Can great literature be produced under a government with heavy

>>9053467
It can *only* be produced in such circumstances.

>>9053476

What did you mean by that?

>>9053480
Russia has produced some of the greatest lit not despite but because it's always been a bleak dystopian hellscape

>>9053480
Repressive regimes give rise to underground movements and allow creativity to flourish. Censorship comes with the threat of punishment, pain and maybe death. Look at the uncensored writers of today, what do they risk?

If you were risking your life in writing something you will make sure it is worth writing, so quality naturally follows. Soviet Russian censorship is a good example.

Sometimes, but My Yan is a half-rate shill for the Chinese government.

>>9053499
Yeah but good writing also emerges on non-oppressive nations. I think the takeaway is that it's really difficult to squash literature through the government.

>>9053467
I don't know man. Did you read that and is it good?

I read a Mo Yan story in the New Yorker and it was pretty crackin.

>>9053467
Depends on some external factors of the political atmosphere of course.

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>>9053467
Suffering is pretty much a prerequisite for great art. In this respect, oppressive governments are a godsend.

Take the Russians. They've had one shitty government after an other, and have dominated world literature.

The problem with western writing nowadays is that it's written by smug middle-class fairies who've never had a day's struggle in their lives.

>>9053499
>Russia produced great literature during the USSR
No it didn't, all it made was Bulgakov.

>>9053467
>Can great literature be produced under a government with heavy censorship practices?
Yes, USA is proof of that. Too bad Americans are forced to write under "sci-fi" or "fantasy" aesopian language when they want to say something controversial.

Read The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov or Cancer Ward by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

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>>9054587
Underrated post.

>mfw The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a how-to manual for overthrowing governments.

Yeah, just don't show your writing to the government and release it anonymously or something.

>>9053506
Sandalwood death is great

>>9053467
Do manuscripts burn?

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> censorship is real