"Chastisement will come
when a very large number of bad books have been spread."
Sister Bertina Bouquillon
aka Nursing Nun of Bellay
As I write this, the American Library Association is celebrating its 50 state salute to banned books week. Tragically, even in our once safe libraries and the once respectable profession of publishing, today's dominant impulse is to promote mankind's prurient descent into decadence.
Consider that there was a time, not too long ago, when:
- publishers and pornographers considered themselves in distinctly different businesses;
- family-oriented stores like Walmart and Sam's Club shunned books that celebrate sadistic, sexual violence;
- public libraries had more stringent standards than big city, back alley peep shows.
Times have changed.
Over the past decade, some major publishers have particularly signaled their determination to hype and promote whatever scandalizes, titillates or outrages. As always, the edge of the slippery slope seemed harmless enough, at first.
Nine years ago, the world witnessed the marketing juggernaut of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code." Though it was widely criticized for its historical and scientific inaccuracies, the novel was marketed as if it contained a factual foundation to its ludicrous claim that the Catholic Church had murderously participated in the greatest religious conspiracy in history. Now approaching 100 million copies sold, the blockbuster helped make anti-Catholic bigotry fashionable.
Then, just five years ago, a new breed of militant atheists became the celebrated darlings of the publishing world. Their more accurate label, however, would be "antitheist" because they not only choose not to believe in God - an arguable position, at least - but aggressively dismiss and disparage anyone who does. Even though secular liberal journals had written devastating reviews, the carnival barkers of the airwaves managed to make a number of them best sellers.
Next, the wildly successful trilogy that included "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" proved that stories about sadistic sexual violence could produce international best sellers and major motion pictures.
So, perhaps it is not surprising that a major publisher is now mainstreaming what the Brits affectionately call "mummy porn."
