{"id":1525,"date":"2026-03-31T12:23:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/?p=1525"},"modified":"2026-03-31T13:02:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T20:02:29","slug":"banned-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/?p=1525","title":{"rendered":"Banned Books"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">Literature should be a transcription of life in all its forms, including the darker parts.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Lolita (Nabokov) and The Monk (Lewis) are masterpieces because they\u2019re horrendous and lovely, appealing and tender at the same time, horror stories and love stories simultaneously. They plow the depths of depravity of desire but they are also true to our nature. Every grown man who has ever \u2018looked\u2019 at a younger woman has a bit of Humbert in him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Good stories should break your heart and repulse you. The Bluest Eyes (Morrison) which explores the effects of societal norms of beauty ideals is a perfect example.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>Thoughts beyond our souls<\/i>\u2014as Shakespeare said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">For Nabokov if you did not read a novel with<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>your \u201cback\u201d \u2014 referring to that tingling literature should give you, there was no point in reading it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">You want books that tingle your back? The U.S. Government has kindly complied a list, the Banned Books. Start there. Actually, start with The Bluest Eyes.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Literature should be a transcription of life in all its forms, including the darker parts.\u00a0 Lolita (Nabokov) and The Monk (Lewis) are masterpieces because they\u2019re horrendous and lovely, appealing and tender at the same time, horror stories and love stories simultaneously. They plow the depths&nbsp;<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/?p=1525\">&hellip;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1525"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1528,"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525\/revisions\/1528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}