book "Stone Cold"
Cold blooded murderers are now being supposed to have hot blood by some people. What is happening?
Happening to see this conversation, I must say I have reservations about muzzling freedom of speech. Much as I loathe and detest racist incitement, I think stopping people saying things is the beginning of a long slippery slope.
Slope to things like the Patriot Act, I agree. But we are already highly censored.
"Censored" or "expletive deleted" are things we are seeing increasingly in our news reports, and in comment, which I personally think is a shame. Freedom of speech and expression is so important to the development of our society.
Society needs to revolve around being able to express one's opinions; around the old liberté, égalité, fraternité. If not, we're headed towards a future that could have been created by Orwell.
Orwell did give us much to think about. Do you think that Bush or Ashcroft have ever read his novels?
I do not like political correct speech. However there are things that should not be said.
Also, what makes a hate crime worse than any crime.
Murder because the criminal hates someone, or murder cause the criminal was doing another crime, or just wanted to kill someone. Same out come someone was murdered. The penalty should be the same.
Novels you mentioned, firefly, should be read (although, I would hope they already have!) by the afore-mentioned leaders.
Same penalty is a good idea, jtf. There are so many inequities in the way crimes are punished, especially state to state.
Sorry to be so verbose, but I like the subject matter we are discussing, racism, censorship, crime and punishment. I like to know others ideas. What do you all think of the banning of such things as the ten commandments from public places in the US?)
With this one, jtf, you use the last word in the last post as the first word of your own comments. So, your comments should have begun with the word "novels" to continue the conversation.
Coversation (thanks firefly :wink: ) is the alteration of speech to hide the real reason for having made the statement. It is, perhaps, the parlance of choice for today's politician.
