AST Publishing House called the publication of Roberto Carnero’s book “Pasolini. To Die for Ideas” with retouched text fragments.
As the media drew attention on April 25, the biography of the Italian director and poet Pier Paolo Pasolini was published in Russia with pieces of text on several dozen pages painted over in black.
The publishing house explained that they were forced to make such censorship edits at the request of Russian legislation, including Article 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offenses and 478 federal law. This law, passed in December 2022, introduced a complete ban on the “propaganda of non-traditional relationships” and pedophilia, the dissemination of information about LGBT and “sex change” among people of any age.
According to the Telegram channel “Caution, News”, approximately one fifth of the biography was censored. In particular, the topic of sexuality and personal relationships of Pasolini, who was openly gay, was almost completely removed from the book.
The press service of Eksmo-AST noted that the Russian version of Carnero’s book was published with the permission of the copyright holder, although foreign publishers usually do not agree to abbreviations and edits of the original text.
“The decision of the editors who published the book was forced so that the publication could see the light of day. Painting over fragments of text is a more honest choice than simply cutting out paragraphs as if they were not in the book,” the publishing house’s press service reported in the telegram channel.
Thus, the work of Roberto Carnero has become interactive: the reader himself decides whether to use any sources of information in order to find out what is hidden from him in this version of the publication. Thanks to the presence of hidden fragments, a echo of the original text with the modern context in which we live here and now arises. In addition, the book becomes an artifact of the era, an attribute of performance, artistic expression. It is no coincidence that the name of the series in which the publication was published is “Picture of Time.” Perhaps the signal copy of the book will soon become an exhibit in one of the museums of modern art.
Russian publishing houses have repeatedly resorted to censorship and retouched lines in published books. Thus, the publishing house LikeBook (part of Eksmo) painted over the descriptions of sex between two men in Max Falk’s book “Shattered.” Alpina Publisher censored publicist Mark Manson’s book Everything Is Sucks. The publishing house “White Crow” removed several pages from the book “Hello, menstruation!” by Yumi Stines and Melissa Kang.
Publishing house AST this week, within three days, withdrew from sale at least six books that contained signs of “LGBT propaganda and gender reassignment.” In particular, the books Heritage by Vladimir Sorokin and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara were banned.
How Russian authorities are trying to ban books by unwanted authors – in the podcast “What Happened”
Tags: book artifact era AST Publishing House biography Pasolini entire fragments text painted
