Amazon withdraws scientology book
Maxine Clarke
Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:29 UTC
This seems a pity. From the Bookseller blog:
‘Amazon UK has barred the sale of a new Scientology exposé penned by a former member of the church’s “elite paramilitary group”.
According to The Register, the online retailer is no longer offering The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology by John Duignan, who spent 22 years inside the secret organisation.
In a recent post to an anti-Scientology discussion forum, an anonymous Brit says that after pre-ordering the book, he received an email from Amazon announcing it had been “removed from sale for legal reasons”.’
Updated 12 November 2008 14:57 UTC
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I’m saddened and appalled. Allegedly the Scientologists have a reputation for getting heavy handed with any criticism, but it’s a shame Amazon hasn’t stood up to them.
I have heard they also have a direct line to eBay and can pull anything from sale they don’t like, without eBay’s involvement (though this could be conspiracy theory stuff).
I’m afraid my reaction is to rush out and try to buy a copy. As far as I can see it has also been pulled from Tesco and Borders, but as I write it is still on Waterstones’ website at this address … I’ve ordered my copy, but I don’t know if it will come before it’s pulled from there too. I’ll keep you updated.
If this discussion also disappears, you know what to think! They’ve leaned on Nature. But the truth is out there, or some such rubbish.
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Thanks, Brian – I was not sure if it was OK to post this in this forum, but there did not seem to be anywhere else.
Nature has an honourable tradition of not being intimidated by the scientologists, eg:
Propheteering business
Martin Gardner
FOR 35 years I believed that L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, was no more than a writer of mediocre fiction who, lusting for power and money, became one of the world’s most successful mountebanks. Russell Miller’s admirable,…
Nature 331, 125 – 126 (14 Jan 1988), doi: 10.1038/331125a0, Book Review.Long may this continue!
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I think anything defending writers in this position is highly deserving of a place here.
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The scientologists are well known for resorting to litigation wherever possible. I group up a few miles from Saint Hill, their UK headquarters, and experienced some of them at close range. Not very nice. Not very nice at all, precioussss.
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To be fair to Amazon, they might have removed it at the demand of a judge hearing a case, rather than the demand of the scientologists themselves.
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The Dogma Free America podcast has an interesting interview with an Amazon.com reviewer who recently went to the wall with Amazon.com and their odd “policy” of making negative reviews of Dianetics disappear.
http://www.dogmafreeamerica.com/index.php?post_id=364071
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I think Amazon are biassed in the reviews they take – this is judging from my own experience. Most of the reviews I write are positive and in this case they go on instantaneously. However, when I’ve written the odd one about an inaccuracy in a book they have taken weeks to go on and when eventually accepted have consequently been buried in the past.
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That’s fascinating, Clare. Sometimes when one looks on Amazon, one sees a sample positive and a sample negative review posted side-by-side – and also they have the “wisdom of the crowds” system where the reviews more users find “helpful” float to the top. But, as you say, if your review is buried after an extensive checking procedure, people don’t see it so can’t say if it is “helpful” or not.
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One book was a work of fiction – a Richard and Judy pick. All the rest of the reviews were glowing – but I thought there were several details in the book that were obviously anachronistic e.g. patterns of speech and items that just wouldn’t have existed then. Not terribly contentious, really, or at all libelous, or even particularly negative just less glowing. At the time I suspected Amazon might be in league with R&J – but I guess I was just being a little paranoid…which might take us back to the Scientologists, perhaps :-)
Sorry, I’ve gone a bit off-topic here!
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Where the Scientologists are concerned, nothing is off-topic ;-)
Good theory, Clare – put it in a novel!
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