General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Association removes Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from award [View all]peggysue2
(10,823 posts)Yet it has happened throughout history.
Censorship of any kind is bad, unacceptable and a gargantuan slippery slope. If she deserved the honor in the moment then stripping the honor now is pointless. The written word is far too important to subject it to the ever-changing attitudes of one time frame to another. We can only learn from the past if there is an accurate record of attitudes--good, bad and ugly--from which to learn. Fictional accounts are an excellent record, filled with the habits, mindsets, materials, manner, colloquialisms of the day.
The books, any books, will sink or swim on their own merit. If they are deemed irrelevant, thoroughly objectionable in the future, they will go out of print. Poof! Gone of their own accord with the exception of second-hand book dealers or book fetishists.
That's the fate of most books and writers. Only the exceptional survive.