Whoever censors books walks on all fours – 03/13/2024 – Sérgio Rodrigues

“All censorship is stupid” is a maxim of uncertain origin that belongs to the collective wisdom of the species. It is indisputable. All censorship is braying and drooling stupidity, and this news couldn’t be older.

According to researcher Eric Berkowitz, author of “Dangerous Ideas”, a history of censorship, the first recorded burning of writings occurred in 430 BC with the work of the Greek philosopher Protagoras, who cast doubt on the existence of the gods.

Why, then, is censorship still capable of making news in the 21st century, as evidenced by the current persecution of the novels “O Avesso da Pele” (Companhia das Letras), by Jeferson Tenório, and “Outono de Carne Estranha” (Record ), by Airton Souza?

The answer is obvious: because stupidity is a constant in human history in general and in Brazilian history in particular. Not only do alfalfa eaters not go out of fashion, but at certain times and places they experience peaks in power and popularity.

For those who have been distracted: Tenório’s book, a delicate story about racism, and Souza’s, which deals sensitively with the homosexual relationship between two miners from Serra Pelada, have suffered different sanctions.

Both are literary successes recognized by the part of Brazil that does not walk on all fours. “O Avesso…”, written by a young but mature author, won a Jabuti and became a best-seller. “Outono…”, his debut work, won the (until then) prestigious Sesc novel award.

None of this prevented Tenório’s book, after being “denounced” by a school director in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, from being withdrawn from the public education network as determined by three state departments of Education – in Paraná, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul .

The –grotesque– allegation is that high school students would be shocked by a few scattered swear words. From high school, that is. Political opportunism is evident, playing tricks on far-right voters.

The case of Souza’s book is more curious, as it involves a shotgun shot in the foot by someone who was supposed to promote it. Shocked by the public reading made by the author in the last Flip, the Sesc management decided to throw in the trash the reputation achieved by an award that was, by far, the most important in the country for unpublished works.

He canceled the publicity agenda for last year’s winners – which includes the beautiful volume of short stories “O Ninho”, by Bethânia Pires Amaro, which had nothing to do with the story – and fired the award’s curator, the writer Henrique Rodrigues, guarantor of its success over two decades.

By doing so, it puts the partnership with the publisher Record at risk, which expressed “extreme discomfort” with what happened. And it raises the suspicion that there will be political-ideological filters for the winners from now on – which, as a short story judge in 2023, I can attest that there were none. In short, the Sesc award had a bout of homosexual panic, jumped into the abyss and, if he hasn’t already died, is in a coma.

Is it stupid or isn’t it? Maximum stupidity, and in series. Meanwhile, the books that the censors try to ban sell more and more and arouse more and more interest – all censorship ends up boycotting itself.

And it also encourages the stupidity of those who, faced with this involuntary commercial stimulus, think that it can be relativized as beneficial, without understanding that the harm done to freedom is an absolute evil, an absolute crime, to be repudiated absolutely.

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