To Delete is to Underline!



I've been worrying lately about what happens when we finally achieve a taboo-free, totally unrestrained society, without any barriers, boundaries, insecurities, or oppressions.Will people still read and write fiction? Or will the perfection of our new world sap away our impulse to create, leaving us lazy, diffident, and uninspired?Does censorship and oppression in society drive us to take greater risks and give us the fuel to make masterpieces?Can art only be defined by the evils that direct it?If every truth is acceptable merely by virtue of being true, then how will people learn to lie anymore?Does no more oppression mean no more fiction?The truth about censorship is that censors care more about art than regular people. They are more affected by language and its conflicts, and they lead their lives on the bleeding edge between annihilation and redemption by the artificial.What they read matters. What they hear matters. What they see matters. Censors are the last aesthetes: their world is one where beauty, filth, and sensation are the most important impulses to both revere and deny.In many ways, a dutiful and psychotic censor is the ideal audience. They can still be shocked. They are analyzing your work for deeper meanings and reading "under the surface" for subversive allegory. For a censor to declare a work of art dangerous and to destroy it is the ultimate declaration of love.There is no need to fear censorship or oppression anymore, because with the advent of the "Information Age," it is almost impossible to remove anything. The opposite problem is true: we lose important works in the glut and overload of unskillful pornography.There are no more barriers to entry for publishing, recording, or illustrating. Now, the only apotheosis is to be hated.Creators must embrace and welcome censorship these days, courting detractors just as ardently as they cultivate allies.It is time to admit that censorship is not categorically bad; that it actually highlights the [deleted] it is most trying to [deleted]. Censorship is like medicine for a blemish that makes the blemish glow bright red. And the medicine always runs out before the blemish heals.Censorship makes innocent things into monsters!Careful deletion can make craven songs of shy longing into bold statements of demand and desire!



































Careful deletion can turn morose and meandering sonic explorations into crass chronicles of torrid assignation!



"Norwegian Wood"





































Careful deletion can reveal the deeper truth behind "safe" ardour!



"I Want to **** Your Hand"





































Careful deletion tells the real truth when the original artists are afraid of it!



"I Had the **** of My Life"

