This quote comes from the book 'The Picture Of Dorian Grey', ironically enough. This book was and is still acclaimed as a great classic, so I find it funny that a quote like this was a part of it. When I hear this quote, the first thing that comes to mind are the book bannings that trademark some of the earliest times in history, before the Enlightenment when the church had an enormous amount of influence over the people.
The books being banned were often theories based around science that went against what the church was teaching. These books were indeed the beginning of the Enlightenment, but the church did all they could to fight it by restricting not only these books, but an individual's right to interpret the bible. That's right, it was considered to be an act of heresy if you interpreted the bible for yourself. Now I can't speak for everyone here, but I know that I've read most of the bible before and I've interpreted it for myself. I take from the bible what I see to be morally correct, and apply it to my own life- mainly, the ten commandments. Do not kill, do not steal, the baseline. Much of the bible I see as a history lesson with many different biases thrown in- because the bible was written by man, not by God. That's besides the point; the point here is that if anyone spoke out against the church, they were crushed and called a heretic. In those times, this could lead to a painful death. Coming back to the quote... it states that books labeled immoral are often the books that show the world in its own shame. In the case of book banning, the church certainly saw these books as immoral. They were exposing the truth about the world, and therefor lessening the church's control over the people and exposing their lies. That leaves me to wonder- how much is currently being held back from us due to a fear of a loss of control? How much of history has been twisted and forgotten, not because of shame... but because of a truth that would throw perception out of balance? Just some food for thought. - Maddie
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