In general, I don't censor books for content at the store.
I follow a librarian's code of not banning––but not emphasizing––offensive stuff.
Actually, it's rarely a problem because mostly I go by what sells, and I've found that right-wing stuff doesn't sell here, anyway. I don't bother to put it out.
Ditto old liberal stuff--really, any political books that aren't current don't move. (And the market is flooded with old copies of books by Glenn Beck and Michael Moore anyway.)
BUT... yesterday I set up this side-by-side: The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea + Moby Dick (aren't I clever?) and took its photo.
Only this morning, posting it here, did I read the blurb on the cover of Sailor:
"A Novel of the Homicidal Hysteria that Lies Latent in the Japanese Character".
???
OMG. What rubbish! And not written by the author, but the publisher.
I am taking that off the shelf. Or, maybe I should stick a sticker on the cover? Or over it? At the very least, not face it forward.
Another question:
What to do with the first English translation (1933) of Mein Kampf ("My Struggle")? Someone donated it to the store a few years ago, and it has sat since then on the shelf of "books to look up" by my desk.
I have looked it up--it's worth some money (like a hundred bucks), and it has some historical interest...
But I hate to put it out. It feels polluting. So I don't.
I've thought about asking a university library if they want it, or what to do with it, but I haven't gotten around to doing that.
So it just sits there.
I did put out a copy of The Turner Diaries, but it was marketed by Barricade Books (1996) as a warning. Big red letters on the cover says "This book contains racist propaganda" and that is "being published to alert and warn America".
I didn't even google it when I put it out--just marked it up a tiny bit (I think $1.99 instead of .99). But--wow--looking for it now, turns out Amazon pulled this book after the January 2021 attack on the US Capitol--even this version of it-- "for providing a roadmap to last week’s deadly attack on the US Capitol".
My bookseller's immediate reaction was, "I should have priced it higher." (And it does go for up to $100 online.)
But also, and more importantly, Should I have sold it?
I'd still say yes, because of the publisher's presentation.
I'd add a sticker to the cover now. After the words, "The FBI said it was the blueprint for the OK City bombing...",
I'd add ". . . in 1995" [kids won't even know] "and for the 2021 attack on the US Capitol".
Thoughts on this quandry are welcome.
if it were me, i would just leave it. i always find it interesting to see what publishers add to book covers that they think will sell the book.
ReplyDeletethe blurb on a 1963 printing of The Catcher in the Rye -- "this unusual book may shock you, will make you laugh, and may break your heart -- but you will never forget it."
publishers don't tell me how to experience your book!
kirsten
KIRSTEN: Yes, maybe so... But I know a couple Americans of Japanese descent--including a former volunteer at the store-- who've been hurt personally by this language and the idea that they are inherently, "racially" vicious...
ReplyDeleteI think of them and hate to leave the book out.
Also, it's slander to the book!
P.S. KIRSTEN: But thanks for weighing in. It really troubles me, this question, though it doesn't come up all that often quite so blatantly.
ReplyDeleteSlander to the book, indeed.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what blurb this publisher would write for advertising Moby Dick: "When a bloodthirsty whale and a bloodthirsty whaler clash together, both take no prisoners and the ocean turns red!!!"... perhaps?
TORORO: LOL. Funny idea, to write blurbs for classics.
ReplyDeleteIn today's climate, perhaps Moby Dick would get something like
"Justice is meted out to vicious exploiter of Ocean Life--a classic exposé of toxic masculinity" or some such thing?
--FREX = FRESCA
Put everything out.
ReplyDeleteYikes — I would not put the Turner out for sale. A glance at the current publisher’s website is reason enough. You could send MK to my rep in Congress; I’m sure she’d love an extra copy.
ReplyDeleteCAMILLE FAN: Thanks for that--that IS the Librarian's credo, though of course physical realities (Budget, shelf space, readership) curtail it.
ReplyDeleteMICHAEL: Thanks for your perspective. The Turner Diaries are really creepy. I'm okay with putting them out--does the average person even know this is going on? Maybe now they do, after the Capitol raid...
LOL, your Hitler-admiring rep... she doesn't need encouragement.