Free Speech Advocates Blast Elizabeth Gilbert For Pulling Book Set In Russia

Damned if she does and damned if she doesn't

After receiving “an enormous, massive outpouring” of “anger, sorrow, disappointment and pain” from Ukrainian readers about the decision to publish a book set in Russia, Elizabeth Gilbert said on social media she was indefinitely delaying the release of her book The Snow Forest.

While some fans called it a compassionate move, others wondered what precedent this creates for free expression and self-censorship.

In a statement, PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel said Gilbert’s decision was “well-intended” but ultimately “wrongheaded.” Several fellow authors took to Twitter to express their confusion and dismay, including Lincoln Michel who wondered whether “no book should be set in historical Russia now? . . .  A novel about people resisting the USSR no less?”

And Rebecca Makkai wrote, “So apparently: Wherever you set your novel, you'd better hope to hell that by publication date (usually about a year after you turned it in) that place isn’t up to bad things, or you are personally complicit in them.”

In Unherd, Leigh Stein wrote that the “idea that a novel about a family fleeing religious persecution from Communists is in any way ‘pro’ Russia is not only absurd, it’s also the exact same argument of potential ‘harm’ wielded by the crusading book banners in American schools.”

In the Guardian, Francine Prose called Gilbert’s decision “unsettling” and said, “If we are to ban the cultural products of countries who are attacking, or who have attacked, smaller, weaker nations and innocent populations, there would be almost nothing left for us to read.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/willskipworth/2023/06/15/free-speech-advocates-blast-elizabeth-gilbert-for-pulling-book-set-in-russia/

***********************************

My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

*******************************