"Governments are suspicious of literature because it is a force that eludes them." -- French author, journalist and playwright Émile Zola, from 'La Bête Humaine'. Zola was a major writer in the literary school of naturalism, and influenced the style of later writers like Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer. Born April 2, 1840 in Paris, Zola is also famous for his open letter "J'Accuse....!" printed in the newspaper L'Aurore, January 13, 1898, in which he came to the defense of wrongly accused French officer Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
Today we see far-right, book-banning demagogues like Florida's DeSantis are suspicious of literature that questions their view of the world and of the society around them. While it may serve their immediate goals in electoral politics to ban certain literature, in the long term literature will prove to be a "force that eludes them."
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