Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, September 5, 1993                   TAG: 9308290316
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 4   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: reviewed by Mike Mayo Book Page Editor
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CENSORSHIP: WHO WANTS TO BAN WHAT

Strictly defined "censorship" refers to the banning of certain works by the government. In the popular sense, it can be applied to anyone who tries to keep someone else from experiencing certain works. Book burners, record banners, "diversity" zealots, outraged feminists and many more of every political stripe have tried to silence those whose work they dislike.

As editor George Beahm so clearly demonstrates in this book, censorship is not a simple subject. His goal here is to allow many of the voices on all sides of the unwieldy issue to have their say. Beahm's own anti-censorship views are openly stated and so he lets the other side speak for itself. It's up to each reader then to judge the value and validity of the arguments.

Stephen King, Salman Rushdie, Phyllis Schlafly, John Frohnmayer, Dave Berry, Anne Rice and many others are included, too. But, for my money, the most passionate and eloquent is Ray Bradbury, whose "Farenheit 451" has been the subject of more than one attack. Bradbury says, in part:

"There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib/Republican, Mattachine/Four Square-Gospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write about a nursery rhyme."

It's unlikely that "War of Words" will change anyone's mind. Instead, for anyone who's interested in this fascinating and often vicious debate, it's a good place to start. After all, you can't tell the players apart without a score card.