Review by Khaya -- The Banned Book about Love
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Khaya
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Review by Khaya -- The Banned Book about Love
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Banned Book about Love" by Scott Hughes.]
3 out of 4 stars
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The Banned Book of Love by Scott Hughes is a nonfiction and social commentary that tries to persuade its reader to agree with its controversial opinion about loving those who harm us. The book actually got banned on Amazon. Why did this happen? One of the likely reasons is that the book begins with the author claiming to love Brock Turner, aka “the Stanford rapist.” The author, Scott Hughes, confidently claims to love all types of sexual assaulters, from those convicted for attempting it, to full-blown child molesters. The rest of the book goes on to explain why the author loves them.
According to a message from Scott Hughes to OnlineBookClub, before it was banned, the original book earned over a thousand downloads in the few days after it was published, and became the #1 bestseller in Amazon’s Philosophy category.
In The Banned Book of Love, Scott Hughes argues that there is no benefit to having self-righteous rage, using the Brock Turner case as his prime example. Brock Turner was a Stanford University swimmer who was convicted for sexually assaulting an intoxicated, unconscious girl. He was also heavily intoxicated at the time, and was sentenced to 6 months in prison, however he only served 3 months. The internet broke out into an outrage over the light court sentence. In this short book, Scott Hughes shares his reactions and opinions on the outrage, then uses his analysis to talk about this type of social phenomenon in general. Scott Hughes argues that this type of self-righteous outrage is blood boiling and equates to hate. Humans easily, and passionately react to such unfairness and are inclined to give into this hate. We live in a day and age where injustice and outrage goes viral. This causes hate to fester as we feed off one another’s anger.
Despite the book becoming a bestseller on Amazon within a few days, the book was taken down due to being negatively received by readers who likely believed that Scott Hughes was supporting sexual assault because they did not fully read the first chapter of the book. In an outcry, people went as far as to post hateful things on Scott Hughes’s Twitter account. According to the message Hughes gave to OnlineBookClub, someone had even tried to hack his Twitter account a few days after the book was on Amazon,
In the first pages of the book, Scott Hughes keeps a neutral position and even agrees that the resulting sentence was unfair. What he opposed was the hate that often came paired with those who wanted Turner to receive a harsher punishment. Part of Scott Hughes criticism of it was that this type of self-righteous rage did not have a means. Meaning, it was irrational and the end result did not benefit anyone. Scott Hughes argues it is easier to hate someone than to love them. He claims he does not hate Brock Turner, or any person in particular, even if they are a serial rapist, terrorist, or murderer. However, he also adds that this does not mean that he wants all criminals to be set free to wander the streets, and states that they should be locked up for committing grievous crimes.
Scott Hughes's original book was released on Amazon on June 13th, 2016. According to Goodreads, the original copy
was an 18-page booklet titled I Love Brock Turner. How different The Banned Book of Love is from the original, I do not know, but it was also a short read of about 18 pages. The subject matter started off scandalous, making it a page turner and enticing me to keep reading. I began to wonder, was the reading’s malicious subject matter the very captivating and stimulating fuel the author was addressing? At the same time, the controversial subject did not entice some readers, but rather made them immediately reject the book without giving it a chance. Ironically, these were the very type of people the book was addressing—individuals who see the world in black and white—with love or hate.
I thought The Banned Book Of Love contained and illustrated a very interesting idea. Scott Hughes brings up a lot of perfectly good examples and his reasoning is fairly solid. The philosophical standpoint he argues for is something that most people do not adhere to. In the beginning of the booklet, I found myself disagreeing with most of what he was saying, but as I kept reading, he continued to present one valid point after the other, gradually causing my way of thinking to align more with his. Though I may not agree with everything he said, I can certainly say that his work changed my way of thinking.
Scott Hughes's argument was very sound, however I still do not agree with parts of it, mostly because I do not equate anger with hate the way he does. I believe hate is a very strong word, and carries many different implications. Scott Hughes’ terminology of the words love and hate, compassion and anger, felt abstract and different to the definitions that I associate with. You can be very angry with someone and have self-righteous outrage, however that does not mean you hate that person. From my experience, people more easily get angered at the people they know, because they love them, expect more from them, and become disappointed. I also do not believe it is possible to truly love, or truly hate someone I do not personally know.
I give this booklet a rating of 3 out of 4. While many of us are familiar with the concept of bearing no malice, Scott Hughes’ The Banned Book of Love has broken it down further for me. Due to the revelations this book presented to me, I will change my approach to these types of blood boiling scenarios in the future. The potential for this book to be something I would urge others to buy is there. I recommend it to learn a philosophy that many should adopt into their lives. It is regretful that the book was taken down by Amazon. Especially considering that, for every downloaded copy, the author pledged to donate 10 cents to a charity that would aid victims of sexual assault.
******
The Banned Book about Love
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Khaya's review? Post a comment saying so!
3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
The Banned Book of Love by Scott Hughes is a nonfiction and social commentary that tries to persuade its reader to agree with its controversial opinion about loving those who harm us. The book actually got banned on Amazon. Why did this happen? One of the likely reasons is that the book begins with the author claiming to love Brock Turner, aka “the Stanford rapist.” The author, Scott Hughes, confidently claims to love all types of sexual assaulters, from those convicted for attempting it, to full-blown child molesters. The rest of the book goes on to explain why the author loves them.
According to a message from Scott Hughes to OnlineBookClub, before it was banned, the original book earned over a thousand downloads in the few days after it was published, and became the #1 bestseller in Amazon’s Philosophy category.
In The Banned Book of Love, Scott Hughes argues that there is no benefit to having self-righteous rage, using the Brock Turner case as his prime example. Brock Turner was a Stanford University swimmer who was convicted for sexually assaulting an intoxicated, unconscious girl. He was also heavily intoxicated at the time, and was sentenced to 6 months in prison, however he only served 3 months. The internet broke out into an outrage over the light court sentence. In this short book, Scott Hughes shares his reactions and opinions on the outrage, then uses his analysis to talk about this type of social phenomenon in general. Scott Hughes argues that this type of self-righteous outrage is blood boiling and equates to hate. Humans easily, and passionately react to such unfairness and are inclined to give into this hate. We live in a day and age where injustice and outrage goes viral. This causes hate to fester as we feed off one another’s anger.
Despite the book becoming a bestseller on Amazon within a few days, the book was taken down due to being negatively received by readers who likely believed that Scott Hughes was supporting sexual assault because they did not fully read the first chapter of the book. In an outcry, people went as far as to post hateful things on Scott Hughes’s Twitter account. According to the message Hughes gave to OnlineBookClub, someone had even tried to hack his Twitter account a few days after the book was on Amazon,
In the first pages of the book, Scott Hughes keeps a neutral position and even agrees that the resulting sentence was unfair. What he opposed was the hate that often came paired with those who wanted Turner to receive a harsher punishment. Part of Scott Hughes criticism of it was that this type of self-righteous rage did not have a means. Meaning, it was irrational and the end result did not benefit anyone. Scott Hughes argues it is easier to hate someone than to love them. He claims he does not hate Brock Turner, or any person in particular, even if they are a serial rapist, terrorist, or murderer. However, he also adds that this does not mean that he wants all criminals to be set free to wander the streets, and states that they should be locked up for committing grievous crimes.
Scott Hughes's original book was released on Amazon on June 13th, 2016. According to Goodreads, the original copy
was an 18-page booklet titled I Love Brock Turner. How different The Banned Book of Love is from the original, I do not know, but it was also a short read of about 18 pages. The subject matter started off scandalous, making it a page turner and enticing me to keep reading. I began to wonder, was the reading’s malicious subject matter the very captivating and stimulating fuel the author was addressing? At the same time, the controversial subject did not entice some readers, but rather made them immediately reject the book without giving it a chance. Ironically, these were the very type of people the book was addressing—individuals who see the world in black and white—with love or hate.
I thought The Banned Book Of Love contained and illustrated a very interesting idea. Scott Hughes brings up a lot of perfectly good examples and his reasoning is fairly solid. The philosophical standpoint he argues for is something that most people do not adhere to. In the beginning of the booklet, I found myself disagreeing with most of what he was saying, but as I kept reading, he continued to present one valid point after the other, gradually causing my way of thinking to align more with his. Though I may not agree with everything he said, I can certainly say that his work changed my way of thinking.
Scott Hughes's argument was very sound, however I still do not agree with parts of it, mostly because I do not equate anger with hate the way he does. I believe hate is a very strong word, and carries many different implications. Scott Hughes’ terminology of the words love and hate, compassion and anger, felt abstract and different to the definitions that I associate with. You can be very angry with someone and have self-righteous outrage, however that does not mean you hate that person. From my experience, people more easily get angered at the people they know, because they love them, expect more from them, and become disappointed. I also do not believe it is possible to truly love, or truly hate someone I do not personally know.
I give this booklet a rating of 3 out of 4. While many of us are familiar with the concept of bearing no malice, Scott Hughes’ The Banned Book of Love has broken it down further for me. Due to the revelations this book presented to me, I will change my approach to these types of blood boiling scenarios in the future. The potential for this book to be something I would urge others to buy is there. I recommend it to learn a philosophy that many should adopt into their lives. It is regretful that the book was taken down by Amazon. Especially considering that, for every downloaded copy, the author pledged to donate 10 cents to a charity that would aid victims of sexual assault.
******
The Banned Book about Love
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Khaya's review? Post a comment saying so!
Latest Review: "The Nobel Prize" by Mois benarroch
