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Book Banning 2000
Christian Activists Boycott Amazon.com
For a printable version of this release, please click here.
February 2000 - The American Family Association and its Christian right affiliates such as Maranatha Christian Journal and Breakpoint (radio) with Chuck Colson have mounted an ongoing nation-wide campaign to pressure Amazon.com to ban the book, Daddy, An Erotic Memoir by Raul Schmidt from its website. Further enraged by Jeff Bezos' nomination at Time's Man of the Year 2000 after Amazon.com refused to accede to their demands, Christian right activists across the U.S. are now boycotting Amazon.com completely, going so far as removing Amazon.com links from their websites to avoid any contact, however remote, with Amazon.com and Daddy, An Erotic Memoir.
Why is Daddy, An Erotic Memoir singled out for protest from 4 million+ other books at Amazon.com?
The AFA ACTION ALERT protested the company's sale of books promoting sex between adults and children, and Amazon.com was taken to task for selling titles promoting incest. Of particular concern to AFA was the book, Daddy, An Erotic Memoir.
AFA Director of Public Relations Allen Wildmon: "Have we come to a time in America when pedophilia and incest are simply matters that some of us dislike? I wonder if there is anything that Amazon.com wouldn't sell for a buck? Every culture that has made decisions like Amazon's is NO LONGER in existence."
Author Raul Schmidt replies: "Daddy, An Erotic Memoir isn't porn fantasy. It's a graphic memoir about a sexual relationship, told as truthfully as any author is capable about the events of a unique moment in time shared by consenting and loving adults, 22, 24 and 42 years old. There are no children depicted anywhere in this book. That information is contained in the first paragraph of the first page of the first chapter, but Wildmon and his crusaders obviously haven't read the book they want banned.
"Nowhere in the book does Daddy, An Erotic Memoir promote or advocate incest or sex between adults and children. The classic proscription against incest is, in fact, reinforced at story's end, but through loving growth and, not least, informed empirical choice, which infuriates religious fundamentalists of any stripe. What seems to enrage the AFA most is my dismissal of the contemporary synonymous use of sex = abuse. It's the Puritan ethic writ large; If you're relly enjoying yourself, you've got to be punished."
Even the hipper-than-thou New Yorker magazine (yes, The New Yorker) refused to run our original ad for Daddy, An Erotic Memoir, until the ad copy "A love affair of incest--without victims" was changed to "A father's searing confession of forbidden love." "...forbidden love..." = upholding the incest taboo, "...confession..." = admission of guilt, "...searing..." = burning in hell for eternity for your sin. Lurid, but socially acceptable.
Daddy, An Erotic Memoir by Raul Schmidt is still available at Amazon.com, bn.com, powells.com
Read first chapter on the web: www.daddymemoir.com
Author Raul Schmidt is available for radio and television interviews. Next appearance: Northwest Afternoon, KOMO-TV 4 Seattle, 3:00 PM 15 February 2000.
Judith Martin
Boustrophedon Press
310-652-7370
jmartin@daddymemoir.com
http://www.daddymemoir.com
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