i may not agree with what you say but i will defend to the death your right to say it...

[fictional]

I guess I ought not be surprised that Neil always says it better.

Um, yeah. What he said.

Comments

[thaddeusfavour.livejournal.com]

Wow. I had no idea that freedom of speech wasn't generally accepted. I did know, unfortunately, that we still have to fight for it occasionally over here in the states. Thanks for linking this.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

It is kind of alarming. When they talk about fighting for "American ideals" it is the one thing I can really get behind.

It's funny because the whole LJ strikethrough thing was about this same issue, and no one cared because who cares about protecting ficcers? Especially ones who write about children, incest, rape etc... and the whole manga issue was revisited there as well.

I just don't understand why people care when NO ACTUAL CHILDREN are involved.

And now they're coming to your house and sorting through your comic collection? That's just freaking alarming!

[thaddeusfavour.livejournal.com]

I think the general idea is that it promotes such activities. I don't agree.

Also, it's the whole "this is bad, we think this is bad, so nobody should think/talk/etc. about it". Another dumb idea.

There should be nothing out there, no idea or concept, that cannot be talked about, discussed, disagreed upon, mulled over, ruminated upon, or otherwise considered. And policing that is one scary idea in itself, which sorting through a persons comic collection comes close to. Shades of George Orwell and 1984.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

I'm never surprised when Neil is right. He's right so often, and so completely. I'm really pleased to see him writing about this, because while I keep not buying Lost Girls because it's expensive, I'd still like the option. Nevermind that I'd also like the option to keep writing and reading things that are icky and challenging and weird.

Thanks for linking this.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Word. I borrowed "Lost Girls" from a friend, and it is awesome. The reason I borrowed it (other than that it is very cool) is because I'm teaching a children's lit class this semester, and I wanted to show it to my students. Which I did, and we had a great conversation about sexuality in kidlit, and the possibilities for expansion and reader-response. It was fabulous.

This whole conversation - about yaoi, and manga, and icky!fic is crazy. I have a whole long post about it here (http://kalichan.livejournal.com/126917.html) after the whole lj strikethrough thing.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

I'll have to check that out tonight when I've got more time.

The timing on this is interesting because I had a really interesting think the other day with myself about attitudes re: sexuality in media that kids can consume/sexual experiences before the age of majority/my own experiences, and there's really not a good place to share it if I wrote it all down. Partly, I think, because I fear what would happen to certain people (including myself) for putting certain information out there.

Grr. Argh.

[electro-club.livejournal.com]

This is ridiculous. It's absurd. If those guys went to Japan, they'd have to take the entire male population to jail. And as far as I know, Japan is one of the countries with the lowest violence rates, including violence against children. But there isn't a newsstand that doesn't sell lolicon (or yaoi, for that matter) material in Japan. One thing is so not connected to the other and the idea of having someone being prosecuted because of a personal comic collection is... What is that, Minority Report?