Fara Dabhoiwala teaches at Princeton. He is the author of The Origins of Sex: The History of the First Sexual Revolution and What Is Free Speech? The History of a Dangerous Idea. He is writing a biography of Francis Williams, which expands on the discoveries he discussed in the LRB.
In a largely illiterate world, laughing was something one did with other people. Early theorists of humour considered it a form of speech rather than writing. And speech could be extremely dangerous, as the Bible warned: ‘Death and life are in the power of the tongue’ (Proverbs); ‘The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity’ (James). Elsewhere in scripture the tongue...
It’s puzzling, unsettling even, to see ‘free speech’ rearing its head in public debate again, rousing passions which seemed long defunct. Wasn’t the doctrine definitively trumpeted by Milton...
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