An ebook that is nothing but pedophilia smut

12990 Views 78 Replies 46 Participants Last post by Ann in Arlington, Jun 7, 2011

G

Discussion Starter · Jun 5, 2011

A friend on FB approached me because she was being harrassed by an author after posting a one star review. She wanted to know what I thought so I waded through just over half of the book and also gave it one star--saying it was nothing more than a thinly-veiled highly descriptive account, "confession" of repeated rapes of a young girl.

I understand writing about child rape & abuse is not illegal, but am considering calling Amazon about this particular book.

Even more interesting, I posted a warning to readers after seeing this man pump his book on another FB page, and promptly received a scathing PM. Many of his "reviews" appear to be fake, tho that's not easy to tell. Many are 5 stars, which blows my mind. It's no Lolita.

Should I shrug it off and move on, or should I email/call Amazon and ask them if it meets their criteria?

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Alain Gomez

· #2 · Jun 5, 2011

I would go on the Amazon guidelines and specifically look to see if it violates any one of them. If it does, it would be reasonable to report it. Amazon should have a certain level of quality on their site.

If it doesn't, I would just let your review do it's work. Don't reply to the author. If you get into a public internet fight with him, it will just increase his sales.

mrv01d

· #3 · Jun 5, 2011

Report it.

Tom Junior

· #4 · Jun 5, 2011

I'd report it. Theres a difference between writing about child abuse (from a sympathetic stand point) and publishing stories glorifying it. I hate this kind of stuff, if things are as you say, I hope they remove it!!!

JRTomlin

· #5 · Jun 5, 2011

Truthfully, that is how I always felt about Lolita, a novel which I was never able to finish. It turned my stomach. It can't hurt to report it, but I'm afraid I wouldn't hold my breath.

TWGallier

· #6 · Jun 5, 2011

Report it. Just hearing about it disturbed me.

RonnellDPorter

· #7 · Jun 5, 2011

What is this book? I want to sample it to see if it's really just an account, or just a controversial novel? Because it's not exactly clear which it is, fiction or memoirs...

tim290280

· #8 · Jun 5, 2011

While I agree with reporting it, you only read half of it.

Remember that American Psycho only reveals itself in the last few chapters. If you hated the book, sure give it a bad review, but if you didn't actually read it all it may be unfair to report it. Might be best to get the author to justify it to Amazon or whomever instead, rather than just pull it. Last thing we want is pedo publishings, but we also don't want draconian thought police.

swolf

· #9 · Jun 5, 2011

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." -- Evelyn Beatrice Hall

C.F.

· #10 · Jun 5, 2011

swolf said:
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." -- Evelyn Beatrice Hall

This.

kyrin

· #11 · Jun 5, 2011

Amazon actually has content guidelines for KDP. If you think the novel violates the guidelines, which can be found here, report it.

If it doesn't violate the guidelines, then let your review speak for itself and move on.

Quotes about freedom of speech have nothing to do with this particular case. When you agree to Amazon's terms, you also agree to play by their rules.

EDIT: And as others have said, a bad review is not an excuse for harassment.

greenpen

· #12 · Jun 5, 2011

You did the best you can do; you wrote the review, gave it a 1-star rating, and I'm sure you'll now spread the word to avoid the book. That's enough.
[/quote]

A one star rating doesn't give an author the right to harass anybody though.

Terrence OBrien

· #13 · Jun 5, 2011

"You don't only defend free speech for things you like, otherwise it's not free. Everyone has a right to say and write what they want as long as they are no inciting violence or lying with intent to defame someone... Period. No exceptions."

Freedom of speech does not oblige anyone to publish or sell another's work.

Gordon Ryan

· #14 · Jun 5, 2011

swolf said:
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." -- Evelyn Beatrice Hall

And here all these years I've attributed this quote to Voltaire.

Gordon Ryan

antares

· #15 · Jun 5, 2011

MikeAngel said:
Should I shrug it off and move on, or should I email/call Amazon and ask them if it meets their criteria?

What does your heart tell you to do? In the end, you have to live with yourself.

Me? Were I persuaded it was unredeeming pedophilia, I would email Jeff Bezos with cc to Amazon and state my case.

Terrence OBrien

· #16 · Jun 5, 2011

"And for this reason, I won't shed a tear if Amazon removes such a book, but the demands to remove above are not based around a concern for the Amazon TOS..."

Could be. But Freedom of Speech does not depend on our reasons for speaking.

G

Discussion Starter · #17 · Jun 5, 2011

RonnellDPorter said:
What is this book? I want to sample it to see if it's really just an account, or just a controversial novel? Because it's not exactly clear which it is, fiction or memoirs...

I thought I'd posted a reply but don't see it so much have accidentally trashed it. I'm torn whether to report the book, but not torn about the content & intent of it. You might want to look at it for yourself. I couldn't stomach reading the whole second half but jumped around through it to confirm it was more of the same as the first half.

To me pedophilia is over the line, and anything that glorifies it or explains it away or presents it as titillating. This book does it in spades, in my opinion. And, while I'm as Libertarian as the next guy, I do draw the line at exploitation or destruction of children. The book is:

Not Easily Washed Away: Memoirs of a Muslim's Daughter, by Brian Arthur Levene.

Now here is the abusive FB personal message that caused me to block this man and report him. I have no clue about some of his rantings, and evidently he thinks my FB contact Irene Cole is me as well. There were several bad ratings on this book and several 5 stars that sounded like they were describing something entirely different.

His PM:

[edited by moderator. PM me if you have any questions, Mike. --Betsy]

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KindleChickie

· #18 · Jun 5, 2011

This supposed author is calling you racist when he put out the book he did? His book is nothing more than child porn using the current environment of islamaphobia to peddle it.

greenpen

· #19 · Jun 5, 2011

I have just done something about it. Watch out for the UK newspapers: Sun, Star, Daily mirror, and The Independent. They all have a link to the web page. Let's see whether they do anything about it.

swolf

· #20 · Jun 5, 2011

kyrin said:
Amazon actually has content guidelines for KDP. If you think the novel violates the guidelines, which can be found here, report it.

From that link:

Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with some examples of prohibited content:

Pornography

Pornography and hardcore material which depicts graphic sexual acts.

That's just what we need to do; start reporting fellow authors who we think have violated Amazon's guidelines.

This isn't about the first amendment. Amazon is a private business and can censor any book they choose. This is about authors wanting to shut up other authors because they disagree with what they're writing.

With children of my own, the thought of anyone harming them or any other child disgusts me. However, there are no children being harmed by this book. Just as there are no people being harmed by books that graphically depict murder and violence.

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