Studies and Essays: Censorship and Art , livre ebook

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pubOne.info present you this new edition. Since, time and again, it has been proved, in this country of free institutions, that the great majority of our fellow-countrymen consider the only Censorship that now obtains amongst us, namely the Censorship of Plays, a bulwark for the preservation of their comfort and sensibility against the spiritual researches and speculations of bolder and too active spirits- it has become time to consider whether we should not seriously extend a principle, so grateful to the majority, to all our institutions.

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819944003
Langue	English

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ESSAYS ON CENSORSHIP AND ART
By John Galsworthy
“Je vous dirais que l'excès est toujours un mal.”
— ANATOLE FRANCE
ABOUT CENSORSHIP
Since, time and again, it has been proved, in thiscountry of free institutions, that the great majority of ourfellow-countrymen consider the only Censorship that now obtainsamongst us, namely the Censorship of Plays, a bulwark for thepreservation of their comfort and sensibility against the spiritualresearches and speculations of bolder and too active spirits— ithas become time to consider whether we should not seriously extenda principle, so grateful to the majority, to all ourinstitutions.
For no one can deny that in practice the Censorshipof Drama works with a smooth swiftness— a lack of delay andfriction unexampled in any public office. No troublesome publicityand tedious postponement for the purpose of appeal mar itsefficiency. It is neither hampered by the Law nor by the slowprocess of popular election. Welcomed by the overwhelming majorityof the public; objected to only by such persons as suffer from it,and a negligible faction, who, wedded pedantically to liberty ofthe subject, are resentful of summary powers vested in a singleperson responsible only to his own 'conscience'— it is amazingly,triumphantly, successful.
Why, then, in a democratic State, is so valuable aprotector of the will, the interests, and pleasure of the majoritynot bestowed on other branches of the public being? Opponents ofthe Censorship of Plays have been led by the absence of such otherCensorships to conclude that this Office is an archaic survival,persisting into times that have outgrown it. They have been knownto allege that the reason of its survival is simply the fact thatDramatic Authors, whose reputation and means of livelihood itthreatens, have ever been few in number and poorly organised— thatthe reason, in short, is the helplessness and weakness of theinterests concerned. We must all combat with force such anaspersion on our Legislature. Can it even for a second be supposedthat a State which gives trial by Jury to the meanest, poorest,most helpless of its citizens, and concedes to the greatestcriminals the right of appeal, could have debarred a body ofreputable men from the ordinary rights of citizenship for socynical a reason as that their numbers were small, their interestsunjoined, their protests feeble? Such a supposition wereintolerable! We do not in this country deprive a class of citizensof their ordinary rights, we do not place their produce under theirresponsible control of one not amenable to Law, by any sort ofpolitical accident! That would indeed be to laugh at Justice inthis Kingdom! That would indeed be cynical and unsound! We mustnever admit that there is no basic Justice controlling the edificeof our Civic Rights. We do, we must, conclude that a just andwell-considered principle underlies this despotic Institution; forsurely, else, it would not be suffered to survive for a singlemoment! Pom! Pom!
If, then, the Censorship of Plays be just,beneficent, and based on a well-considered principle, we mustrightly inquire what good and logical reason there is for theabsence of Censorship in other departments of the national life. IfCensorship of the Drama be in the real interests of the people, orat all events in what the Censor for the time being conceives to betheir interest— then Censorships of Art, Literature, Religion,Science, and Politics are in the interests of the people, unless itcan be proved that there exists essential difference between theDrama and these other branches of the public being. Let us considerwhether there is any such essential difference.
It is fact, beyond dispute, that every year numbersof books appear which strain the average reader's intelligence andsensibilities to an unendurable extent; books whose speculationsare totally unsuited to normal thinking powers; books which containviews of morality divergent from the customary, and discussions ofthemes unsuited to the young person; books which, in fine, providethe greater Public with no pleasure whatsoever, and, either byharrowing their feelings or offending their good taste, cause themreal pain.
It is true that, precisely as in the case of Plays,the Public are protected by a vigilant and critical Press fromworks of this description; that, further, they are protected by thecommercial instinct of the Libraries, who will not stock an articlewhich may offend their customers— just as, in the case of Plays,the Public are protected by the common-sense of theatricalManagers; that, finally, they are protected by the Police and theCommon Law of the land. But despite all these protections, it is nouncommon thing for an average citizen to purchase one of thesedisturbing or dubious books. Has he, on discovering its truenature, the right to call on the bookseller to refund its value? Hehas not. And thus he runs a danger obviated in the case of theDrama which has the protection of a prudential Censorship. For thisreason alone, how much better, then, that there should exist apaternal authority (some, no doubt, will call it grand-maternal—but sneers must not be confounded with argument) to suppress thesebooks before appearance, and safeguard us from the danger of buyingand possibly reading undesirable or painful literature!
A specious reason, however, is advanced forexempting Literature from the Censorship accorded to Plays. He— itis said— who attends the performance of a play, attends it inpublic, where his feelings may be harrowed and his taste offended,cheek by jowl with boys, or women of all ages; it may even chancethat he has taken to this entertainment his wife, or the youngpersons of his household. He— on the other hand— who reads a book,reads it in privacy. True; but the wielder of this argument hasclasped his fingers round a two-edged blade. The very fact that thebook has no mixed audience removes from Literature an element whichis ever the greatest check on licentiousness in Drama. No managerof a theatre, — a man of the world engaged in the acquisition ofhis livelihood, unless guaranteed by the license of the Censor,dare risk the presentment before a mixed audience of that whichmight cause an 'emeute' among his clients. It has, indeed, alwaysbeen observed that the theatrical manager, almost withoutexception, thoughtfully recoils from the responsibility that wouldbe thrust on him by the abolition of the Censorship. The fear ofthe mixed audience is ever suspended above his head. No such fearthreatens the publisher, who displays his wares to one man at atime. And for this very reason of the mixed audience; perpetuallyand perversely cited to the contrary by such as have no firm graspof this matter, there is a greater necessity for a Censorship onLiterature than for one on Plays.
Further, if there were but a Censorship ofLiterature, no matter how dubious the books that were allowed topass, the conscience of no reader need ever be troubled.

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