The official reply of the
Authors' Society was as feeble as that of the Publishers. I repeat that
the only argument against a censorship is that it is extremely harmful to
original literature of permanent value; such an argument does not make any
very powerful appeal to authors. What most authors want is to earn as much
money as possible with as little fuss as possible. Besides, the great
money-makers among authors--the authors of weight with publishers and
libraries--have nothing to fear from any censorship. They censor
themselves. They take the most particular care not to write anything
original, courageous, or true, because these qualities alienate more
subscribers than they please. I am not a pessimist nor a cynic, but I
enjoy contemplating the real facts of a case.
All the forces would seem to be in favour of the establishment of a
censorship. (And by a censorship I mean such a censorship as would judge
books by a code which, if it was applied to them, would excommunicate the
Bible, Shakespeare, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, Swift, Shelley,
Rossetti, Meredith, Hardy, and George Moore. "The Ordeal of Richard
Feverel" would never, as a new work, pass a library censorship. Nor would
"Jude the Obscure," nor half a dozen of Hardy's other books; nor would
most of George Moore.
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