“The book becomes an artifact of the era, an attribute of performance” - AST publishing house on censorship of the biography of director Pasolini

The AST publishing house commented on the erasure of part of the text from the biography of the Italian director and writer Pier Paolo Pasolini. They confirmed that they censored the book “Pasolini. Dying for Ideas" by Roberto Carnero due to "LGBT propaganda and gender reassignment."

The publishing house called the editorial decision “forced.” “Coloring over parts of the text is a more honest choice than simply cutting out paragraphs as if they were not in the book,” AST said.

According to the publisher, the copyright holder of the book approved the erasure of part of the publication, although foreign publishers of non-fiction usually do not agree to abbreviations and edits to the original text of the manuscript.

After censorship, the book became “interactive,” they say in AST: “The reader decides for himself whether to use any sources of information 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.”

The censorship of Pasolini's biography became known today. According to Beware, News, about a fifth of it was erased from the book - the topic of sexuality and personal relationships of the director, who dated men, was almost completely lost.

On April 22, ACT stopped the sale of the books “Heritage” by Vladimir Sorokin, “The House at the End of the World” by Michael Cunningham and “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin due to “LGBT propaganda”. The next day, for the same reason, the publishing house withdrew from sale the books “The Song of Achilles” by Madeleine Miller and “A Little Life” by Hanya Yanagihara.