Amphy64 t1_j9fy6bz wrote
Setting aside questions of whether we should literally support book burning, I'd suggest A Tale of Two Cities (and Carlyle's fake history, which it's in part drawn from). Yes, it's much loved in the Anglosphere, it can be very moving (Wilde may scoff, Dickens is good at cheap emotional manipulation), and makes it so easy to gloss over the completely explicit xenophobia that even Orwell seemingly forgot in his essay, not to mention which side our own sane class interests actually fall (the very wealthy middle class readers are not so inclined to forget). This is why it's such an effective work of propaganda, continues to perpetuate misconceptions, and make them darn near impossible to eradicate. And the thing is the reality of this period, the Enlightenment philosophy, the political thought, is still such a live-wire, radical and relevant, capable of blowing the English Establishment sky high, if we were instead getting at it. I honestly think this book has helped contribute to holding us back centuries (if only we had instead absorbed Mercier's idea of a united Franco-Anglo revolution).
I'm not actually saying we should burn it when the revolution comes, that would be less than ideal. But I couldn't be bothered to be all that sorry had it vanished last century, either.
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