Literary Censorship
One of the acknowledged components of totalitarianism is the restriction of access to officially banned literature. But that term tends to refer to a given government’s plan; Amazon has taken the concept international and capitalist by making the decision (on behalf of its users, naturally) as to what ought to be read, and — more importantly — what ought not to be read.
Of course, the company has no authority to be sure that the material it deems offensive is not published. It simply is making sure that no one can access that material.
According to a story in the Seattle PI, Amazon’s move goes beyond censorship and actually takes a political stand:
As of around 4 pm on Sunday, plugging the search term “homosexuality” into Amazon returned top links to A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality and You Don’t Have To Be Gay.
And an open letter to Amazon from writer Kassia Krozser added,
I can buy a book on training fighting dogs (something so offensive my stomach hurts just looking at the cover image), but specific types of human relationships are suddenly taboo?
While Amazon is blaming a glitch for what happened, according to Publisher’s Weekly, that does nothing to explain the letter that one author received from Amazon in response to his protest of the exclusion of material from Amazon’s search terms:
In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.
And even Publisher’s Weekly itself admitted that “whether a glitch or new policy, titles like James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room and Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain are among the those that have lost their sales ranking.”
I don’t suppose that I need to underline any of this: banning books, no matter how you try to justify it, is still banning books. I’ve written to Amazon, not wearing my hat as an author of books, but as a frequent buyer: if there were ever a reason to move one’s internet business to Powell’s, it seems that this is it. Please think about doing the same: censorship is wrong, no matter how you dress it up. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!
Posted in Books, Doing the Right Thing, Words on April 13th, 2009