August | 2013 | Guy Portman's Blog

Controversial Authors (Part 5)

Aug 30 2013

This is the final instalment of the Controversial Authors series. Initially I planned for the series to have only three parts, but there are so many authors that have been regarded as controversial through the course of history that I added an additional two.

Thomas Paine

(January 29th 1737 – June 8th 1809)

Notable works: Common Sense, The Rights of Man, The Age of Reason

Thomas Paine was a political activist, author, political theorist, revolutionary and one of America’s Founding Fathers. He arrived in America from England in 1774, just in time to participate in The American Revolution. Paine’s pamphlet, Common Sense (1776), sold an estimated half-a-million copies during the course of the revolution and is regarded as one of the most influential works of the eighteenth-century.

However when Thomas Paine died in 1809, his funeral was only attended by six people and his obituaries were universally scathing. Abraham Lincoln’s friends even burned a booklet he had written and over a hundred years after Paine’s demise, Theodore Roosevelt referred to him as a ‘filthy little atheist.’ If Paine had been martyred in The American Revolution there seems little doubt that his face would be gracing bills today. It was the controversy of his later writing, particularly The Age of Reason (1794) that were to seal his remarkable fall from grace.

In The Age of Reason Paine defended freedom against what he regarded as religious dogmatism, in the same manner that he had defended freedom against political tyranny during The American Revolution. The book was essentially a critique of The Bible, in which the author aired his own personal views on organised religion. These views were extremely controversial at the time of its publication and were to remain so over the forthcoming years. Though the author stated his strong personal belief in spirituality in the book, he was accused of being an atheist, something that was to cost what many view as his rightful place of honour amongst the The Founding Fathers.

Chuck Palahniuk

(Born: February 21st 1962)

Notable works: Fight Club, Haunted, Choke

Born in Pasco, Washington state, the American novelist and freelance journalist of Ukrainian descent, has constantly courted controversy with the content of his books; no mean feat in today’s era of tolerance. Palahniuk’s first novel, Invisible Monsters, a fictional story about a model who is shot in the face, was rejected by publishers for its disturbing content. His next effort, Fight Club, which remains to this day his most celebrated, saw the author attempt to be yet more controversial and scandalous than in his first effort. To Palahniuk’s surprise the book was published. It went on to become an international success, in no small part due to it being adapted for the big screen.

The film was extremely controversial at the time of its release in 1999, only six months after the Columbine school shootings. There had been much publicity over the perceived role of violent media in relation to the incident and Fight Club was viewed by many as glamourising violence. Real fight clubs soon began appearing throughout the United States and beyond, only adding to the furore.

Palahniuk’s dark and disturbing Fiction has continued to scandalise ever since. The short story, Guts, about masturbation accidents, contained in his book, Haunted, was met with such shock that people even passed out at public readings, only adding to the author’s notoriety. Haunted is often voted in polls as one of the most disturbing books ever written and has been banned along with the author’s other works in many schools. In Turkey, the translator of Palahniuk’s book, Snuff, was detained and interrogated by the police over what the authorities regarded as the book’s offensive content.

There seems little doubt that the author’s graphic depictions of violence and sex will cause more controversy, especially with further adaptations of Palahniuk’s books due for the silver screen in the near future.

Click on the links to read my reviews of Fight Club, Haunted and Damned and Adam’s (resident book reviewer’s) review of Survivor.

Click here to read Part 4 of Controversial Authors.

Controversial Authors (Part 4)

Aug 23 2013

I initially said that Part 3 of the Controversial Authors Series would likely be the final instalment, but I have since changed my mind. It seems fairly likely that there will also be a Part 5, possibly next week.

John Steinbeck

(February 27th 1902 – December 20th 1968)

Notable works: Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden

Born in Salinas, California, John Steinbeck went on to become a prolific novelist and short-story writer, and one of the most acclaimed literary figures America has ever produced. Steinbeck’s accolades include The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1940) and the Nobel Prize in Literature (1962).

Steinbeck was and still is, though to a lesser extent, regarded as a very controversial author. Arguably his greatest work, The Grapes of Wrath, has been banned by many school-boards down the years. The book was even burned on two separate occasions in the author’s home town of Salinas. According to The American Library Association, Steinbeck was one of the ten most frequently banned authors from 1990 to 2004.

The author’s left-wing leanings are a reoccurring theme in much of his writing. Steinbeck was very critical of capitalism and a supporter of unionisation, as witnessed in In Dubious Battle and The Grapes of Wrath. Unionisation was highly controversial at the time of their publication, as it was viewed by many Americans as being inherently communist, a label incidentally often levelled at Steinbeck himself.

Steinbeck’s most famous book, The Grapes of Wrath, is about a poor family of Oklahoma sharecroppers, the Joads, driven from their land during the 1930s’ Dust Bowl and The Great Depression. In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck advocates for the under-privileged, concentrating on social injustice, poverty and criticism of the nation’s economic plight, something that was fiercely debated at the time of its publication and beyond.

Click on the links to read my reviews of In Dubious Battle, The Wayward Bus and Sweet Thursday.

George Orwell

(June 25th 1903 – January 21st 1950)

Notable works: Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four

Born Eric Arthur Blair in British occupied India, author and journalist George Orwell was interested in social injustice, opposed to totalitarianism and committed to democratic socialism; ideals that resulted in the author often courting controversy, something which appears to have appealed to the opinionated writer. So strongly was Orwell opposed to Fascism that he even volunteered to fight in The Spanish Civil War against the Fascists. His experiences there gave rise to his book, Homage to Catalonia (1938).

Orwell’s most famous work, Nineteen Eighty-Four, a book that warned of totalitarian censorship, has been viewed as controversial since its publication due to its themes of nationalism, censorship and sexual repression. The book was banned in Russia shortly after the translated version came out there, as it was deemed to be a thinly disguised attack on Stalin’s Soviet Union. Ironically however in 1981, parents in Jackson County, Florida, challenged that the book was ‘pro-communist’ and contained ‘explicit sexual content.’

Animal Farm, a blend of animal fable and political satire was finished in 1944, but so controversial was the subject matter that it was not published until more than a year later, so concerned were the British government that the content would offend the country’s communist allies. The book is widely viewed as being an attack on Stalin and his totalitarian rule. Not surprisingly Animal Farm was banned in Soviet countries due to its perceived political content. The book was often used for propaganda purposes by anti-communist factions in the U.S., something that concerned the author greatly.

It was not only his two most famous works that were viewed as being controversial. Orwell’s portrayal of the life of English industrial workers, particularly coal-miners, in his book, The Road to Wigan Pier, was regarded as such at the time of its publication in the U.K.

Click on the links to read my reviews of The Road to Wigan Pier and Down and Out in Paris and London.

Click here to read Part 3.

Posthumously Famous Authors III

Aug 16 2013

The following blog post is dedicated to two authors, who became famous after their deaths.

Emily Dickinson

(December 10th 1830 – May 15th 1886)

Born in Amherst, Massachusetts to a wealthy family, Emily Dickinson went on to become a prolific poet with over 1700 poems to her name. During her lifetime Dickinson had fewer than a dozen poems published, and it was only after her death that she became famous.

The very private nature of the poet is undoubtedly one reason for Dickinson’s lack of acclaim during her lifetime. By the late 1860s’ her reclusive habits included rarely leaving the house and even speaking to visitors from the other side of the door.

It was only after her demise when younger sister Lavinia discovered her poetry that family and associates realised just how prolific a poet she had been. The first collection of Dickinson’s poetry was published in 1890, though it was heavily edited. Between 1914 and 1918 nearly a dozen new editions were published and then in 1955 a completed collection of her poetry, The Poems of Emily Dickinson, was released. Interest in the poet’s work was to only increase with the passage of time. In 1981 The Manuscript of Emily Dickinson was published and then in 2001 her biography.

Today Emily Dickinson is remembered as an iconic poet and one of the most acclaimed American female writers of all time. Her poetry is studied in schools throughout the country and there was even a stamp to commemorate her in 1971.

Death and immortality are reoccurring themes in Dickinson’s poetry and it can be argued that she achieved the latter with her posthumous fame and place in the hearts of her nation’s readers.

Karl Stig-Erland ‘Stieg’ Larsson

(August 15th 1954 – November 9th 2004)

Notable works: Millennium Series

Larsson was known during his lifetime as a renowned journalist and an independent researcher. However at the time of his death, aged fifty in Stockholm of a heart-attack, after climbing the seven flights of stairs to his office, as the lift was not working, Larsson’s Millennium Series were unpublished manuscripts sitting in his house.

The first, published in Sweden in 2005, received The Glass Key Award for the best Nordic crime novel that same year. The book was published in The United Kingdom in 2008 under its English language title, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The second part of the series, published in Sweden in 2006 is known in the English speaking world as The Girl Who Played with Fire. The following year the final instalment was released, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.

The trilogy saw the author achieve incredible success and posthumous fame. In 2008 Larsson was the second highest selling author in the world and in 2010, USA Today’s author of the year. The Millennium Series has gone on to be adapted for film and television. Hollywood sequels to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, starring Daniel Craig, are in production, and will likely see interest in the series increase yet further. To date about sixty million copies of the Millennium Series have been sold worldwide.

Click here to read Part II.

Amazon’s Assault

Aug 09 2013

Amazon emerged victorious from the ‘Ebook Wars’, their fleet of multi-attack Kindles establishing virtual air dominance, decimating Barnes and Nobles’s woefully under-equipped Nook to such an extent that the company announced in June that they would no longer be manufacturing them.

The world is now being ravaged by ‘The Pricing Wars’. Recent battles have included vigilante book retailer Overstock counter-attacking Amazon with a massive bestselling hardcover title discounting offensive, the likes of which the world has never before witnessed.

One suspects that this kamikaze act by Overstock is nothing more than a courageous but futile last stand that will result in inevitable surrender. Amazon’s victorious army could soon be marching vast lines of defeated Overstock foot soldiers to what some have made out to be the gulags of the 21st Century, Amazon warehouses. There have been accusations that poor treatment and tortuous work conditions are endemic in these tax avoidance enclaves. Others have argued that Amazon has provided a valuable boost to the economy by bringing employment to these former desolate areas, an example being the erection of an Amazon work camp warehouse in remote Chattanooga, Tennessee, where President Obama recently gave a speech.

This is not an isolated incident of defiance from the publishing industry in the face of Amazon’s prolonged assault. From the smoking rubble of their bricks and mortar business, two former foes, Penguin and Random House have formed an alliance to fight the Axis under their new flag, Penguin Random House.

The rhetoric from the the publishing industry and anti-Amazon consumers alike is that Amazon’s attack on their holy city of literature is personal, but in reality it is anything but. Amazon’s autocrat Jeff Bezos is by many accounts not the personal type. Former Amazon subordinate Steve Yegge described Bezos as being a;

“hyper-intelligent alien with a tangential interest in human affairs.”

(Courtesy of www.commerce.wa.gov.au)

Whatever Bezos’s true nature it can appear to the neutral observer that Bezos has a particular disliking for bricks and mortar; the shattered remnants of the high street bears testimony to this. Many would no doubt not be surprised if Bezos’s disdain for bricks and mortar extended to him rejecting housing in favour of living in a pod.

Amazon may well have waged war against the publishing industry, but it is no different to what they have done with the music and film industries. Pricing wars are the order of the day with these too, with discounts of up to 69% on many popular film and television series DVDs.

It is generally considered to be ill-advisable to bite the hand that feeds you and with Amazon’s food delivery service, Amazon Fresh, extending their venture from Seattle to Los Angeles it appears only a matter of time before they will be doing exactly that.

(Click to read Amazon Part 1 and Part 2)

Amazon’s Asian Expansion

Aug 02 2013

“The empire on which the sun never sets” was a phrase often used to describe the British Empire of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, but it would be just as apt to describe surging retailing super-power Amazon’s global empire. The Amazon land grab continues to gather pace with the recent announcement of further invasion plans, including the expansion of the Android based Appstore into nearly 200 countries (previously was only the USA, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan). Heavily armoured versions of the all conquering super-sonic Amazon Kindle, the Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9 are set to be deployed in a further 170 countries.

With America and Europe close to submission, Amazon has its long range ballistic missiles pointed eastwards towards Asia. It is apparent that Amazon has very different strategies to gain control of the two continental power-houses, China and India.

With regards India Amazon has utilised a siege mentality. They have sat back and waited patiently whilst India’s own domestic online retailers (e.g. Myntra, Flipkart & Jabong) have fought hard to win over the country’s reluctant online consumers. It appears only a matter of time before Amazon commences a full ground assault, their tanks running roughshod over the gains made by these guerrilla armies. Amazon’s recent launch of Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing in India can be viewed as a strategic base from which total subjugation of the country appears inevitable.

China will be hoping that they are buffered from Amazon’s global expansion by Tibet (a word you won’t find on Amazon.cn). At present Amazon controls less than 1% of the Chinese e-commerce market and many strategists are of the opinion that it will be prove to be very difficult for Amazon to penetrate the Great Wall of China and expand their empire eastwards. Neutral observers have pointed out that Amazon’s efforts may be curtailed by their deal to provide $600m worth of cloud computing services to the CIA, something which one suspects has not exactly endeared them to the Chinese authorities.

(Courtesy of www.wpdailythemes.com)

Whilst China’s rapidly expanding navy has been accused of being aggressive in regional maritime disputes with its smaller neighbours, they will find the Amazon fleet a very different proposition.

There is no doubt that Amazon’s autocrat Jeff Bezos, a man described by google engineer Steve Yegge as having a ‘giant brain’, will have carefully planned his empire’s expansion eastwards. Not only are China and India the most populace nations on the planet with fast growing economies, but Indians are currently the world’s most avid readers, averaging 10.42 hours a week, with China in third place with 8 hours. Amazon has a history of using literature as a decoy to lure its unsuspecting victims into purchasing other consumer items such as televisions and washing machines. It seems inevitable that this strategy will be deployed once again.

To be continued.

Click here to read Part 1.

Archive - August 2013

Controversial Authors (Part 5)

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Controversial Authors (Part 4)

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Posthumously Famous Authors III

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Amazon’s Assault

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Amazon’s Asian Expansion

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Archive - August 2013

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