Changes and Weenies

It's been too long since I updated anything here, with good reason.

The Bookstore now has a GoodReads presence, and since I was asked to contribute there (and to develop my own GoodReads presence), it just seems like overkill to review in so many places at once.

Henceforth, this space will not be used for reviews, but I do plan on using it to talk about the loopsy business of bookselling and stuff like that.

And here's the first loopsy...

I brought home a copy of David Ebershoff's The 19th Wife to read, and am struck by the irony... It's published by Random House, and for those who don't know, it's a work of fiction dealing with the desertion from the ranks of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by the 19th wife of its founder, Brigham Young overlaid against the contemporary story of a woman (also a 19th wife) accused of murdering her husband, a member of a (denounced) sect of that same church.

The irony is this: Random House feels entirely comfortable publishing a book (heavily fictionalized) that will (presumably) shed a poor light on this viable and still active church body, yet totally wimped out on publishing a fictionalized account of one of the wives of Muhammed, lest offense be taken or violent retribution occur. There's quite a controversy about this, so I'm not alone in my thoughts that Random House grossly overreacted, and bowed to the pressure of a few, but it underscores rather dramatically for me a few things.

1) It's okay to jab at certain religions without fear of retribution, and to publish things that are irreverent, disrespectful, and sometimes, downright offensive. It's not okay to do likewise for others. Not sure how that doesn't send a chilling message.

2) Publishers are weenies.

3) Free speech in fiction is precious, even when it really pisses me off because it jabs at something about which I feel protective, and Random House has just allowed a splinter group of religious fanatics to chip away at that -- and they were not right wing Christian zealots.