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From: http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/they-cut-that-scene-didnt-they


They Cut that Scene, didn’t they?

Posted by James A MooreJuly 12, 2009

Here it is in a nutshell: Censorship is like incest. It should always stay in the home (Oh, lighten up; the incest part’s a joke.) That’s my opinion of the matter and I doubt sincerely you’ll change my opinion.
Not all that long ago I was rather surprised to see a horror author urging people to sign a petition against the upcoming movie THE ORPHAN. The reasoning? Fear that people seeing the movie would be yurned against the idea of adoption.
Fair enough. It’s always possible that the masses will suddenly forget their common sense, watch the movie, decide that all orphans are hideous demon spawn and then urge their elected officials to ban orphanages, orphans and adoption. It’s even possible that the elected officials might decide to do exactly that, too. Not probable, but possible.
That said, I was still a little puzzled. See, we’re not talking a political debate here, we’re talking a movie. One that looks like it could even be fun. From my perspective at least. On the other hand, I haven’t been trying to adopt a child for a while. But back to that first hand, I’m not exactly known for holding back in my writing, so why would I want to encourage others to ask a movie production company to forget about the few million dollars they put into the movie and advertising and take a financial blow during these tough economic times?
I wouldn’t. I don’t agree with that mentality. I will, however, defend the rights of one or a hundred others to state that they disagree with me.
The thing is, as I stated above, as far as I’m concerned, censorship belongs at home. If you don’t want to watch a movie about demonic children being adopted, then by all means don’t fork over the ten bucks to go see it. That’s just as solid a blow against the company as a letter writing campaign. You’re taking money out of their pockets. I feel the same way about all censorship.
Once upon a time a few concerned politicians decided that Batman and Robin were possibly secretly condoning funny business between men and young boys and that reading Tales From the Crypt would lead children to killing everyone who looked at them funny. In order to avoid being raked over the coals for a few more years, the comics industry came up with the Comics Code Seal of Approval, which let parents know which comics were safe for their children and which ones were not. Back in the day, Tipper Gore suggested putting age restrictions on music because she discovered that some music that kids like has suggestive language, profanity and threats of violence. Actually, I believe she was just flat out trying to get the stuff banned, but instead we wound up with a voluntary system of labeling music to let parents know if the music their children want to listen to is risqué. That’s fine with me. There’s also a ratings system for movies, for television and for video games. The TV and games are voluntary. I believe the one for movies is mandatory. All of these things are to protect children and sensitive adults. They’re warnings. They’re supposed to prepare you for the potential issues that will come up.
Rated M for mature: extreme violence and sexual situations. I worked in a store that dealt with movies, books, games and music. I learned all of the ratings systems. I also learned, oddly enough, that most of the parents in this part of the country are just fine with extreme violence for their ten year olds, but a lot of them felt letting their child (male or female) see any part of a naked body was nearly a criminal offense. Apparently it’s okay to cave a few heads in, but knocking up the girl next door is the sort of thing that can really cause a scandal and looks bad at the next PTA meeting.
See, I’m very fond of those ratings systems. Why? Because they allow consumers to choose for themselves. I’m a consumer. Frankly, I don’t want anyone telling me what I can or cannot watch, read, listen to, or interact with on a digital level. Nor do I need it. I’m a big boy and can decide for myself.
The counterargument is that there are some people who are unstable and dangerous and that they can be influenced by the ideas put into music, film, video games, comic books and written words. They could get ideas from those very sources and those seeds could lead to them harming others.
Fair enough.
I mean, really, Columbine. It happened, right? There were guns and bombs and those kids watched that movie, The Basketball Diaries and that contributed, right?
Or, maybe, follow along with me here, people, maybe it was the fact that the kids were constantly bullied by the school toughs. Maybe it was the fact that they had access to guns. Maybe it was the long hours of being unsupervised and left to their own schemes. Maybe all of that contributed even more to the problems than a movie did.
Listen, I’m not judging anyone here. I’m just stating my opinion. All I know is that if I had even TRIED to build a homemade bomb in my garage or bedroom or really anywhere at all, my mother would have known about it. Even if she wouldn’t have known about it, I would have been too damned paranoid to consider it on the off chance that she would have known about it.
The Basketball Diaries is no more responsible for Columbine than Stephen King is for a sociopath who writes “Red rum,” on a wall in a victim’s blood. The murders would have happened either way, but because a movie was seen or a book was read, suddenly fingers start pointing. Nor do I believe that every child who reads a Harry Potter book is suddenly going to start worshipping Satan, but in my time I’ve dealt with no less than four adults who, having not read page one of any of the books, had already decided that J. K. Rowling was trying to corrupt the minds of their younger relatives.
I don’t believe that every kid who sees The Orphan is suddenly going to be a scheming destroyer. I believe that a scheming destroyer is going to exist with or without the movie as an influence. And, frankly, if seeing a movie is all it takes for anyone to decide to go on a killing spree, then that person is beyond merely flawed to begin with.
So, no. I do not believe in censorship.
I believe that when I’m writing a short story or a novel I am the censor. Possibly with a secondary censorship put in place by my editors depending on the circumstances. If I’m writing a young adult novel, there are certain limitations that I am well aware of. Those are there because the market is different and because, frankly, some of the subjects simply do not need to be a part of the story.
When I wrote BLOOD RED I had a character who was a prostitute. Her world view was a bit changed by the fact that she had sex for money. As it was a part of her perspective, sex became prevalent in scenes with her. I did not get overly graphic, but only because I didn’t deem it necessary. There are sex scenes. They are, in my opinion, necessary for the story. If they weren’t, I’d have cut them. There are no sex scenes in DEEPER, which does not have a hooker as a main character. They weren’t necessary.
I’ve had my share of arguments about whether or not scenes were important. I’ve done my best to actually listen to the arguments presented. I’ve also had a few of my books banned to one extent or another. Some of the work I did for White Wolf Games caused supplements to be banned by distributors who took offense to my writings because the fiction involved children getting hurt or corrupted by outside influences. My answer: welcome to the real world. You know, where sometimes children get hurt, corrupted or flat out killed. I write fiction, true, but there should be at least a few elements of truth in the work if you see my point.
I don’t listen to much hardcore rap music. It isn’t my thing. Doesn’t mean I should be telling people they can’t listen to it. I also don’t listen to much country music. I don’t believe that every person who listens to rap music is suddenly going to get into gang violence and I don’t believe that every person listening to country music is going to take up chewing tobacco, drinking a 12 pack a night and beating all hell out of their girlfriends, either. Is there a correlation? Maybe. Should the possibility that these things could happen stop my ability to listen to either form of music? Absolutely not.
Censorship belongs at home. You can censor yourselves and your minor children to your heart’s content, but please, people, do not expect everyone else to follow your example. If they did, there’d be a lot less interesting fiction in the world.
If you intend to write horror, fantasy, science fiction, straight fiction or any sort of fiction, frankly, censorship should belong in your hands, not in the hands of a select few who decide to take offense at your writings.
That’s all for this rant.
James A. Moore