On Being Offended

[David Morris]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ3VcbAfd4w

Philip Pullman, addressing an audience at the Sheldonian Theatre in
Oxford, was asked about whether his latest book, The Good Man Jesus
and the Scoundrel Christ, was offensive. Here's his reply:

"It was a shocking thing to say and I knew it was a shocking thing to
say. But no one has the right to live without being shocked. No one
has the right to spend their life without being offended. Nobody has
to read this book. Nobody has to pick it up. Nobody has to open it.
And if you open it and read it, you don't have to like it. And if you
read it and you dislike it, you don't have to remain silent about it.
You can write to me, you can complain about it, you can write to the
publisher, you can write to the papers, you can write your own book.
You can do all those things, but there your rights stop. No one has
the right to stop me writing this book. No one has the right to stop
it being published, or bought, or sold or read. That's all I have to
say on that subject."