books
Remember how the novel
Jewel of Medina,
Sherry Jones's book about the child bride of Muhammad, was going to set off a wave of Muslim outrage and violence? In the exhaustively-chronicled journey to publication for
Jewel of Medina? Random House pussed out on publishing it due to some wingnut remarks by academic Denise Spellerg when they asked her for a blurb, so then other people decided rush in and publish it, including a British publisher who was rewarded with a firebomb in his mail slot. So then
he decided not to publish it, and Jones quickly became a poster child for hysterical pre-emptory censorship. Well, now the book is out and Jones is doing her book tour. The "widespread violence" Spellberg warned Random House of isn't happening, and as the
Seattle Times reported, Jones' visit in their town was sparsely attended and sold exactly three copies of the book. Just like every other bookstore reading!
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journalismism
PBS affiliate WNET TV is very proud of "Torturing Democracy," a documentary crafted by a Frontline producer and deemed "flawlessly journalistic" by the New York station's VP for content. But the show makes PBS suits a little, well, uncomfortable.
According to the Times, they asked the producer if that provocative name couldn't be changed, and maybe a panel discussion tacked on, oh and also they wouldn't be able to air it until the day after George W. Bush leaves the White House. You see there's an animated sitcom called “
Click & Clack’s As the Wrench Turns” that had higher priority, plus you can't air a documentary like this during the Olympics, so the summer was right out. As was the fall, apparently. Or so says PBS VP John Wilson (pictured), as he undermines the program:
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books
Can a publisher somewhere please grow a pair and not keep letting fundamentalist assholes who want to see the world revert to the good old days of the 13th Century run their houses?
The Jewel of Medina,
Sherry Jones' historical novel about the little girl wife of Muhammad that Random House dropped because it was afraid of offending crazy people, is now on shaky ground with its British publisher. When that publisher,
Gibson Square, was firebombed a couple weeks ago, they said they
were going forward with publication anyway. Now, not so much.
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books
Remember how we tore into Random House relentlessly, calling them pussies for being too scared to publish
Jewel of Medina,
Sherry Jones's historical novel about Aisha, the child bride of Muhammad? Perhaps it's just self-fulfilling prophecy, but it looks like they may have been kinda-sorta right about that whole "it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical [Islamic] segment" thing: last weekend, four men were arrested after
throwing a firebomb into the house of the book's British publisher, Martin Rynja. So who is this guy, anyway? Rynja has a colorful publishing history with controversial books:
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books
After Random House pussed out on publishing
Sherry Jones's historical novel
Jewel of Medina about one of the wives of the prophet Muhammad—they were scared that it might incite violence from extremists, which is kind of the publishing equivalent of some big dude calling the cops on a
girl—she told
Leipziger Volkszeitung that a German publisher would print the book in English,
inshallah. [
NY Sun]
books
Jewel of Medina, Sherry Jone's historical novel about Aisha, wife of Muhammad, was killed by its publisher because of a warning from a crackpot professor who though "widespread violence" could break out,
Salman Rushdie-style.
Satanic Verses author Rushdie told the AP yesterday that this was basically bullshit: "I am very disappointed to hear that my publishers,
Random House, have canceled another author's novel, apparently because of their concerns about possible Islamic reprisals." Jones will probably find another publisher due to all this hype and Random House will be so sorry. [
AP via
Galleycat]
books
Remember the
Wall Street Journal op-ed we
told you about, in which it was explained how one hysterical American professor of Islamic studies, Denise Spellberg, "warned" Random House that the novel they were about to publish about the life of Muhammad's wife Aisha maybe might
incite widespread violence, just like Rushie's
Satanic Verses or something! Cowed, Random House decided not to publish due to the "terrorist" non-threat. Professor Spellberg wrote to the WSJ this weekend, explaining that "I didn't kill [
Sherry Jones's]
Jewel of Medina":
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books
If anyone needs more proof about how backwards and reactionary the book-publishing industry can be, here it is. Yesterday, an
opinion piece in the WSJ discussed the indefinite postponement of
Sherry Jones' historical novel about the child bride of Muhammad,
The Jewel of Medina. Random House "feared the book would become a new
Satanic Verses, the Salman Rushdie novel of 1988 that led to death threats, riots and the murder of the book's Japanese translator." What made them think
that? Oh, because one American academic didn't like it. After Islamic studies professor Denise Spellberg spread the word about how allegedly "racy" the book was, a couple Muslim bloggers went wild (without having read the book.) Spellberg also phoned an editor at Random House imprint Knopf, warning her that
widespread violence might occur. (Fun fact: Spellberg also has a Knopf book contract!) Apparently, in these fear-mongering times, it's just that easy to kill a book. (Ms. Jones is shopping it around for a new publisher.)
Gawker
