A quick update on the story about Hackney Council banning a book launch from one of its libraries because the book contained “controversial or political opinions”. Dave Hill has the details of how Hackney is now backing away from its original position, and talking about being happy to stock the book by Iain Sinclair in future.
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9 Comments
It’s quite misleading to describe this as a “library book ban”.
As far as I know, there has never been any question of the book being banned from Hackney libraries, as your headline would suggest.
Or as suggested by your no-doubt carefully phrased comment about Hackney “backing away from its original position, and talking about being happy to stock the book by Iain Sinclair in future”.
In fact, the “original position” was the withdrawal of an invitation to hold an event to launch the book in a local library, and the reason the book isn’t stocked at the moment is that it hasn’t been published yet!
CCF: I think you’re (wrongly) assuming that my second sentence was all about one point. It covers two, related points – one before the “and” and one after. Hackney Council *is* backing away from its original decision to ban the launch – hence the announcement that it will review its policy on who is or isn’t allowed to launch books in future. And it *is* saying that it will be willing to stock the book in future.
I’m not assuming any such thing. It’s perfectly obvious what you’ve done here.
Clearly the sentence was carefully constructed to give people the impression the book had originally been banned, without explicitly saying so.
Just like “library book ban” in the headline.
What’s the excuse for that? You can hardly claim, as a print journalist could, that there wasn’t room to write “ban on book launch in library”!
CCF: I’m surprised you’re so confident you know what I was thinking! But you’re mistaken. Indeed, if your claim was true I’d have hardly said “book launch” in the previous sentence, which is a pretty good clue as to what “original position” immediately after means 🙂 As for the headline – the story is about a ban involving a book and a library. No headline can give all the details of a story (unless it’s a very, very simple story!) but there’s the text of the story – and two links through to more details.
“As for the headline – the story is about a ban involving a book and a library. No headline can give all the details of a story (unless it’s a very, very simple story!) …”
But it’s clearly not about a “book ban”, is it? Would it really have been so hard to write “book launch ban” instead?
Mark, do you think it is necessary, or wise, for public libraries that are funded by the taxpayer to get involved in commercial product launches for books? Especialy those which advocate a particular political point of view?
@ David – but that wasn’t the reason Hackney withdrew its invitation to speak.
David: in addition to what GP said, libraries have for decades been hosting book launches for local authors all round the country as part of their efforts to support and encourage a more bookish culture.
Mark: Fair enough, if it’s novels, local history, whatever. But when it comes down to politics, or religion, shouldn’t we be cautious? If we launch a Conservative book today, what do we say when the BNP put in their application tomorrow?