All books can be indecent books, though recent books are bolder._x000D_ _x000D_ For filth, I'm glad to say, is in the mind of the beholder._x000D_ _x000D_ When correctly viewed, everything is lewd._x000D_ _x000D_ I could tell you things about Peter Pan_x000D_ _x000D_ and the Wizard of OZ, there's a dirty old man!
Interpretation
This quote suggests that indecency is subjective and depends on the viewer's perspective.
Tom Lehrer's quote plays with the idea that any piece of literature can be interpreted as inappropriate or indecent based on the reader's mindset. By stating that all books can be seen as 'indecent,' he highlights the subjective nature of interpretation, suggesting that it is not the content itself that is explicit, but rather how it is perceived by the individual. He further implies that even classic children's stories like 'Peter Pan' and 'The Wizard of Oz' can contain adult themes if one approaches them with a certain mindset.
In practice
In a discussion about censorship in literature, this quote can highlight the subjectivity of what is deemed inappropriate.
You can make fun with Saddam Hussein jokes ... but you can't make fun of, say, the concentration camps. I think my target was not so much evil, but benign stupidity people doing stupid things without realising or, instead, thinking they were doing good.
Political satire became obsolete when they awarded Henry Kissinger the Nobel Peace Prize.
But in the new (math) approach, the important thing is to understand what you're doing, rather than to get the right answer.
You can't be satirical and not be offensive to somebody.
In my youth there were words you couldn't say in front of a girl; now you can't say 'girl.'
Everyone is interesting. Everyone has something unexpected to offer and the job of acting is to pull it out of each other.
It's tricky when you're doing a recording, because the only weapon you have is your voice and the delivery of that voice. You don't have a gesture or a facial expression, there are no costumes or set pieces. Everything needs to be present in the voice.
The work that lasts over time is the work which still speaks to us when all contemporary interest in that work is extinct.
A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.
[W]hat counts is that one perceives excellence and dares to give it expression, which sounds little but is in fact a great deal.
If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC
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