1) Despite no official bans, a form of censorship called "privatization of censorship" has emerged where private citizens and businesses decide not to sell or distribute certain books. 2) This includes bookstores in Australia refusing to sell books like Tampa that discuss topics like pedophilia that they deem as morally objectionable, even though these books are not banned. 3) Digital stores like Apple's iBookstore also censor books, pulling erotic writer Krissy Kneen's book and censoring the title of Naomi Wolf's book to avoid "objectionable" content.

1. Shelf Censorship
Despite the lack of official book bans, a more insidious form of
censorship has taken root. And the blacklist is growing.
Twenty-twoyears ago, in the first occasion of a mainstream literary work being
classified as such in Australia, the Office of Film and Literature Classification rated
Bret Easton Ellis’ novel, American Psycho, Category One Restricted material. What
did this mean for the sale of the book in Australia? Well, in most states, it simply
meant that the book was sold sealed in a plastic wrapper. But in Queensland – where
censorship laws are yet tocatch up with the national standard – it meant that the
book was banned. To this day, American Psycho is not just restricted for sale, but
actually illegal to sell anywhere in the state of Queensland, although independent
booksellers continue to sell the book in protest.
More troubling, however, than having the government reading over our collective
shoulders is an increasingly insidious form of censorship enforced by private citizens
and businesses around Australia. I spoke to author of The Censor’s Library, Nicole
Moore, who I think describes the phenomenon best. Moore, Associate Professor of
the English program at the University of New South Wales, calls it “the ‘privatisation
of censorship’ [which] occurs at the point of distribution (bookshop, webstore,
library etc) rather than at the point of production.” She is hesitant to call this a trend
as, she notes, “some Sydney book shops and libraries prid[ed] themselves on refusing
to stock Joyce’s Ulysses in the 1940s”, but it is nonetheless a growing problem.
Moore traces the concept back to “the US state-based model of regulation where the
focus of controversy is often very local or regional”. Recently, in Randolph County,
North Carolina, the local Board of Education voted 5:2 to remove all copies of Ralph
Ellison’s 1953 civil-rights novel, Invisible Man, from school libraries. They cited a
parental complaint about the novel’s language and content. Board members told
media that they didn’t find any literary value in the novel. Never mind that the book
appears regularly on national library and periodical lists as one of the most
significant American novels of the twentieth century.
But North Carolina is a long way from Australia, right? Perhaps not so far as we
might like to think. Take Alissa Nutting’s debut novel, Tampa. Released here in July,
Nutting’s book quickly became infamous. Drawing comparisons to Vladimir
Nabokov’s Lolita and American Psycho, Tampa is narrated by a young teacher,
Celeste Price, whose interest in young boys is something more than pedagogical.
Booksellers in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia immediately
refused to sell Tampa. And yet, the book is not restricted for sale in any way by the
Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification. One bookseller, Helen Baxter,
owner of Blues Point Bookshop in New South Wales, went on record with a number
of media outlets to say that she would, “take what I define as the moral high ground…
I couldn’t personally promote this.” As a result, because the book tackles what this
bookseller calls “a complex issue”, it will not be sold in the store. But Jon Page, of
Pages and Pages Booksellers in Sydney, challenges the right of booksellers to make
such a decision on behalf of the Australian public: “It is not a retailer’s job to ban a
book. I can understand a bookshop being uncomfortable selling the book but to say
they are banning it is wrong. It should be a bookshop’s role to inform, discuss, debate
a book’s content not make a personal moral decision.”

2. Like Nutting, Brisbane erotic writer Krissy Kneen has found herself on the wrong
side of conservative standards of good taste. She is no stranger tothis privatised form
of censorship. Kneen published her second book, Triptych, in paperback and e-book
format, the latter through Apple’s iBookstore. The book has remained unchallenged
in stores and sold without restriction, but iBookstore Australia contacted Kneen by
email to say that it had been “ticketed for having prohibited, explicit or objectionable
content”. In its email to Kneen, iBookstore Australia outlines the possible reasons a
book may be banned from sale, but are careful to clarify that the list only “includes
but is not limited to…” In other words, Apple asserts their right to ban just about
whatever they please. Semantics aside, Apple clearly has a problem with what it
considers sexually explicit material and has carefully structured its policies allow
them to censor such material according to their whim. The online retailer also
censored the title of feminist Naomi Wolf’s latest book, Vagina, selling it under the
title V… on its US website – even anatomical terminology will not be tolerated!
Kneen eventually negotiated to have twoof the Triptych stories released individually
on iBookstore. The offending middle part is still banned. But Kneen remains
optimistic. As a writer who prides herself on writing pornography, not ‘erotica’,
Kneen says that the ban merely reminded her of her original purpose in writing – to
challenge the conventional boundaries of sexuality. “If I offend people, if I get
banned,” Kneen says, “then my job here is done!” And, she says, there is a silver
lining for any writers who find themselves the victim of such moralistic uproar –
nothing sells books like controversy. Unfortunately for readers, when private citizens
and businesses become the arbiters of taste, without any deference to governing or
classification bodies, or due consideration for our civil liberties, refusing to supply
readers with materials they have every right toaccess as responsible adults, society
loses. There will always be writers who will write on the edge of good taste, but if
booksellers and libraries refuse to supply them, then how will anyone read them?
by Angie Andrewes