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|notable_members =[[Benjamin Villein]] (former)<br> | |notable_members =[[Benjamin Villein]] (former)<br> | ||
The Heavy-Hearted Censor<br> | The Heavy-Hearted Censor<br> | ||
The Genial Auditor ( | The Genial Auditor (1906) | ||
|allegiance = [[Masters of the Bazaar]]<br>[[Mr Pages]] (leader)<br> | |allegiance = [[Masters of the Bazaar]]<br>[[Mr Pages]] (leader)<br> | ||
[[The Empress]] ( | [[The Empress]] (1906) | ||
|relationships=|image1=Ministrylogo.png | |relationships=|image1=Ministrylogo.png | ||
}} | }} | ||
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<blockquote>''"'A mill makes grain. A factory makes – I don't know; socks and so forth. We make Britishness. A priceless commodity here in the heavens. It must be cradled, nurtured and nourished. Without it, we would lose ourselves.' He looks out of his window, unsettled. 'We are very small, do you see? And the sky is so very big.'"''<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Genial_Auditor|Ask what the Ministry does, exactly|Sunless Skies|}}</ref></blockquote> | <blockquote>''"'A mill makes grain. A factory makes – I don't know; socks and so forth. We make Britishness. A priceless commodity here in the heavens. It must be cradled, nurtured and nourished. Without it, we would lose ourselves.' He looks out of his window, unsettled. 'We are very small, do you see? And the sky is so very big.'"''<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Genial_Auditor|Ask what the Ministry does, exactly|Sunless Skies|}}</ref></blockquote> | ||
[[File:Ministryliterature.png|thumb|A volume of Ministry-approved literature.]] | [[File:Ministryliterature.png|thumb|A volume of Ministry-approved literature.]] | ||
In the ''Sunless Skies'' timeline, by | In the ''Sunless Skies'' timeline, by 1906, the Ministry of Public Decency has been reestablished in a grand edifice in [[New London]].<ref>[https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Ministries#The_Ministry_of_Public_Decency The Ministry of Public Decency, ''Sunless Skies''] ''"A huge, horseshoe-shaped building of white stone, white columns, clocks, and iron gates. Inside, its walls are panelled with dark wood. Crimson carpets – worn by frequent passage – flood the floors. Within its cubby-hole offices, auditors toil to protect the sensibilities of Londoners here in the heathen sky."''</ref> The Ministry still retains its original purpose of censorship, but it has gained an additional objective of upholding "Britishness."<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Genial_Auditor|Ask what the Ministry does, exactly|Sunless Skies|}} ''"We make Britishness. A priceless commodity here in the heavens. It must be cradled, nurtured and nourished. Without it, we would lose ourselves. [...] We are very small, do you see? And the sky is so very big."''</ref><ref>[https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Ministries#The_Ministries The Ministries, ''Sunless Skies''] ''"[...] the Ministry of Public Decency (which curates the notion of 'Britishness' with the same care a lepidopterist uses to pin a butterfly to a board.)"''</ref> Of course, such a concept is impossible to define clearly, but the Ministry tries valiantly nonetheless, through innumerable arbitrary decisions<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Genial_Auditor|And who determines what constitutes Britishness?|Sunless Skies|}} ''""Why, we do. In consultation with the most impeccable sources:" He indicates the beautiful books on his shelves, with a smile. "Spencer. Tennyson. Blake." Paine? You ask. Hardy? Mary Prince? "No," he frowns. "No, not them.""''</ref> and rigid adherence to tradition and "truth" (not facts, because "facts can point at anything").<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Genial_Auditor|How does the Ministry pursue its task?|Sunless Skies|}} ''""Firstly, with the truth. Which is not, I must make clear, the same as 'facts'. Facts can point at anything, but the truth is straightforward. It puts us on the right path. "Secondly, by respecting and preserving our traditions. They are not quaint. They are not outmoded. They are tried and tested! After all, they brought us here, didn't they?""''</ref> Ministry officials aim their enforcement at all the same elements the law has always targeted, like [[revolutionaries]], rebels, and striking laborers; but they also punish "the morally depraved" and anyone who speaks ill of the [[Empress]].<ref name=":2">{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Genial_Auditor|What does the Ministry consider an enemy?|Sunless Skies|}} ''""Oh, the obvious, of course. Revolutionaries. Rebels. Strikers. The morally depraved. Those who besmirch Her Renewed Majesty's good name (God save her)." He rubs his chin, thoughtfully. "But there are newer, more seditious dangers, too. We stand in the vault of heaven, and we must defend our way of life against the enticements of the new. A thing is not more precious because it is strange. People forget that.""''</ref> Above all else, they are terrified of anything new, and all the novelties the [[High Wilderness]] has introduced to Londoners.<ref name=":2" /> | ||
The Ministry's new focus on nationalism has led to sweeping censorship of any and all literature; even the Bible<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld#The_Backstreets_of_Brabazon_Workworld|Secure a worker medical attention|Sunless Skies|}} ''"[...] bibles, of the Ministry of Public Decency's 'Newest and Most Improved' edition."''</ref> and Shakespeare cannot escape their clutches.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Genial_Auditor|How does the Ministry pursue its task?|Sunless Skies|}} ''"You have heard of [...] 'corrections' to venerable works, like Shakespeare and the Bible."''</ref> Surviving books are focused on Anglican values<ref name=":3">{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld#The_Backstreets_of_Brabazon_Workworld|Provide books to a school|Sunless Skies|}} ''"The children fall upon anything that's new. Their old book of morally-appropriate fairy tales has been read so much that its pages are now fragile as tissues. You spend an hour watching them read the new works (which mostly consist of sermons) [...]"''</ref> like the virtues of labor<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/Calming_the_Masses|Lower unrest with patriotic literature|Sunless Skies|}} ''"London produces a torrent of Ministry-sponsored pamphlets with titles like 'THE VIRTUES OF LABOUR,' 'THE SUN SHINES ON HARD WORKERS,' and 'TOIL FOR YOUR EMPRESS AS SHE TOILS FOR THEE.'"''</ref> and so-called moral betterment,<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Admiral_Nelson|Take tea with the ladies who brunch|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Improving Literature for the New Generation is passed around the table like cards at a particularly vicious game of bridge. Clemence has underlined the passages she thinks Florence most needs to hear, whilst Jeremy has brought something of his own devising, likening the other members of the circle to the seven deadly sins."''</ref> and have been bowdlerized to the point of utter boredom.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/Ministry-Approved_Literature|Ministry-Approved Literature|Sunless Skies|}} ''"It has been thoroughly censored. Nothing here is likely to startle your maiden aunt. Or make her cackle."''</ref><ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/Calming_the_Masses|Lower unrest with patriotic literature|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Perhaps the literature has stoked the fires of patriotism, and inspired them to dutiful work. Perhaps it is so turgid that they have been reduced to a soporific obedience. The effect is the same."''</ref> Children's books may as well be a thing of the past,<ref name=":3" /> and even instructional manuals have not escaped the censors, with potentially dangerous consequences.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/Fatalistic_Signalman|Rouse him from his gloom|Sunless Skies|}} ''"You leave a slim set of approved signalling manuals – stamped by the Ministry of Public Decency – on the galley table. Discovering them, the Signalman flicks sulkily through. First he tuts. Then he snorts. Then scoffs. "Look at this! They've classified all Scorn-Fluke spasms as 'displays of bravado'! And here – they've not distinguished between the red-chevron flags at Port Prosper and those at Lustrum. That'll get someone killed!""''</ref> With most of the [[Masters of the Bazaar]] left behind in the [[Neath]] or relegated to obscurity, Empress Victoria now has a say alongside the Ministry regarding which romantic content may be published.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/Cache_of_Curiosities|A slim clasped box|Sunless Skies|}} ''"It is a book of love poetry; a collection deemed both acceptable by the Ministry of Public Decency and Her Renewed Majesty."''</ref> | The Ministry's new focus on nationalism has led to sweeping censorship of any and all literature; even the Bible<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld#The_Backstreets_of_Brabazon_Workworld|Secure a worker medical attention|Sunless Skies|}} ''"[...] bibles, of the Ministry of Public Decency's 'Newest and Most Improved' edition."''</ref> and Shakespeare cannot escape their clutches.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Genial_Auditor|How does the Ministry pursue its task?|Sunless Skies|}} ''"You have heard of [...] 'corrections' to venerable works, like Shakespeare and the Bible."''</ref> Surviving books are focused on Anglican values<ref name=":3">{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Brabazon_Workworld#The_Backstreets_of_Brabazon_Workworld|Provide books to a school|Sunless Skies|}} ''"The children fall upon anything that's new. Their old book of morally-appropriate fairy tales has been read so much that its pages are now fragile as tissues. You spend an hour watching them read the new works (which mostly consist of sermons) [...]"''</ref> like the virtues of labor<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/Calming_the_Masses|Lower unrest with patriotic literature|Sunless Skies|}} ''"London produces a torrent of Ministry-sponsored pamphlets with titles like 'THE VIRTUES OF LABOUR,' 'THE SUN SHINES ON HARD WORKERS,' and 'TOIL FOR YOUR EMPRESS AS SHE TOILS FOR THEE.'"''</ref> and so-called moral betterment,<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Admiral_Nelson|Take tea with the ladies who brunch|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Improving Literature for the New Generation is passed around the table like cards at a particularly vicious game of bridge. Clemence has underlined the passages she thinks Florence most needs to hear, whilst Jeremy has brought something of his own devising, likening the other members of the circle to the seven deadly sins."''</ref> and have been bowdlerized to the point of utter boredom.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/Ministry-Approved_Literature|Ministry-Approved Literature|Sunless Skies|}} ''"It has been thoroughly censored. Nothing here is likely to startle your maiden aunt. Or make her cackle."''</ref><ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/Calming_the_Masses|Lower unrest with patriotic literature|Sunless Skies|}} ''"Perhaps the literature has stoked the fires of patriotism, and inspired them to dutiful work. Perhaps it is so turgid that they have been reduced to a soporific obedience. The effect is the same."''</ref> Children's books may as well be a thing of the past,<ref name=":3" /> and even instructional manuals have not escaped the censors, with potentially dangerous consequences.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/Fatalistic_Signalman|Rouse him from his gloom|Sunless Skies|}} ''"You leave a slim set of approved signalling manuals – stamped by the Ministry of Public Decency – on the galley table. Discovering them, the Signalman flicks sulkily through. First he tuts. Then he snorts. Then scoffs. "Look at this! They've classified all Scorn-Fluke spasms as 'displays of bravado'! And here – they've not distinguished between the red-chevron flags at Port Prosper and those at Lustrum. That'll get someone killed!""''</ref> With most of the [[Masters of the Bazaar]] left behind in the [[Neath]] or relegated to obscurity, Empress Victoria now has a say alongside the Ministry regarding which romantic content may be published.<ref>{{Citation|https://sunlessskies.miraheze.org/wiki/Cache_of_Curiosities|A slim clasped box|Sunless Skies|}} ''"It is a book of love poetry; a collection deemed both acceptable by the Ministry of Public Decency and Her Renewed Majesty."''</ref> |