Review by ceruleanblue87 -- The Banned Book about Love

[bluegreenmarina]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Banned Book about Love" by Scott Hughes.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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The Banned Book About Love by Scott Hughes is a philosophical essay about the nature of love in general, and how that relates to the recent court case for Brock Turner, otherwise known as the Stanford rapist. Initially titled I Love Brock Turner, the book was pulled from Amazon due to controversy around the title, regardless of the content within.

In this short work, Hughes describes and contrasts love and love-based actions with the concept of hate, and specifically how that hate manifests in social media following widely-publicized cases such as that of Brock Turner. Hughes illustrates that while many of these commentators claim to be acting from a place of love, that the actual content of their messages is laced with hate. Proceeding with a statement of love toward Brock Turner and others like him, the author aims to challenge the reader to examine what it means to love, and whether we, as a society and as individuals, embody the concept of love as effectively as we should.

Concepts that are explored in the work include the idea of the lesser evil and how that relates to the notion of doing no harm and/or causing no pain to those around us. For example, while the author asserts that we should love all people – even rapists, murderers, terrorists, etc. – he also emphasizes that this does not mean letting all people (even those he describes as “deranged”) to roam free and do anything they want, but that to truly love everyone we also have to provide safe places for the rest of us, meaning those who may do harm must be treated and institutionalized to keep the others safe. Through this he also explores the current reality of the incarceration system, posing several challenges and questions as to their effectiveness as a tool of rehabilitation.

This work posed some interesting and profound concepts on our tendencies to act within a hive mentality when faced with sensational cases as the one mentioned above. While the title may be somewhat of a ploy to get people talking, the actual concepts presented within are rational and coherent, and definitely worth discussing. If anything, this perhaps should have been a longer work, since many of the topics mentioned are explored only very narrowly, sometimes requiring the reader to pause and process in order to understand the point that is being made.

Due to the nuanced nature of this subject matter – the idea that we as a society do not demonstrate our love very effectively – much deeper analysis could and should be devoted to the different aspects of love and how it contrasts to the hate and other negative messages we are exposed to daily. I gave the book 3 out of 4 stars simply because I believe the concepts presented deserve a richer analysis, which is ironic considering that part of the problem as described by the author is our culture’s shift toward a “tl;dr” mentality.

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The Banned Book about Love
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