FIY NP

[Doug Millison]

At 8:44 PM -0500 5/4/00, HMus wrote:
>Amazon's denial is more moral than technical: they host the reader reviews,
>making them available, just like a store or library does. Were they to send
>them out in email &/or newsletters, they would be publishing it; it is the
>writer of the review who in this case publishes it. If they wrote such a
>review themselves, then they would be the publishers.

I beg to differ. Amazon.com is not a "public bulletin board", it's a
business that sells books (and many other products); it publishes all kinds
of stuff it thinks will help sell those books and other products.
Amazon.com publishes customer comments on its Web site in the same way that
a newspaper (online or print) publishes  letters to the editor from its
readers. Similarly, PYNCHON-L publishes the messages contributed by
subscribers. I can write book reviews all day long, but nobody at
Amazon.com is going to be able to read them unless Amazon.com chooses to
publish them.

>Would you ask them to censor the one ignorant review out of seven customer
>reviews displayed on what is in effect a public bulletin board? Should the
>P-List be held accountable for the unpleasantness and general, stubborn
>disagreeability of one of the people who post on it? <g>

In fact, in the past, I have argued that the P-list become a moderated
discussion list, in which not every post would automatically be published,
as part of an effort to make the P-list a place where serious discussion of
Pynchon's work might once again flourish and engage the participation of
people who currently choose not to take part because of the mud that gets
slung from time to time. Each time I, or anybody else, has made this
suggestion, it's been roundly rejected, often with the "list Nazi" label
liberally applied, and the freewheeling discussion has continued, albeit
without the participation of Usenetphobic scholars and other serious
readers who choose not to expose themselves to the often rude manners of
this forum. The discussion suffers as a result, I believe; I understand
that some of you don't agree with me on this point, and that's fine, too. I
continue to participate -- and even to take part in the back-and-forth on
occasion, as appropriate -- all the same. At the same time I regret the
absence of those who have left the P-list because serious contributions
have in the past so often met with boorish comments or ridicule.

I wouldn't personally ask Amazon.com to do anything. I might choose not to
buy books or other products from them if I felt they were advocating
something I didn't agree with, just as I choose to honor picket lines or to
boycott products or services in support of certain political causes.  I'm
certain I wouldn't buy books in a bookstore that made available -- by
posting them on the shelf along with the book -- glowing reviews of this or
any other work of its ilk.  I'd find a different bookstore and spend my
money there, and I would probably recommend that my friends do the same.
They'd remain free to spend their money where they choose, of course.

Amazon.com is walking a fine line in this case. Amazon.com reserves the
right to suppress customer reviews of books in some cases (if the reviews
include  "profanity, obscenities, or spiteful remarks", for example, as the
company plainly states in its review guidelines), and I have to wonder, why
not in this case?  Every retailer chooses what inventory it wants to offer
to customers; I have to wonder, why would Amazon.com choose to sell this
kind of stuff, and to promote it with this kind of rave review? These are
legitimate questions that have nothing to do with censorship and everything
to do with choice; Amazon.com is not a public library, or educational
institution, it's a for-profit business.  Does Amazon.com sell blatantly
pornographic books (the kind you buy in adult bookstores)?  If not, why
not?  If they choose not  to sell pornography (and some obvious keywords
don't seem to pull up the kinds of books I'm thinking of from their catalog
database), why do they choose to sell anti-semitic books?






d  o  u  g    m  i  l  l  i  s  o  n  <http://www.online-journalist.com>