Happy Bloomsday! Ulysses is definitely on my list of books I want to read one day. I always imagine beginning it on June 16th. It didn’t happen this year. Maybe next year especially since next year I won’t have school to interfere with my reading anymore.
Have you heard the whooptedoodle over a graphic novel version of Joyce’s book? If not, NPR has a great summary report on it. No doubt there are plenty of other reports on it around the web as well. But, in case you haven’t heard, the folks that created the graphic novel submitted the first chapter to Apple for sale as an iPad app. Apple said that the bare chested goddess and another drawing that included nudity had to be removed and the app had to be rated NC-17. The artists asked if they couldn’t perhaps blur the offending areas and leave the images in and Apple said no, arguing slippery slope, blah, blah, blah. Due to public outcry, Apple has changed its mind and the app is available with art intact.
Apparently, however, this is not the only censorship Apple has practiced on literature. They banned an Oscar Wilde graphic novel adaptation because it had a picture of two men kissing.
I don’t know about you but I find this quite disturbing. I had no plans of getting an iPad but if Apple is going to pull stuff like this I will never ever get an iPad nor will I ever get an iPhone. Apple had better learn fast that censorship is unacceptable.
On a happier note, you really need to check out Bookshelf Porn (via Bookstore People). This stuff should definitely be rated NC-17. Make sure the kids are outside playing, away at school or tucked into bed, your significant other is elsewhere and you are not at work, that way you can drool and pant freely and no one will see or hear.
I’m actually really surprised that Apple would censor stuff like this, since I am guessing a large part of their customer base are hyper-liberals. But I agree – it’s stupid and never okay.
Apple is an evil empire…
The bookshelf porn is quite something – I think I may be addicted already!
It’s scary, but important, to realize the importance of numerous outlets for literature. Both Apple (which I’m surprised about) and Amazon have been caught censoring, a warning to not put all our books in one or two baskets.
(Thanks for the link!”
Wow- Bookshelf Porn is amazing! I love the pictures hehe
I haven’t read the Ulysses either and I don’t think I’ll be reading that book anytime soon! To be honest, it scares me to death, even just looking it can make me shiver!
Wow–they’re policing literature now? I’m guessing you can surf the web on an iPad? No doubt yolu can look up all sorts of naughty sites that way that are far, far worse–are they going to make that stuff inaccessible, too, then?
I am using your word……whooptedoodle. Thanks Stef
I haven’t read Ulysses yet either, even though I’ve had a copy for about 20 years, but in honour of Bloomsday yesterday, I downloaded it to my eReader. Obscene and public domain!
Oh I love Bookshelf Porn! Thank you for that link.
Isn’t it sad, and scary, that something like that would get censored?! The topic of censoring breasts or “mature” images always comes up for debate on Etsy where I sell my journals because people get in a fit about how you should not have that on the front page. Won’t someone think of the children, please?! pfft….
Is anyone else seeing a trend? First Amazon pulls that craziness with 1984 and now Ipad. Call me old-fashioned, but I like the idea of having a book in my hands that no one can recall or tell me I shouldn’t have in the first place. Scary times.
Yes indeed, one more reason not to bother with an iPad or anything like it.
I always imagined it would likely be the kidz buying such gadgets but I read an article yesterday (can’t remember where though) about kids checking email much less frequently than adults…and I had a gaggle of schoolgirls in my shop yesterday dropping scads of cash on literature…really good stuff too! It makes me hopeful.
I quite selfishly don’t want the book to die, in part because I’ll feel like I’m in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation if I have to read books of a small, flat computer.
I always think of Star Trek when I think of e-readers too! I’m glad I’m not the only one. I fear someday I’ll be like Jean-Luc Picard, reading one of those old fashioned book thingys. Sigh.
I think this is one of those issues we should maybe start thinking about with e-readers. Once someone starts delivering your lit to you by a device they have larger control of what kind of lit you can recieve.
Apple is getting a little too powerful and I don’t like censorship so I won’t be rushing to buy an Ipad either.
Not only that, but Apple has also been denying iPad and iPhone apps that are satirical in nature. There have been many political cartoonists and humorists who have submitted their apps to the App Store and were denied. Apple has a right to police its apps and content, but we should definitely respond with boycotts and outrage.
–Jordan (http://www.bookishnose.com)
Wow, that is obscene, though I’m not entirely surprised. Apple is all about taking people’s choices so they are forced to buy more Apple products and content. The iPad is really a epitome of this—it’s little more than a device to deliver iTunes product. But they excel at making things simple, not to mention appealing to consumer vanity, so people are happy to pay to avoid the chaos of the open market. I guess they are also paying for “safe” content, whether they know it or not. /rant
Wow. SO IRONIC, considering the history of censorship surrounding the original text of Ulysses. Guess old Joyce has still got it, even all these years later. I can only imagine what the censors’ reactions to the “Night Town” episode will be, given the huge geysers of semen coming from hanged men and the sex-reversed bordello keeper threatening to emasculate Bloom. There’s also the extended shitting scene! Fun for the whole family.
Two men kissing? Give me an effing break, Apple.
Well, I can’t see myself rushing out to buy an ipad anyway, but that’s pretty annoying. How is that different than anything else on the internet peopeke download and read on their iPhones? They’re probably just afraid of conservative backlash.
But thanks for the links to the bookshelf porn. I’m definitely drooling. We’ve just bought a new house and I can’t wait to install floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. The living room will become the library. Well, someday. Woo hoo!