Box Turtle Bulletin has also covered the story
(http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2009/04/12/10651). It may be worth
noting the update at the end of the article:
"Update: Publisher’s Weekly has another statement from Amazon. They’re
calling it “a glitch” [see
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6651080.html]:
On Sunday evening, however, an Amazon spokesperson said that a glitch
had occurred in its sales ranking feature that was in the process of
being fixed. The spokesperson added that there was no new adult
policy."
Publisher's Weekly concludes:
"Whatever the cause, titles like James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room and
Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain are among the those that have lost
their sales ranking. Bloggers aren't buying the glitch explanation and
some are calling an Amazon boycott, but the fact that such a wide
range of titles have lost their rankings suggest that whatever Amazon
may have been trying to do went haywire."
CW
2009/4/13 Jen Gieseking <[log in to unmask]>
>
> FYI
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Tom Boellstorff <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 12:34 AM
> Subject: Protest Amazon's new "adult" policy
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
> Dear all: still learning the details, but it appears that Amazon.com has a new "adult" policy that among other things, means that sales rankings are removed for books they deem "adult." Aside from that itself being problematic, it apparently appears lots and lots of LGBT materials are being termed "adult." So for instance, if you look up my most recent book Coming of Age in Second Life, there's a sales ranking, but for The Gay Archipelago, A Coincidence of Desires, and the Speaking in Queer Tongues edited volume I did with Bill Leap, the ratings have been removed! Even works like Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Lonliness is apparently affected! A very quick skim shows these examples of other books effected:
> Out in the Field (Lewin and Leap)
> Families We Choose (Weston)
> The Night is Young (Carillo)
> Travesti (Kulick)
> Female Desires (Blackwood and Wieringa)
> The list goes on - every book I tried that is likely classed somehow as LGBT seems to have been effected. The only book not effected I found in my quick skim was Esther Newton's Mother Camp!
> Here's a petition regarding this issue:
> http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/119673661/
> I don't know more details at the moment. It's not like the books are being banned, but this is nonetheless a strange and clearly bigoted new policy that needs to be undone. All the best, Tom
>
>
> tom boellstorff + associate professor
> department of anthropology + university of california, irvine
> editor-in-chief + american anthropologist
>
> http://www.anthro.uci.edu/faculty_bios/boellstorff/boellstorff.php
>
>
>
> --
> Jen Gieseking
> Ph.D. Candidate, Environmental Psychology
> The Graduate Center, City University of New York
> [log in to unmask]
> www.jgieseking.org
--
Claire Wilkinson
Teaching Fellow in Russian
Centre for Russian & East European Studies
University of Birmingham
B15 2TT, UK
ERI Room 146 (first floor)
Tel: +44 (0) 121 414 8242 (direct line work)
Skype: cxwilkinson
http://www.crees.bham.ac.uk/staff/wilkinson/index.htm
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