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Content Most Foul: the British Library's Nanny Filter Blocks 'Hamlet'
An anonymous reader writes "A man using the British Library's public wi-fi found that access to an on-line copy of 'Hamlet' was blocked for 'violent content'. Now, it is true that 'Hamlet' is pretty violent (8 murders, including one before the play starts, plus one suicide). But the heavy-handed irony of a guardian of British cultural heritage censoring the greatest work of British literature is just too blatant to be ignored. Library staff initially didn't seem too interested in fixing the problem, but in the end they adjusted the filters."
... the greatest work of British literature ...
Not. Both King Lear and The Tempest are better plays. Hamlet is, however, likely the best vehicle for an actor to present himself.
1st Psot?
And I suppose it lets through the Sam Pechinpah "Tennis Anyone" sketch that Monty Python did.
But the heavy-handed irony of a guardian of British cultural heritage censoring the greatest work of British literature is just too blatant to be ignored.
So, we got the story about Hamlet, then they start talking about censoring Blackadder and provide no link.
The next thing you know they will be banning Bambi.
Thanks for ruining it for me.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
> "Library staff initially didn't seem too interested in fixing the problem, but in the end they adjusted the filters."
Nooooooooooo! They were trying to get kids thinking it was forbidden to them.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
TFA's a little short on detail, but why are they blocking violent content in the first place? I assume they have some reason to do so. And if that's the case, should it matter how old or famous the unacceptably violent work is?
Bottom line: if Hamlet fits their definition of inappropriate content, should they make explicit exceptions for particularly famous and important works, or should they evaluate the overall filtering/blocking objectives and rationale as well as the mechanisms and algorithms implementing those restrictions?
I am not a crackpot.
Brannagh had a huge Hamlet.
Stick Men
The next book to be censored will be Ezekiel.
Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 2)....
QUEEN GERTRUDE: Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
HAMLET: No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.
LORD POLONIUS: [To KING CLAUDIUS] O, ho! do you mark that?
HAMLET: Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
Lying down at OPHELIA's feet
OPHELIA: No, my lord.
HAMLET: I mean, my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA: Ay, my lord.
HAMLET: Do you think I meant country matters?
OPHELIA: I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET: That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
OPHELIA: What is, my lord?
HAMLET: Nothing.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
Maybe this blocking idea isn't so bad after all! ;-)
Damn those leeches of public money and corroders of Western liberalism to hell.
Dude!!! That's the same episode with the Cheese Shop Sketch, the greatest bit of funniness since the Ministry of Silly Walks. I love the Cheese Shop Sketch! That should never be banned since it's one of the finest moments of television ever made.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
They're doing it deliberately. If the nanny state wants violent things blocked, then that includes Hamlet.
If they want Hamlet, they have to give up their censorship BS.
there's more to literature than the freakin' plot! So Shakespeare's version of a Danish story can still be fine British literature. particularly if it's written in English.
I'd bet they just "adjusted" the nannyware to pass Shakespeare. So The Bard's work will be seen, but any new talent whose work's quality might approach or surpass his will not.
(Not to say that Blackadder and Hamlet are even in the same league. But that IS something to be decided by tens of generations of readers and viewers, not a piece of software written by a handfull of people from this one.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Observe. (ahem) The Beatles were a pretty good band. They had good songs. Like "Hey Jude." That was a good song.
Troll: You guys will fight about anything.
Biter: fuck you, no we won't!
OMG that's so funny. Porn filters blocking great literature.
What would the bard say?
"With this bit I damn thee..."
"She censored well but not wisely"
"O, reason not the need!"
"Art made tongue-tied by authority." (had to look this one up)
If they think Hamlet is too violent with 8 murders and one suicide, what about the Bible? That thing's full of people killing other people for various reasons. Heck, the exodus from Egypt alone kills all of the Pharaoh's soldiers while the Israelites celebrate on the shore. (To be fair to the Israelites, they did just escape from slavery. Seeing your former slave masters drowning as you escape to freedom is cause for celebration.) Is the Bible censored too? Do we need to come up with a child-friendly version of it?
"And so, as Lot escaped Sodom and Gomorrah, God came down and... gave them a very stern talking to.... then Lot's wife looked back and... got really dizzy so she had to lie down for a bit..."
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Larry Niven, Ringworld. First appearance of Speaker-to-Animals.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Suit you, sir!
Juliet was 14 years old.
Hamwallet
Larry Niven, Ringworld. First appearance of Speaker-to-Animals.
Only "first" in the sense of failed attempts to get the earliest post on a Slashdot story. Ringworld was first published in 1970. The Story of Doctor Dolittle was first published in 1920. Other examples are older.
That or William Shakespeare has been dead long enough (70+ years) that his works have expired from the blacklist.
This makes sense, since we were told was boring, and that its work should be consumed as alternative media to remain entertaining.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. This bodes some strange eruption to our state. Contagious blastments are most imminent. Who is't that can inform me? (of how low England has sunk) And then it started like a guilty thing (soon Top Gear will be blocked) O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! These tedious old fools!
The Bible and Koran are for more violent and objectionable than any Shakespeare work.
Especially when you get past the sermon on humankind's futility in "Ecclesiastes" and hit the fifty shades of grey that are "Song of Solomon".
I wonder how many copies of Hamlet were on the book shelves in that library or are physical books not hip enough to read these days?
The filtering works correctly so why do I read this in Slashdot?
I wonder what other great works of literature are being blocked by this system because they are too violent. Some others that come to mind as possible candidates are:
Beiowulf
The Song of Roland
The Canterbury Tails
The Divine Comedy
Le Morte d'Drthur
The Three Musketeers
One Thousand and One Nights
The Iliad
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Epic of Gilgamesh
There are plenty of others that I could add to the list but these are some of the most widely known stories in western societies and are part of our cultural heritage. As I am not in the UK I can't investigate but it would be interesting to see what is blocked. Or better yet instead of blocking things we just accept that a very large portion of our great literary works contain vast amounts of violence or sex and just let it go. It isn't like the Disney version of stories actually is true to the source, go read the original Grimms' Snow White or Aladdin and The Wonderful Lamp from One Thousand and One Nights for just a couple of examples.
Time to offend someone