Donna Leon: “It’s called censorship”

2023-05-19 14:04:00

literature Best-selling author

“It’s called censorship,” says Donna Leon

As of 2:06 p.m | Reading time: 2 minutes

Donna Leon is best known for her crime novels

Source: Sebastian Willnow/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

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Writer Donna Leon is annoyed that literary classics such as “Pippi Longstocking” are being cleaned of racist terms. She compares the changes with the communist era – and reports on a curious storm of protest against one of her books.

Dhe bestselling author Donna Leon (80) sees a new era of censorship coming. “We now live in a world in which one is not allowed to write anything that offends, surprises, hurts, disturbs or in any other way affects readers’ sensitivities,” said the writer of the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (Friday): “I like that not at all. That’s called censorship.”

Donna Leon compares the practice of removing racist terms from literary classics such as “Pippi Longstocking” with the historical distortion of communism: “In the name of values ​​and morals, people redact the past – just like the communists did in Russia,” said the 80-year-old: “Anyone who just marched along on the day of victory was retouched from the photo the next year.” Leon advocates recognizing the language of the past as part of history.

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Leon said there had never been a storm of protest against her own books – with one exception: After she let a dog die in one of her crime novels, readers wrote letters of protest: “I probably let around 50 people die in my crime novels. That doesn’t bother anyone. But the fun stops with a golden retriever.” The US-Swiss writer is best known for her detective novels about the Venetian police officer Commissario Guido Brunetti.

With a wink, Leon revealed an intimate secret of her heroes. When asked if Commissario Brunetti and his wife Paola were still sleeping together, Leon replied: “Of course. They are Italians.” She explains why her books omit the subject as follows: “It is almost impossible not to make sex sound ridiculous. I decided early on not to even try.”