Prophetic

I’ve been away for the last week. Not much to say: spoiled tourists, annoying locals. Next time I think I’ll skip the family vacation. But sucky vacations aside, the real disappointment didn’t hit until I got back and caught up on the news. Among other things that happened while I was away, Random House has decided to scrap a book that was on the verge of publication because it might be offensive to some extremists. Right.

The book is a romance novel featuring the prophet Mohammed’s first wife. Apparently no one saw a problem with it until it was sent to some professor for a cover blurb and the professor took offence. From there Random House decided Muslim extremists might also get offended and could cause trouble.

Subject matter aside (exactly how romantic can a book be about a pre-pubescent girl who's sent off to be the first wife among many?), what the fuck is going on here? So now we bow to the psychos? We subjugate our beliefs to their unreasonable whims just to avoid any possibility of pissing them off? In a world where people kill each other over mundane differences of opinion, how can it be remotely sane to try to never offend anyone? As far as I’m concerned this is the worst kind of censorship; Random House might as well just close their doors now and find a less-contentious business to be in (Beekeeping? Nope, that’ll upset the animal rights faction. Modelling agency? Well, feminists won’t care for that. Office supplies? Oops—irritated environmentalists. Never mind…)

Maybe Random House is a little gun shy (no pun intended) after the whole Salman Rushdie fatwah debacle. Makes me wonder now why they kept that book in print and continue to publish his work (guess he brings in more coin than a single romance novel ever will). Of course, the fact that he’s alive and writing is reason enough not to give in to those who would bully you. Maybe that’s just me.

The writer, by the way, thought everything was going smoothly until she was told the book was axed. There go two years of research, not to mention however long it took her to write the thing. But you know—wouldn’t want to risk upsetting anyone. Too bad they hadn’t yet reached the printing stage—they could have held a good old-fashioned book burning in the RH courtyard.