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Writers who are monsters - should their works be withdrawn by booksellers (WARNING! - Potentially distressing content)

134 replies

Quattrocento · 10/07/2008 22:53

The case of Roger Took disturbed me. It's a disturbing case.

Article in the Spectator here
He's a convicted paedophile who happens to have written some well-regarded travel books. Should Amazon and other booksellers continue to stock books by him? What do you think?

OP posts:
Tortington · 17/07/2008 00:56

i'm glad i have the opportunityto read things such as this - and then listen to GMTV's article on how dad was publicaly verbally abused for taking phoo'sof his won kids.

it allows me to draw my own perspective.

if there was just o form of reporting orthe other - it becomes indoctrination - or at the er least a cultural whitewash ( y'know rather like the iraq war...and terrorism) actually thats a great example.

donnie · 17/07/2008 12:25

I agree with lisalisa. I only read a small bit of that article over the weekend but the words and images are unfortunately still in my head. I wish to God I could get rid of them but they won't go.

People like Roger Took actually make me want to change my mind about the death penalty, speaking as an opposer of it. I also agree with Expat, the sentencing of scum like this is risible and , to me, sends a very clear message to all would be or existing child sex offenders - carry on.

ALMummy · 17/07/2008 12:32

That is the worst thing I have ever read but I don't regret reading it and don't think it was wrong to link it.

I would be angrier, furious in fact if I had bought one of his books or even borrowed one. I would feel violated that even the words of someone so evil and disgusting had found their way into my home and I had not been made aware of them previously.

I have wondered before at the outrageously short sentences given to child sex offenders. It seems to be standard rather than the exception. Anyone who could do that as described in the article to children should be put down, as you would a vicious animal.

expatinscotland · 17/07/2008 12:39

'I have no problme with atrocities being reported - war, rape etc.'

But you see, lisa, this is happening as part of wars. Right now. All the time. In Africa. In other places. When I used to translate for Amnesty International, taking oral depositions from people applying for asylum, this happened more time than I care to remember. Not the buying by a European, but child murder occuring in such a fashion.

People just don't want to know, because it's so atrocious, because it's haunting.

But we must, there must be that awareness so that perpetrators of these atrocities are not glossed over or swept under the rug, because this is the type of stuff they do and think!

This NEEDS to be exposed, because sentencing is too light for perpetrators. People do not realise this is what they are doing and thinking.

sherbetdipdab · 17/07/2008 15:10

I'm glad I read the link, although it was disturbing.

All my adult life I've heard news stories about paedophiles and child murderers and never understood what the child actually went through or just exactly how monstrous these men are.
I'm ashamed to say that, how naive.

All those news articles and the word paedophile had become just that, a word. Now I can see the horror behind it.

That article opened my eyes.

cestlavie · 17/07/2008 16:27

This is a very interesting debate once you get past the sickening initial couple of pages of the article.

Firstly, in terms of the debate about whether booksellers should stock works by convicted criminals. The general maxim is that a person should not profit from his crime, so if someone was to write a book about the crime they committed they should receive no money from doing so. This is not the case in this situation. His work and his crime are not linked so you wouldn't ban it on those grounds. Equally, it's hard to see (as some people have suggested) that his work should be banned as people wouldn't want to own book by a person like that - that even if the books are entirely innocent and in no way linked to his crimes, his work is somehow tainted. It's not. If he hadn't been found out and convicted, we'd never have known and the books would have sat there peacefully on our shelves just like any other. His crime does not taint his work.

The only justification was not stocking his book is that his crime is that people do not want to feel that they or others are inadvertently enriching a criminal. That their hard earned ten quid is going into his pocket. That's also a little bizarre. Given the number of people who've been through the prison system we almost certainly enrich people who have been convicted of crimes on a daily basis, either directly or indirectly. Even if we chose to lock him up for eternity, it would still be costing each one of us money to keep him under lock and key. I suspect what's driving this is that his crime is so appalling and his sentence so lenient that it needs to be punished more, and in any way possible. Strangely, despite everything I've just said I actually agree although I'd say this is an entirely emotional response rather than a logical one.

Secondly, of course these sort of details should be published (provided the victims aren't identifiable). This is the real world and it's a desperately vicious and unpleasant one in which children are raped, tortured and murdered on a daily basis around the world. Just today the broadsheets carried the news that Samir Quantar had been released from Israeli custody after having been convicted of the brutal murder of a 4 year old Israeli girl and the effective murder of her 2 year old sister - I won't post the details as clearly people get distressed, but it's in The Guardian and The Times for starters. Wilfully ignoring these things won't make them go away and in fact let's them carry on. It's only by people being sickened, appalled and angered that they're likely to change. That being said, giving people a heads up that what they're about to read is distressing would allow them to prepare themselves more appropriately.

Janos · 17/07/2008 19:39

I agree 100% with expat and cestlavie's posts. No point rehashing their excellent and very eloquent points.

These stories are horrific but we need to be aware of what these people are like and the realise the full horror of their actions.

toolly · 18/07/2008 11:44

I have been following this story and know that one blogger has felt compelled to remove this story from his blog. Who is still protecting Roger Took?

Villette · 23/07/2008 10:03

I feel the graphic details in the article can be justified to bring home the full horror of these acts.

I was disturbed to see that there are one or two comments on the Spectator's website that seem to be defending Took's actions; what's wrong with Took taking photos of his step-granddaughter?, the webchat was only fantasy, etc.,

Given that there are outcries when people feel the PC brigade has got it wrong (grandmother questioned for playing in the woods with her grandson, father reprimanded for photographing his children at swimming pool), there is a need to remind people that there is a small minority out there who will indulge in absolutely vile acts with very young children.

Sometimes evil can thrive because decent people are unable to comprehend that such wickedness exist.

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