Writers & Their Punishments

Ashes to Ashes--David Bowie
Once In A Lifetime--Talking Heads
Don't Dream It's Over--Crowded House
Every Breath You Take--Police
Men at Work--Down Under

Oscar Wilde: The Happy Prince (and other stories)
I picked this up after reading the short bio on the back, about Oscar Wilde. It says, simply...Oscar Wilde, writer of genius and flamboyant exponent of the Aesthetic Movement, was born in Dublin in 1854. Famous for his sharp wit and shrewd social observation, he took London by storm with a series of sparkling comedies, among them his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnet. Yet his popularity was short-lived. An unsuccessful libel case led to his imprisonment and he died in self-imposed exile in France in 1900.

I read this, and picked it up, thinking, how terrible it is for writers then and now and everywhere. Still punished for what they say and write, even if it is fictional or even if it is true. So many very good writers were sent to prisons, back then, for nothing more than offending the wrong people. Their talent was locked up because someone couldn't shut them up. And then I think about all the journalists who are simliarly published. Some, intimidated by their publishers to write a story a certain way with a certain slant, and others, sent to jail or become POW for what they write. Brilliant writers have been exiled from their own countries, and less than brilliant writers punished by any means available.

Bette Davis Eyes--Kim Carnes