CSM book editor Ron Charles looks at the legal questions raised by Nicholson Baker's controversial forthcoming novel Checkpoint.
"There are really strict legal standards on what constitutes a threat, and certainly a fictional conversation between fictional characters - it's almost impossible to imagine that that could rise to the level of a legal threat against the president," says Larry Siems, director of the Freedom to Write Program and of international programs for the PEN American Center. "Characters in novels don't kill presidents."But, he notes, "there have been encroachments recently on the terrain of creative freedom that are connected with people's fears and anxieties.
"We know the Secret Service has visited high school classrooms where students have produced art that has made reference to violence. The whole atmosphere has shifted enormously."
The Supreme Court has been very clear about the rights of authors to write whatever they want so long as they are not intentionally inciting imminent violence, according to ACLU president Nadine Strossen. She says, however, that under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, "Mr. Baker wouldn't know and he wouldn't be able to find out if he's under surveillance. And anybody the FBI asks about him would be forced to be under that veil of secrecy."
Clearly the readers of CSM have the right idea, if the poll results attending the story are accurate.
So fiction is exempt? What if someone followed Baker's lead and wrote a Checkpoint-style story where the narrator considered assassinating people besides the president? People who he blames for recent disturbing events. Is fiction still protected even if it doesn't have the stamp of approval from a big publishing firm? Let's find out:
http://rantwraith.blogspot.com/2004/08/my-checkpoint-jims-story.html
Posted by: Rant Wraith | August 10, 2004 at 10:08 AM