Self-censorship, a Rally for Moderates? and a great review from That Bookish Girl
So it occurs to me that I’m going to have to promote some books. Over the past few months, I’ve met quite a few folks who do precisely the same thing (or will have to shortly) online. And it brings up a lot of annoying thoughts. Self-censorship being one of them. Amidst all the pleasantries, and the email handshaking, and the profuse thank you’s to generous and kind compliments and suggestions, there is a lurking sensation that whispers, "Who’s reading this? What can I say and not say? Fuck, I just don’t know…shit, did I just say fuck? Who’s reading this?!!" Are teenagers going to eventually find their way to this blog and be offended? No. At least not the teenagers who would enjoy my books. But their parents might be, and I’m not in the business of offending parents, or publishers, or churches or political movements. But nor am I in the business of appeasing them.
So, in the endless internet burnout that is Hannah Moskowitz talking about what we’re doing talking to each other, and people decrying the end of internet anonymity, and author interviews and posts about censorship (read this one by Zoe’s Book Reviews), and writers wondering if their books will be banned, I am left to wonder. What….The….Fuck.
Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to disseminate information.
But anyway, a call to arms for moderates: Jon Stewart is doing a rally in DC in the hope that for one brief, shining moment, the moderate will be as loud as the hard-lefts and hard-rights. I’m interested, but question the feasibility. Moderates, by nature, are not the rallying type.
And Sleepwalk Society just got an amazing review from That Bookish Girl, in which Violet Monroe is likened to Holden Caulfield. The real one, not Jake Gyllenhaal in The Good Girl. It’s reviews like this that convince me I did the book right. Thanks, Bookish Girl!