Letter to Hans van den Broek [Re. Censorship] (Charles Bukowski)

Who is Jeremy Ward July 22nd 1985 dear Hans vanbrook thank you for your letter telling me of the removal of one of my books for the nahan library and that it is accused of discrimination against black people homosexuals and women and that it is sadism because of the sadism the thing that I fear discriminating against is humor and truth if I write badly about blacks homosexuals and women it is because of these who I met were that there are many bads bad dogs bad sensorship there are even bad white males only when you write about bad White males they don't complain about it and when NE I say that they are good blacks good homosexuals and good women in my work as a writer I only photograph in words what I see if I write of sadism it is because it exists I didn't invent it and if some terrible act occurs in my work it is because such things happen in our lives I'm not on the side of evil if such a thing as evil abounds in my writing I do not always agree with what occurs nor do I linger in the mud for the sheer sake of it also it is curious that the people who rail against my Works seem to overlook the sections of it which entail joy and hope and love and there are such sections my days my years my life has seen up and downs lights and darknesses if I write only continually of the light and never mention the other then as an artist I would be a liar censorship is the tool of those who have the need to hide the actualities from themselves and from others Their Fear is only their inability to face what is real and I can't vent any anger against them I only feel this appalling sadness somewhere in their upbringing they were shielded against the total facts of our existence they were only taught to look one way when many ways exist I'm not dismay that one of my books have been hunted down and dislodged from the shelves of a local library in a sense I am honored that I've written something that has awakened these from their non- ponderous deaths but I am hurt yes when somebody else's book is censored for that book usually is a great book and there are few of those and throughout the ages that that type of book has often generated into a classic and what once was thought shocking and immoral is now required reading and many of our universities I'm not saying that my book is one of those but I am saying that in our time at this moment when any moment may be the last for many of us it's damn ging and possibly sad that we still have Among Us the small bitter people the witch Hunters and the declaimers against reality yet these two belong with us they are part of the whole and if I haven't written about them I should maybe have here and that's enough may we all get better together yours Charles pukowski