Editing Esperanto culture (section)

==Literature==
{{main|Esperanto literature}}
Books that are translated to Esperanto are not always internationally famous books, because everyone can already read those in another language that they know. For example, several Japanese crime novels and several Icelandic novels that have never been translated to English (or any other language) have been translated to [[Esperanto]]. One reason for this is that people are actually translating their favourite stories instead of famous ones, and another is that it's simply cheaper and easier to get the rights to translate a small-time book compared to a famous one.

The first [[Harry Potter]] book, for example, was translated and the translator enquired about how to purchase translating rights so the book could be published, but [[J.K. Rowling]] refused to allow it to be published in Esperanto{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} (despite ''[[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]]'' being one of the most-translated books in the whole world). In lieu of physical books, the translation now exists as a free download on the internet.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/1yv1i2/harry_potter_book_one_in_esperanto/|title=r/languagelearning - Harry Potter Book One in Esperanto|website=reddit|date=25 February 2014|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-06}}</ref>

Similarly, famous books translated into Esperanto are often books fallen into [[public domain]] such as the [[Bible]], the [[Quran]], or works by [[Shakespeare]], [[Molière]], [[Balzac]], etc., because there are no rights on them.<ref group="Note">There is a perpetual Crown Copyright on the King James's Bible but the Esperanto Bible is translated from the Hebrew and Greek original text.</ref>

Esperanto literature and organisations such as the [[Universal Esperanto Association]] (''Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda'' or SAT) often advocated against nationalism, leading to several [[Fascism|fascist]] governments attempting to ban and eradicate its usage: Germany, Francoist Spain,<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last1=Lins |first1=Ulrich |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-352-00020-7_6 |title=Dangerous Language — Esperanto and the Decline of Stalinism |date=11 February 2017 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-352-00020-7 |pages=71–83|doi=10.1057/978-1-352-00020-7_6 }}</ref> Portugal,<ref name=":0" /> as well as in the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sutton |first=Geoffrey |title=Concise Encyclopedia of the Original Literature of Esperanto 1887–2007 |date=2008 |publisher=Mondial |isbn=978-1-59569-090-6 |location=New York |page=162 |language=en}}</ref> However, the level to which this discrimination was due to association with Judaism and Jewish people cannot be fully known; Hitler wrote of it as intrinsically Jewish and called it a "Jewish weapon" in his ''[[Mein Kampf]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hitler |first=Adolf |url=https://archive.org/details/meinkampf035176mbp |title=Mein Kampf |date=1941 |publisher=Reynal & Hitchcock |volume=1 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/meinkampf035176mbp/page/422 423] |language=en |chapter=Chapter XI |author-link=Adolf Hitler |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> Following this history of suppression, Esperanto literature frequently concerns themes of resistance and anti-nationalism,{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}} though not all criticism of Esperanto is grounded in politics.

There are over 25,000 Esperanto books (originals and translations) as well as over a hundred regularly distributed [[List of Esperanto magazines|Esperanto magazines]]. This is despite that Esperanto has only existed for around 100 years. In comparison, the entire literature of Iceland (a country created in the 900s, and with a population of around 320,000 people) totals fewer than 50,000 books.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://blog.archive.org/2011/01/29/all-icelandic-literature-to-go-online/|title = All Icelandic literature to go online?|date = 29 January 2011}}</ref>