ABSTRACT
This chapter examines themes of vanishing speech, as presented by science fiction authors and as the law about such things has developed in some modern parallel events, at a number of different levels. One familiar theme in science fiction is the destruction of speech, such as books and art and history, as part of a dystopian future. The Chinese government regularly censors critics, either through outright prior restraint of potentially damaging speech or jailing and destruction of the speech after the fact. The Supreme Court has in the present century so far resisted efforts to add certain kinds of speech to the unprotected categories, such as violent videogames, depictions of animal cruelty, and lying about military honors, striking down laws forbidding those on grounds that the laws themselves were too vague or overbroad.
