Written by Gary Glass
Sunday, 12 April 2009 20:42
Columns -
Gary Glass
Mark R. Probst writes
on his blog that Amazon.com has instituted a new
policy of excluding from sales rankings and some searches books which they deem
to have adult content. Guess what they consider to be adult? Playboy
centerfolds? Nope. Racist rants? Nope. Pornography? Nope. What then? Mostly, gay
and lesbian literature. For instance? Here's a few examples:
- James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room
- Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain
- Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man
- Edmund White's The Beautiful Room Is Empty
- Robert Adrich's Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History
- E M Forster's Maurice
- Mary Renault's The Charioteer
- Dr. Nathaniel Frank's Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the
Military and Weakens America
- Rictor Norton's Mother Clap's Molly House: The Gay Subculture in England
1700-1830
- Vito Russo's Celluloid Closet
- Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Catch Trap
- Randy Shilts' Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military
And many many others. There's a growing list here: Meta Writer.
What is the significance of this? As one of our members, a writer and
bookseller, succinctly put it: "If the rankings are pulled, the books won't show
up in bestseller lists or many searches."
BookBalloon is an Amazon affiliate. Amazon is an outstanding research tool for readers. But I am disgusted by this. It is censorship plain and simple. Help me protest this. Demand that Amazon reverse this policy.
