We must resist any drift towards 'thought police' says historian after calls to ban John Steinbeck classic novel over racial slurs

If demands like this end up being successful, "the next step is the road to a dictatorship, basically – a dictatorship of thought," said Mr Bartlett, adding that a drift towards such bans could usher in an era of "the thought police... and it's frightening".

The BBC story had featured a mother and her daughter, who is an A-level student in Belfast.

They were aggrieved that she had been given the 1937 John Steinbeck novel to read for GCSE, because it contained racial slurs like 'the n word', and classroom discussions about it had made the daughter "feel weak".

'Of Mice And Men' is set in the American west during the Great Depression, and is widely regarded as one of the best novels of all time.

In response, the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations & Assessment defended the novel, but also said that it "welcomed the opportunity to review and refresh the literature offered to students".

Mr Bartlett is a Roe Valley historian and former history teacher, who worked at Limavady High School until retiring about 10 years ago.

He is also the man behind the town's annual John Steinbeck Festival, started in 2019 (Steinbeck had Ulster-Scots ancestry, and visited Northern Ireland in 1952).

"There's an illogical aspect to it all," he said of the calls to axe 'Of Mice And Men'.

"Why would we stop reading great literature, and [start] banning it, instead of understanding it?

"The functions of literature are understanding and communication.

"In his Nobel spech of 1962, Steinbeck said that the job of the writer is to expose our many grievous faults and failures, and dredge up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams, for the purpose of improvement.

"He is totally on the side of the underdog – that's basically why he's famous."

And for Steinbeck, people from racial minorities were among the underdogs he was rooting for, said Mr Bartlett.

He also noted that the novel's historic unpleasantries do not stop with race: characters also display misogyny, voice slurs about the disabled, and exhibit animal cruelty.

"You can't redact literature. It's not harmful to humanity – it's constructive," he said.

"I don't want to be offensive towards the woman, or raise the hackles of people.

"But I really wanted to defend the right – the need – to have the work understood."

He pointed to the example of Crooks, a black character in the novel.

Crooks is portrayed by Steinbeck as "a very valued and worthwhile person" said Mr Bartlett, who is more shrewd and successful than many of the white characters despite being labelled ethnically inferior.

As for the racial slurs themselves, "it's a trifle silly to be discussing a word we can't say," he said.

"It's just inverse logic. How can we attach any meaning to a word – be it in a neutral, philosphical, theoretical context – if you're prevented from explaining it or saying it?

"It carries it's own venom... if you can't convey that, how do you counter it?"

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