by Guy Page
Today, January 3, is the 132st birthday of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973), author of The Lord of Rings.
In a September 12, 1960 letter to his son Christopher, he quoted from a recent book by his friend C. S. Lewis: ”I think we must get it firmly fixed in our minds that the very occasions on which we would most like to write a slashing review are precisely those on which we had better hold our tongues.”
Hear, hear….when the subject of our slashing is another VDC commenter.
Over the holidays, the Vermont Daily Chronicle comments section saw a kerfuffle over “censorship” involving edits or deletion of a small number of comments which without exception violated our minimalist comments policy: no profanity, no explicit racist or sexually demeaning language, or no personally mocking other commenters.
To that end, we’ve posted the rules where every would-be commenter can read them: “All topics and opinions welcome! Real names preferred. No profanity, explicit racist or sexually demeaning language, or personal criticism/mocking of other commenters allowed.”
As always, we welcome free-flowing information and discussion on any and all topics, subjects, opinions, policies AND public figures.
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