While a lot of attention these days has been given to the violence in northern Nigeria fomented by a group that goes by the name of Boko Haram, little light has been shed on its seminal antipathy for the fictional character Boko Fittleworth developed by the English novelist P.G. Wodehouse.
Haram is an Arabic term meaning "forbidden," a sentiment that would find a ready ally in none other than Jeeves himself. After Jeeves had met Boko for the first time, Bertie observed that his normally unflappable gentleman's gentleman "winced visibly and tottered off to the kitchen, no doubt to pull himself together with cooking sherry". Bertie once admitted that he wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend meeting Boko, describing him as "an acquired taste...at least that's what his mother says."
But patched trousers notwithstanding, Mr. Fittleworth has never before been known to provoke violence among his detractors. In an effort to staunch a broadening of the movement, the UN Security Council has urged Gutenberg.org, which publishes more than 30,000 free online books, not to release the 1946 novel "Joy in the Morning" and to redact passages in other Wodehouse novels that have already been published on it's website. Gutenberg could not be reached for comment at this time.
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I was just wondering why all of Wodehouse is not on Gutenberg. Could the dangerous political nature of some of his characters be the reason?
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