American Booksellers Association and Abigail Shrier

It really would be playing the long game if the ABA wanted to contribute to efforts to have the book censored in order to then include it in a promotion of “banned books” 😭 that would be almost admirably conniving.

"Would they also be unhappy to deal with Mein Kampf? I have a copy of that one in my Jewish home, too. Dc studied it as part of History A-level. And, unlike Shrier's book, Mein Kampf does disseminate hatred and promote violence."

Quite, Piles. I just meant it's completely expected that some quarters would make a fuss like this about it. I don't think they're right - quite naive and stupid, in fact - but this is naturally where all this idiocy was headed. Unfortunately.

To instantly dismiss it as an 'anti trans' book when it is nothing of the sort, and then bollock on about violence and harm, does everyone a disservice.

The ABA have certainly come a long way since 2017, when their theme for their “banned books week” (where they promote books with a history of being censored) was “Our Right To Read”

“What bookstores do at their best is provoke conversations and look at things outside their normal comfort zone. That’s what good books do, and what good bookstores do,” said Robert Sindelar, managing partner of Third Place Books and president of the American Booksellers Association Board of Directors.

Third Place Books’ staff designer tapped into the zeitgeist to create a display featuring a typeface that brings to mind Nazi Germany and propaganda from that era, Sindelar said.

“We had an offended customer who said, ‘Why did you chose this Mein Kampf font for this?’” said Sindelar, who replied with a reminder that Nazis burned books they didn’t like and that evoking that past is a deterrent to repeating it.

“It is jarring and uncomfortable to look at those images. That was the point,” Sindelar said.

Like Sindelar, booksellers across the country are readying Banned Book Week displays, events, and social media campaigns designed to spark debate and reflection about the nature of censorship and the rights of citizens to select their own books”

www.bookweb.org/news/booksellers-fête-free-speech-banned-books-week-100917

Or from this position in 2003, when they encouraged booksellers to tell people telling them they shouldn’t sell particular books to sod off

“Everybody is entitled to an opinion, and by choosing where you spend or don't spend your money you make a statement. There is a greater good, however, it seems to me, and that is the public's right to information”

www.bookweb.org/news/paddling-both-sides-canoe

I mean come on. Even if you think Schrier is wrong, misguided, evil or whatever, you can’t possibly think that the progressive people in this are the ones calling information on the availability of books “violence” and suggesting people need to be protected not just from the ideas in the book, but from receiving information that a book that contains those ideas is available! That’s nuts!

If there was a way to get people to buy this book, this would be it, its like a marketing masterclass. Just looked it up there on US amazon and its #39 on the chart which is amazing for a book thats been out quite a while and is a niche enough subject.

I keep wondering how much of a privileged, pampered life someone has to lead in order to regard the sharing of this book as a serious violent incident. They have no idea what violence is.

The parallels with blasphemy laws and religion is striking.

As for ABA they have become the very thing they speak out against.

Thanks for this - just bought the book!

Yes I can see why some booksellers wouldn't be happy to deal with Irreversible Damage

Would they also be unhappy to deal with Mein Kampf? I have a copy of that one in my Jewish home, too. Dc studied it as part of History A-level. And, unlike Shrier's book, Mein Kampf does disseminate hatred and promote violence.

I see where I've been going wrong. Each of our children was given a Gospel when they started secondary. Clearly this was literal violence against us as Jews. I should have complained loudly, in the press, on Twitter, and demanded the Senior Leadership Team's decapitation (or at least resignation).

Instead I put them in the bookcase, between my Hebrew Bibles and my King James Version, which I keep because it is the language of Shakespeare and a hugely important part of British culture.

Clearly I'm some sort of scummy wuss.

😂😂😂

Thanks Pater. Jeez that's an exhausting read. And the journalism from Publisher's Weekly is emotional and loaded as well, making even more of a mess.

Yes I can see why some booksellers wouldn't be happy to deal with Irreversible Damage (not that I think they are right), but as ever calling it anti trans is short sighted and antagonistic too; yes, mixing up black authors is a big mistake that needs to be owned and apologised for.

But this language. This self-flagellation. It's unbearable. It's really, really unhelpful for everyone. Even the person in the feature who "identifies as a queer, Latino, and fat-bodied person, [who] thought the apology was flawed."

Sorry, cross posted with you PaterPower

Oh the racism is a different incident. That makes more sense.

That's a weird one - how did that cover end up in the book?!

Sorry wrong thread

The racism is made clearer in the full statement - something about them also having sent a flyer about a book by a black author with the wrong cover pictured. Separate “incident”

Burn the books, burn the witches

We think things have changed, but really so little has.

Speechless.

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/86883-booksellers-denounce-aba-promotion-of-anti-trans-book.html

Anne Ogborn of the crazy demands (twitter account now locked) seems to be the Anne Ogborn who set up Camp Trans, who successfully got Mitch Fest shut down.

medium.com/gender-2-0/we-had-some-gender-chaos-e1fd178e92be

I gather that the "problem" with the Irreversible Damage book is that at one point the author suggests that lots of girls in one group all simultaneously declaring themselves transmen is a mental health phenomenon (craze/hysteria)?

How does racism come into it?

Sorry Pater I can't find that link for looking... their statement mentions racism as well, why is that?

Oh, for heaven's sake. Grow up, people traumatised by this violent incident of selling a book.