Bruce Bawer er nominert til den amerikanske Kritikerprisen for sin bok "While Europe Slept. How Radical Islam is Destroying The West from within". Boken er fullstendig ignorert i norske medier, til tross for at Bawer bor i Oslo og skriver mye om norske forhold.
Det er en stor ære å bli nominert til Book Critics Award. Bawers bok er nominert i klassen for "criticism". Sist høst kunne forfatteren opplyse at boken var solgt i 40.000 eksemplarer.
Boken er en beretning om hvordan Bawer flytter til Nederland, hans forhold til USA og sin egen bakgrunn og møtet med Nederland, som han til å begynne med er vilt begeistret for, om amerikanernes forkjærlighet for Europa og europeisk kultur. Men etterhvert begynner han å se annerledes på tingene. Særlig etter 9/11 endres mye. Nederlenderne har vanskeligheter med å ta ting inn over seg. Amerika-stereotypene blomstrer. Imens endrer byene seg. Innslaget av innvandrere blir sterkere, og det er særlig de fra muslimske land som preger bybildet. Bawer er åpent homofil, og beskriver episoder hvor de blir overfalt på åpen gate. Av private grunner flytter Bawer til Oslo, og situasjonen er ikke radikalt annerledes her.
Bawer skriver om en endring i Europas identitet. Man skulle tro det ville engasjert norsk kulturlliv, men såvidt jeg vet er boken bare omtalt av Knut Olav Åmås. For øvrig i Ny Tid, Humanist, Liberal og Målmannen. En uke etter at boken var kommet ut, i februar i fjor, spurte jeg etter den på Norli. Jo, de hadde hatt et par eksemplarer. De kunne bestille den, hvis ønskelig.
Det er dårlig skjult sensur det handler om, rett og slett. Man misliker budskapet så sterkt at man boikotter boken. Derved bekrefter man det som er Bawers anliggende. Det er skammelig og provinsielt.
McCarthy, Eggers Among Finalists for Book Critics Awards
Associated Press
"While Europe slept" av Bruce Bawer vart ogso meld i tidskriftet Målmannen, nr 3 2006.
http://maalmannen.sambandet.no
Den ble også anmeldt i DLFs tidsskrift LIBERAL.
Jeg forsøkte å bestille boka hos Tanum, men de svarte at de ikke kunne skaffe den!! Årsaken ble oppgitt til å være at deres leverandører på utenlandsk litteratur ikke kunne skaffe den!! Har bestilt boka hos Amazon.com som ikke har leveranseproblemer. Lurer på hvor reell Tanums begrunnelse er?
Leif,
Er det sant? Bevare meg vel, man får jo til og med bestilt "Mein Kampf" uten store problemer i landets bokhandler. Men Bruce Bawers forfatterskap er kanhende regnet som mer forstyrrende enn som så?
Christen Krogvigs bokmelding av "While Europe slept" er å lese her:
http://demokratene.no/innlegg/innl76.shtml
Nina: Ja visst er det mulig. Jeg sitter med Tanums svar på e-mail foran meg. Mulig at dette er et eksempel på en subtil form for sensur, ikke nødvendigvis av Tanum som selskap, men av den ansvarlige på innkjøpsavdelingen? Må innrømme at jeg liker dette dårlig. Vi snakker jo ikke om en rabiat rasist, men om en forfatter som nå har 11 bøker bak seg, alle med førsteklasses omtaler. I tillegg er han altså også nominert til kritikerprisen i USA.
Ta forøvrig en kikk på denne bokomtalen: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467792048&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Har anmodet Hans om å få den omtalt her på bloggen når den utkommer.
Tar ditt ord for det, jeg.
Man skal dessverre høre mye før ørene faller av!
Maybe the title of this thread should be changed to While Rognan and His Pals Slept. I bought my copy of Bower's book at Tanum several months ago; they had a stack of at least 15 copies prominently on display on a central table in the middle of the store. I suspect many of these were unsold when they were taken down after a month or more - anyone interested in the hardbound might take a look when Tanum has sales, when books that have been over-ordered tend to pop up again.
Mr Rognan, if - as you claim - the distributor couldn't get the Bower book, the hardbound edition may well have already been sold out or remaindered in the States, where the shelf life of books is not much more than six months in the bookshops, if that. You were able get the book from Amazon because that firm stockpiles books when they are printed, and tends to have copies past the publishers' "remainder or pulp" date.
It is laughable to think that any conspiracy is at work in Norwegian bookshops, since I personally ensured that Tanum stocked up on Bower's interesting (if sometimes inaccurate) book. Also, Tanum never blinked an eye when I suggested several times that they refill their shelves with multiple copies of the late Orinoco Fellatio's several slightly rabid books (which are enjoyable reads nonetheless). In all instances, staff went ahead and willingly bought the titles.
Hundreds of thousands of books are published each year in English, and given that Norwegian bookshop buyers who read English and American book reviews are in a distinct minority (probably near zero), it is no surprise that a lot of interesting books never make it to the shelves of Norway's shops before it is too late to get the hardbound.
Annnnd... as far as putative newspaper censorship goes, given that the book was reviewed in large-circulation Aftenposten by Knut Olav Åmås (as stated above), one can hardly claim it was ignored in the Norwegian press.
Soooo... if there is any conspiracy at work, it is probably self-imposed by what I like to call the Norwegian Confederacy of Dunces: those individuals who get their main impulses from the television and/or the internet, who seldom go into bookshops or read newspapers (especially not foreign literary ones - heavens forbid!) who jump on bandwagons rather late in the game, and then wax self-indignant over something that is really only their own paranoid fault.
RD: Try to order the book from Tanum yourself if you imply that I'm lying. The e-mail adress is kundeservice@tanum.no.
I've not claimed that Tanum as a company impose any form of censorship, but it's a fact that their purchasers make selections very often based on their own cultural and political preferences. I think you are pretty naive and reveal little knowledge of how "correct political views" reigns in this country.
You may tell us at lenght how the international book market works, but it's a fact that Tanum claimed the book was unobtainable from their internatiol suppliers. When checking a few internet bookstores I found the aivailabiliy was without any restrains.
Mr Rognan -
After reading your latest comment on the Bawer book, I checked with Tanum. They had sold out all their many copies and the book has been since re-ordered; more copies should be in the pipeline and are likely to be on their way to Oslo. Given that, I would assume Tanum probably has placed more copies of Bawer's book before the Norwegian public than any other shop. By the way, they were astounded at your imputations, to say the least.
Perhaps it is the case that you were dealing directly with Tanum (that is, their computer programme) over the net, and once you met with a little hurdle, you gave up immediately on your order from that company. (As if mistakes never happen with internet ordering on either end!) Am I correct in assuming that you never once talked to a human operator, nor walked into a Tanum shop with a query regarding to your failed order?
If you had bothered to do so, you probably would have found that your problem in getting a copy of the book was something other than the result of a subtle form of censorship - as you strongly implied - and the difficulty in obtaining it was not because of some malign conspiracy directed at preventing anyone from getting the book. You might even have found other interesting books to like. But you do not seem to be the type who actually goes into a bookshop.
And I did not imply you were lying. Rather, you seem to suffer from a form of self-delusion. If there is anyone who is naive, it is yourself.
Jeg er delvis enig med Ruff og delvis enig med Leif. Ruff blir personlig på temaet
noe som ikke burde være nødvendig. Hva vet egentlig Ruff om at Leif ikke virker som en fyr som går i bokhandelen? Så her mister godeste Ruff en del kredibilitet. Anyway...
Jeg kjøpte boken på Tanum og da hadde de mange der. Men det kan alltids være att innkjøpsavdelingen har revurdert boken etter at den ble utsolgt.
RD: I do not know whats YOUR problem, but I'm impressed by how many reasons you're able to come up with to explain why Mr Bawers book was not availble at Tanum. This is what Tanum answered in their e-mail when I tried to ordered this book:
"Kjære kunde!
Denne kan vi dessverre ikke skaffe. Til orientering kan vi skaffe bøkene som gir treff på www.tanum.no. Dvs at dersom du ikke får treff ved søk, så er det ikke sannsynlig at vi kan skaffe dem.
Med vennlig hilsen
Kundeservice
Tanum Nettbokhandel"
A rather conclusive aswer if you ask me. I don't care if it was a computer or human being answering me, - this was their answer. From what you write I take it your are a business affilate of Tanum. I guess that's the reason you write so frenetically about this incident.
As Todd said in his comment above, there is no reason to be personal. Maybe you should spend your energy on Tanum giving them advice how to improve their information routines?
I think I've spent too much time on you already so it only remains to whish you luck doing business with Tanum.
Noen som vet om denne boka forefinnes på norsk, eller om det er planer om å utgi den på norsk.. ? Har ingen problemer med engelsk selv, men hvis den fins på norsk treffer den jo bredere da..