I have been to Savers for a number of years now. My main point of focus is buying second hand books. I like the occasional shirt but biographies, some science fiction and a few classics have been the order of the day. Probably one of the weirdest contradictions is buying the biography of Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Infidel, that documented her oppression in Somalia to the assassination of collaborator Theo Van Gogh, with a note to Ali containing death threats pinned to the body of Van Gogh with the knife used to kill him.
why contradiction? I can buy this book at Savers but I can't by the Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. Some staff have told me that rather than putting the book on the shelves they simply throw it in the bin. They have stocked other literary works in the past, such as Midnight's Children and the Moor's Last Sigh. I know, I've seen them there.
now this is anecdotal but a staff member conveyed to me that one time some aggrieved person totally lost their shit over seeing the Satanic Verses on the shelf. There are a number of second hand book stores in the area that have the book in stock now, even as we speak. Is that an incentive for the incensed to lose their shit? Please, I hope not. There are many stores in Melbourne where I can buy the book brand new. If there was a time when people felt outraged by their perception of apostasy, why not now?
so this leads me to a certain conclusion - who actually read it? Plus if you are really going to go out of your way to be outraged and indignant, surely you should maintain the rage. The whole thing has piqued my curiosity. Now I really want to read it. The paradox is before I was indifferent, now I am focused.
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