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The Censor's Notebook
The Censor's Notebook: A Novel | Liliana Corobca
5 posts | 1 read
A fascinating narrative of life in communist Romania, and a thought-provoking meditation on the nature of literature and censorship. A Censors Notebook is a window into the intimate workings of censorship under communism, steeped in mystery and secrets and lies, confirming the power of literature to capture personal and political truths. The novel begins with a seemingly non-fiction frame storyan exchange of letters between the author and Emilia Codrescu, the female chief of the Secret Documents Office in Romanias feared State Directorate of Media and Printing, the government branch responsible for censorship. Codrescu had been responsible for the burning and shredding of the censors notebooks and the state secrets in them, but prior to fleeing the country in 1974 she had stolen one of these notebooks. Now, forty years later, she makes the notebook available to Liliana, the character of the author, for the newly instituted Museum of Communism. The work of a censora job about which it is forbidden to talkis revealed in this notebook, which discloses the structures of this mysterious institution and describes how these professional readers and ideological error hunters are burdened with hundreds of manuscripts, strict deadlines, and threatening penalties. The censors lose their identity, and are often frazzled by neuroses and other illnesses.
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charl08
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The goal: to educate the Censor inside every thinking human being. To train them to be their own Censor, but to not even suspect it, to not know.

dabbe #bestshirtever I need to find it and buy it! 🤩🤩🤩 (edited) 13mo
charl08 @dabbe there are so many to choose from... https://www.etsy.com/uk/market/i_read_banned_books 13mo
dabbe @charl08 Oh holy guacamole, Batman! I'm going on a shopping spree! (🤫, don't tell my husband!) 🤩🤩🤩 Thanks for the link! 🤗 13mo
charl08 @dabbe v😂👏👏 13mo
45 likes4 comments
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charl08
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Many rumors are circulating about her, she's become a legend in Censorship! What degradation, from a censor to a poet! How shameful!

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charl08
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How is it possible for them to write so many novels?
[...] Writers-a bunch of parasites that just write and write, with all the abundance of incontinence they're capable of. Readers, the poor things, read what's published, what they're offered, but they nonchalantly and with indemnity skip over all the passages that bore them, a sign of mental health, of course. If I weren't a censor, I'd do the same, I don't even think I'd read, actually.

Tamra Love the view! 1y
Cathythoughts Beautiful scene ❤️ 1y
charl08 @Tamra @Cathythoughts I wish I could post the birdsong too. 1y
47 likes3 comments
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charl08
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She asks me: When was the last time you felt satisfied?

I want to laugh the question off, then I think about it: When was the last time I felt truly satisfied? When? She's expecting me to name a book, to brag about some successful author, maybe some lover.....

But no, no, I know when, being completely serious:
-One night recently... when I killed a mosquito that was keeping me from sleeping.

🤣

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charl08
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Despite her many other obligations and tasks, she managed to fill up a thick A4-format notebook... writing almost daily there as well (things that often had nothing to do with her professional obligations). The archival collection of the institution of censorship is immense, miles of documents, and that is after a large part... had already been destroyed. One conclusion would be that censors became truly addicted to writing