nice post

Good post!
They were subversive before TV came, IMHO

Please join the Steemit book club. It can be found here: #bookclub

People ban influences they don't like, like how Christian parents did with metal, rock and roll, etc. Literature has always fallen in the same traps, don't read Camus or Sartre because they're communist, you can't read Machiavelli because he's a pragmatist and that's evil, you can't read Nietzsche because it's just the raving of a man with syphilis, don't you dare read Ovid because he is a lecherous traitor to our glorious Augustus and defiles the sanctity of love,  and so forth until most great authors are on the list. 

Censorship is what everyone in power wants. It has something to do with the subversive power of literature, but also if a work doesn't fall in line with the contemporary thinking, even in terms of something as straight forward as Sidereus Nuncius, those on top will try their hardest to eradicate and suppress it, but rarely with lasting success.  Great books are humanity's property, and can never really be withheld from us. They will find their way to our eyes. 

Good post, it brings up some of the most important questions of writing.

Thanks for sharing your observations in a concise and powerful manner. Literature is a powerful ways for individuals to share thoughts and ideas, especially when the the ideas may not be the accepted thought of the time.

Mind-blowing post. I talked about the importance of reading before: https://steemit.com/steemit/@corina/the-magic-you-re-missing-out-on , although with a much more basic idea in mind. Your article is pretty thought-provoking  so thank you for sharing.

"The value of reading Literature",
 It's true, reading is one of my favorite things to do with Literature

Very..very good ;)

I myself am not for banning anyone's creation, but I usually check out what it's about before I subject myself to someone else's weirdness or perversity, some is worth checking out, others frightful or aweful, but how would you learn anything if all the transformational stuff is stolen away from you?

Nice posting, but I will read your posting later, I have to go out, any way keep going on ;)

Wonderful post!

I feel that literature is one of the most powerful weapons that we have, and I love sharing powerful literature that has helped shape me, like the works of[Robert A. Heinlein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein), [Michael Moorcock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock) and [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin).

I've been working with the idea of #solutionsoriented literature for some time, trying to spread that phrase to people. Right now, I'm almost done re-writing, and markdown formatting, the introduction/proposal for a big project based around this idea. Give me a [follow](http://steemit.com/@kennyskitchen) or just keep your eye on the [newly-posted "writing"](https://steemit.com/created/writing) content, I'll probably be publishing it tomorrow, I'd love your feedback and/or involvement :-)

Very informative. One new follower here.

Creativity and endeavor is always seen as a threat... and is a "vital point" in life.  Just as nature constantly creates and renews, so must our views and it is no one's priviledge to ban something that adds to the benefit and experience of others.

Hi @chhaylin, I wholeheartedly agree. Have you noticed that if you actually turn off the TV and the internet, you go away and read literature or books more often?  Sparking the imagination of the future political possibilities is absolutely necessary to be able to incite love for other human beings. From my understanding, the political layer is a construct that is reactionary to the underlying moral, philosophical, emotional and actual base layers of any human society. If the base layers are messed up, with less free thought, less critical thinking, then naturally the political layers themselves evolve to become more violent, centralized, authoritarian and volatile...If you read some of the works by Nassim Taleb and his ideas of anti-fragile, these are important for humans to start building the base for the next evolutions of civilization. There is actually a battle raging, and it is very deep to find it. That is centralization vs. decentralization. More poets, literature writers and critics could explore this battle. It has taken me 4 years of research nearly everyday to uncover a lot of this. The battle isn't even a physical battle anymore, it is a battle to occupy the thoughts of the human mind so that people start to believe in their conscious levels that their free will is actually influenced and controled to a certain extent. Only with the decentralized internet and uncensored comments do we start to realize this. Allegory of the cave is actually very important, because Plato understood that he couldn't explain everything, and 2000 years later we still can't but at least he could express it in the context of the material world being a sub-set reflection of the perfect external world.

Yep, it will subvert mainstream thought every time. When I was seven (1978) our tv gave a puff of smoke and quit, we didn't have another until I was in tenth grade. Over that time I read more than two thousand books. I'd go to the library every two weeks and check out my limit of eight and usually be looking for something else to read by middle of the second week. 
I blame that period for my never adopting hero worship, or being a pop culture maven. I like what I like, because it speaks to me,  I think literature taught me that. Nice post! Thanks!

Maybe you should also mention, 
that since George Orwells 1984 is becoming popular in Egypt, 
the military-based government has arrested some people for reading that book!
<a target='_BLANK' href='http://blog.gabrielsaldana.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/1984.jpg'><img src='http://blog.gabrielsaldana.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/1984.jpg'/></a>
Here is a little article linked: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/10/egyptian-student-arrested-1984-orwell

Another insightful and intelligent post. I love the articles you have put out on Steemit so far. You have found one more follower in me.

Interesting take. But it can also be challenged that such books as animal farm and Brave New World were banned because it challenged the morality of certain institutional and political figures actions. Moreover you will notice I am sure that Thoreau's Walden was not banned from France or Britain during the eighteenth century and it is pretty much a work that advocates the individual to stand up for their rights  and seeks to undermine totalitarianism.

I have been well invigorated by this exceptionally well written piece.  Thank you @chhlayin!