(no subject)

[payback]

[Idly dictated into the journal,]

It never ceases to amaze me with what people get to write, and what gets made into books. Some things just seem downright treasonous, but they still get bound, and bought, and read by lots of people.

I'm a little jealous to be frank. At home it could be pretty tough to get hold of books and things. Some of my friends couldn't even read so having books would have been moot.

[Rin is in the library today, which is not very surprising: the library is a good place to try and find her. Tad the Arcanine is hanging around lolling under tables and in front of chairs as she reads. Just now, she seems to be slipping a book into her carryall: the curious might get enough of a glimpse to see that she's making off with The Anarchist's Cookbook.

Open, of course.]

Comments

[whitecovered]

Hold a moment. I believe I asked you a question as well.

[payback]

Um... what was that?

[whitecovered]

Why did you refer to books as "treasonous"?

[payback]

Oh right! `[She made an entry talking about stuff, didn't she.]

Um, because they have information in them that people wouldn't want to be shared around usually.

[whitecovered]

Such as?

[Secret reports and the like, he guesses.]

[payback]

Well like... seditious things! Things tearing down the government or talking about how bad it is!

[Or how-to manuals on how to make bombs. You know, like that.]

[whitecovered]

Yes, that would make sense. Perhaps their authors felt a desperate need to express their opinions.

[payback]

I just bet! I can't imagine a government just tolerating this.

[whitecovered]

Well, there were certain governments that allowed such things due to "freedom of speech".

[...Which is stuff he somehow knows about, since it's about the old world. America worked pretty closely with Japan during all the Legion stuff, but he can't recall that too clearly.]

[payback]

... Well what does that really mean though?

[Tell her more, Weiss!]

[whitecovered]

It means that citizens had the political right to express their ideas through any medium, which included through the printed word, I suppose. However, the right was still subject to limitations.

[payback]

Well surely knowing how to make bombs and stuff must be one of those limitations! Er - teaching other people how to do it!

[whitecovered]

Apparently not, though defamation and slander were.

[Given the existence of the books right there...funny how that works.]

[payback]

The future is weird.

[After four years almost, that is her final answer.]

[whitecovered]

[Moving words.]

It is indeed.

[payback]

Thanks for answering my questions anyway!