American Booksellers Association and Abigail Shrier

[lionheart]

Sorry if there is already a thread--I couldn't find it.

Well, thanks to the ABA and the mass of free publicity they have afforded the book, I've just ordered my own paperback copy - from Wrdry. Marked down price and free postage.

No South American rivers benefitted from this purchase.

Win/win. What's not to like?

I have NEVER made it through Ulysses. I'm exceedingly impressed by Clymene!

The story has made it into various publications, including Publishers Weekly, who quote an enjoyably snarky response from Shrier's publisher:

Regnery was blindsided by the ABA's statement, according to president and publisher Thomas Spence, who denounced the organization's characterization of the incident as "an act of violence." In an e-mail to PW, Spence wrote: "The only explanation I can think of for the ABA's statement that credits them with a rational (though dishonorable) motive is that they're trying to drum up publicity for their annual Banned Books Week promotion, coming in September (this year's slogan: 'Censorship Divides Us'). Perhaps finding books that have been 'banned,' in any meaningful sense, is so difficult that they have been forced to do the dirty work themselves."

@Sophoclesthefox

Trying to imagine where you could have been going to have a train journey long enough to get through Ulysses, clymene 😱

Twice round the world?

Interrailing! It was a very boring journey over several days and I had nothing else to read. I would have preferred the train safety manual if it had been available.

Don't ask me for a précis

Still impressive, Clymene. I recall throwing Finnegans Wake across the room as an undergrad.

Ellie that response from the publishers has brightened up my morning.

This is how they used to be 🤷‍♀️

It's the hyperbole that gets me. They're booksellers. They're supposed to understand what words mean.

@Sophoclesthefox

I did not get through it. I felt I ought to, but Christ his meandering brand of whimsical/dull does not do it for me

I copped out and bought Haroun and the Sea of Stories instead. Same author profit, easier read!

Unbelievable. Is there any other group, community, minority who would ever be spoken to in this way? What is it about the trans issue that has people running scared like this? Who on earth does it actually help?

Even if the ABA felt it had made any kind of 'mistake' it should be easy enough to say so and draw a line under it. But all this talk of violence and harm is ridiculous, and only encourages more indulgent nonsense.

If you read the piece in Publisher’s weekly (linked by PP up thread) you’ll see even more hyperbole from the ABA:

"We traumatized and endangered members of the trans community… These were egregious, harmful acts that caused violence and pain. One negligent, irresponsible, and racist; the other negligent, irresponsible, and transphobic."

(Emphasis is mine)

Absolutely ridiculous statement. And then, if you read further, you’ll see that their ordering system can be permanently filtered so that no “anti-Trans” titles will even show up.

And the irony that the same organisation publishes a banned books list… 🤯

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

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

How does racism come into it?

@highame

Don't you just love it when the opposition helps out the GC cause. They are kind aren't they 😂😂😂

Imagine normal people coming across this for the first time: the claims of "pain" and "violence" 😆

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)?

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

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

Speechless.

Burn the books, burn the witches

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

@ScreamingMeMe

How does racism come into it?

If you think unlimited immigration is a bad thing then you are racist?

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”

Sorry wrong thread

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, cross posted with you PaterPower

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."