Remember the Swamp Fox!
February 20th, 2006 at 10:47 pm (Outside News)
Farah Mendlesohn, an editor and critic, has announced that she will publish a collection of stories in protest of the law currently being sent through the British Parlament that would ban “the glorification of terrorismâ€. It has already passed through the House of Commons and now must get through the House of Lords. It’s a big deal and is being strongly oppossed by people from many different political parties and ideologies. This law could quite easily and without any real stretches in interpretation ban many stories that are considered classic. Everything from Star Wars and Robin Hood to stories about the American Revolution could easily been seen to break this law, and thus be banned. Farah Mendlesohn is looking for submissions of stories that would break this law. Submission guidelines and contact information can be found at Notes from Coode Street.
*The title of this post refers to one of my favourite legends of the American Revolution - the Swamp Fox, a very Robin Hood type of figure who hid in the swamps with a band of like-minded men and managed to be a huge annoyance to the local British authorities and an inspiration and rallying point for the local patriots. He could easily be described as a terrorist, we just tend to refer to him as a patriot because the people who have continued to tell his story would have been on the same side of the war as him!
Alan De Smet said,
February 21, 2006 at 3:48 pm
I’ve occasionally seen someone suggest that attacking property
with the intent to harm the owner is a form of terrorism and is
never morally right. I’m always interested to hear what they
have to say about the Boston Tea Party. The Swamp Fox is cool, but I suspect the Tea Party is better known.
(Only marginally relatedly, if someone suggests that breaking the
law is always morally wrong, I become interested in their opinion
of the Underground (Slave) Railroad.)
Katie said,
February 21, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Yes, the Boston Tea Party is much better known, but I like the Swamp Fox a lot more. It’s just a cool story.