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About this quote

What does it mean?
Waugh suggests protecting a country from foreign literature if local literature cannot be controlled.
In plain terms
If you can't stop local books, stop outside ones.
What can you take from it?
Cultural isolation often targets external influences.

Where it applies

  • policy debate
  • cultural studies
  • censorship review

Putting it to work

  • analyze media import rules
  • assess cultural impact
  • review censorship laws

Questions to consider

  • Should a nation limit foreign ideas?
  • How does isolation affect creativity?

Another view

Foreign literature often enriches rather than harms a culture.

More from Evelyn Waugh

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  2. 'We, Seth, Emperor of Azania, Chief of Chiefs of Sakuyu, Lord of Wanda and Tyrant of the Seas, Bachelor of the Arts of Oxford University, being in this the twe…

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  3. 'Was anyone hurt?' 'No one I am thankful to say,' said Mrs. Beaver, 'except two housemaids who lost their heads and jumped through a glass roof into the paved …

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