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Weekend Assignment #133: Heroes of Free Speech
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Thursday, October 12, 2006
5:58:00 PM EDT
Hearing Bad Girl -- Johnny High Ground
Look! It's the Bill of Rights! And as it happens next week is National Freedom of Speech Week, celebrating one of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights (and, therefore, in our Constitution): The right to say what we want, when we want and how we want, without the fear of being censored or punished by our government for it (in the US, at least: those of you in Canada and the UK are on your own). To get in the spirit of the upcoming National Freedom of Speech Week, here's a thought-provoking Weekend Assignment:
Weekend Assignment #133: Share with us a person or person who you think is a model for free speech in the United States. It can be one of the Founding Fathers, another historical personage, or someone who is living right now. Yes, this is slightly more work than the usual Weekend Assignment, but, you know. Free speech is worth it. For those of you in the UK or Canada, you can nominate someone who represent free speech in your own country, or pick someone from the US.
Extra Credit: A favorite controversial book (it doesn't have to be from an American).
My pick for a free speech model: Henry Louis Mencken. Mencken, for those of you who don't know, was perhaps the pre-eminent literary and social critic of the 1920s and 30s. In addition to championing a great number of writers (including Theodore Dreiser and F. Scott Fitzgerald), but above and beyond this he was tireless in his defense of the right for people to speak their minds and their consciences. This frequently put him in the middle of some of the great speech issues of his time: His reporting from the Scopes "Monkey" Trial, for example, is vibrant even today.
H.L. Mencken was far from a perfect man even in his day, and these days there are a number of questions about his feelings regarding race and religion, in part due to diaries that were made public a number of years after Mencken's death (at his instruction, if I recall correctly, so one can't say he didn't want that aspect of his life out there). But in his public writing he was fearless against what he viewed as the forces of nincompoopery, and had a uniquely American style of rhetoric that you see emulated even today in the political and social critics of this era. A smart man, and a true believer in free speech.
My extra credit: Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury: A book about book burning and banning, that as recently as this last month someone was trying to get banned on the grounds that it was full of "all kinds of filth." Not that he had read the book, of course. The irony was that this fellow was trying to get the book banned during Banned Books Week. The head swims.
You're up: Name someone you consider to be a champion of free speech. Write them up in your blog or journal, and then come back here to leave a link!
Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry |
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5:58:00 PM EDT
Hearing Bad Girl -- Johnny High Ground
Weekend Assignment #133: Heroes of Free Speech
Look! It's the Bill of Rights! And as it happens next week is National Freedom of Speech Week, celebrating one of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights (and, therefore, in our Constitution): The right to say what we want, when we want and how we want, without the fear of being censored or punished by our government for it (in the US, at least: those of you in Canada and the UK are on your own). To get in the spirit of the upcoming National Freedom of Speech Week, here's a thought-provoking Weekend Assignment:
Weekend Assignment #133: Share with us a person or person who you think is a model for free speech in the United States. It can be one of the Founding Fathers, another historical personage, or someone who is living right now. Yes, this is slightly more work than the usual Weekend Assignment, but, you know. Free speech is worth it. For those of you in the UK or Canada, you can nominate someone who represent free speech in your own country, or pick someone from the US.
Extra Credit: A favorite controversial book (it doesn't have to be from an American).
My pick for a free speech model: Henry Louis Mencken. Mencken, for those of you who don't know, was perhaps the pre-eminent literary and social critic of the 1920s and 30s. In addition to championing a great number of writers (including Theodore Dreiser and F. Scott Fitzgerald), but above and beyond this he was tireless in his defense of the right for people to speak their minds and their consciences. This frequently put him in the middle of some of the great speech issues of his time: His reporting from the Scopes "Monkey" Trial, for example, is vibrant even today.
H.L. Mencken was far from a perfect man even in his day, and these days there are a number of questions about his feelings regarding race and religion, in part due to diaries that were made public a number of years after Mencken's death (at his instruction, if I recall correctly, so one can't say he didn't want that aspect of his life out there). But in his public writing he was fearless against what he viewed as the forces of nincompoopery, and had a uniquely American style of rhetoric that you see emulated even today in the political and social critics of this era. A smart man, and a true believer in free speech.
My extra credit: Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury: A book about book burning and banning, that as recently as this last month someone was trying to get banned on the grounds that it was full of "all kinds of filth." Not that he had read the book, of course. The irony was that this fellow was trying to get the book banned during Banned Books Week. The head swims.
You're up: Name someone you consider to be a champion of free speech. Write them up in your blog or journal, and then come back here to leave a link!
Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
This entry has 12 comments: (Add your own)
-
Hi John :)
Here is my weekend assignment, handed in a little later then usual. :) Thought provoking topic as usual! :) Have a good weekend.
Always, Carly
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com/2006/10/john-scal zis-weekend-assignment-133.htm l -
Hi John- here's mine. Thanks for another great topic! Carolyn http://journals.aol.com/lifes
abench6/Noappologies-Biblicalp erspect/ -
People Monponsett is having a birthday!
Come say hi!
http://journals.aol.com/lurkynat/Interface/entries/2006/10/ 13/happy-birthday-smurfette-mo nponsett-have-fun/1198
natalie -
Dear John,
thanks! here is mine:
http://journals.aol.com/lurkynat/Interface/entries/2006/10/ 13/who-do-you-think-is-the-her o-of-american-libertyscalzis-a ssignment/1197
hugs,natalie
10/16/06 1:57 PM
Thank you for a very interesting and great weekend assignment.
Here is my link to my entry, late but it's done (lol): http://journals.aol.com/schoo
Thanks so much,
Gayla
http://journals.aol.com/schoo