Is Amazon pulling a 'Fahrenheit 451' by banning books from list?
Though "Unfriendly Fire" has sold more books than the entire "Twilight" saga, you're not going to find it topping the Amazon.com bestseller charts. In fact, you won't find it on the charts at all.
That's because Amazon.com has removed the hardcover version of the book due to its adult content. Although it is a bestseller that analyzes military policy, it touches on one subject that Amazon considers too adult to promote: LGBTs in literature.
It seems that Amazon has been extending this policy to many books that deal with homosexual characters. Amazon stated in response to one author that inquired why his novel, which contained some gay characters living in the Old West, was removed from the rankings:
In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.
Readers were outraged to find out that Amazon was removing gay-themed literature from its lists.
Lawrence Schimel wrote: Because the titles don't show up in the search engines, now if you type "homosexuality" into the Amazon.com search engine the first book that comes up is A PARENT'S GUIDE TO PREVENTING HOMOSEXUALITY.
Eli Seve wrote: cccc: As a Christian who actually reads the Bible, I'm happy to tell you that I will be boycotting Amazon until they sort this out. A good Christian shall not tolerate discrimination towards anyone, but remember that Jesus did not tolerate it, spoke against the bigots and the ones who saw themselves as "holier than thou."
Does Amazon's definition of "adult" material need to be revisited?
Update: An earlier version of this post had a graphic description that has since been removed.
— Michelle Castillo
Image credit: Reuben Munoz / Los Angeles Times
Yes, I would dare say that Amazon should think twice about what it labels as "Adult" and what it does not.
When two homosexual people love each other, it's considered Adult.
When two heterosexuals love each other, it's considered teen fantasy/romance.
[Reference to Twilight]
Posted by: BarnStormer | April 13, 2009 at 07:22 PM
Why won’t Amazon just be honest? I would like to know why the “flip” affected only gay & lesbian subject matter or – in the words of Amazon – “a broad number of categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive and Sexual Medicine, and Erotica.” Amazon emphasized the latter to suggest that gay content wasn’t targeted, but what do all those areas have in common? Definitely the likelihood that they would touch on homosexuality. Knitting, woodworking, mathematics, the American Revolution, the cavalier poets, scholastic philosophy, the Arian Heresy and the history of baseball seem to have come through unscathed. The works that were affected were obviously tagged in some way that targeted them. Not every book in Reproductive and Sexual Medicine was de-ranked. Books fall into more than one category. What painted the target on a particular book was evidently some identification with gay and lesbian subject matter. When will Amazon stop denying this?
Posted by: ducdebrabant | April 14, 2009 at 09:39 AM
If they (Amazon) does so, I will NEVER buy books from them!
Posted by: Cypros | April 14, 2009 at 02:45 PM
yes,offcourse.why amazon banning books? i don't found any strict reason.
Posted by: buland | April 17, 2009 at 10:25 AM