"The book becomes an artifact of the era." AST Publishing House - about the biography of Pazolini, where they painted whole fragments of the text

The AST Publishing House called the publication of Roberto Carnero's book “Pazolini. To die for ideas ”with the chopped fragments of the text.

As the media drew attention on April 25, the biography of the Italian director and poet Pierre Paolo Pasolini published in Russia with black pieces of text on several dozen pages.

The publishing house explained that they were forced to go to such censorship amendments at the request of Russian legislation, including Article 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offenses and 478 of the Federal Law. This law , adopted in December 2022, introduced a complete ban on the “propaganda of non -traditional relations” and pedophilia, the dissemination of information about LGBT and the “floor change” among people of any age.

According to the telegram channel “Caution, News”, about one fifth of the biography was censored. In particular, the topic of sexuality and personal relations of Pazolini, which was open gay, was almost completely removed from the book.

The press service of Eksmo-Ast noted that the Russian version of Carnero’s book was with the permission of the copyright holder, although usually foreign publishers do not agree to reduce the original text.

“The decision of the editorial office who issued the book is forced to make the publication see light. To paint over fragments of the text is a more honest choice than just cut the paragraphs, as if they were not in the book, ”the publishing house’s telegram channel reports .

So, the work of Roberto Carnero became interactive: the reader himself decides whether to use any sources of information to him to find out what is hidden from him in this version of the publication. Due to the presence of hidden fragments, the roll -call of the original text with a modern context in which we live here and now is born. In addition, the book becomes an artifact of the era, an attribute of a performance, an artistic statement. It is no coincidence that the name of the series in which the publication was published - “Picture of Time”. Perhaps the signal copy of the book will soon become an exhibit of one of the museums of contemporary art.

• Russian publishers have repeatedly resorted to censorship and retouched lines in published books. So, the LikeBook publishing house (included in Eksmo) painted describing the sex of two men in the book of Max Falk to smithereens. Alpina Plisher was censored by the book of publicist Mark Manson, “All is bad”. The Publishing House "White Raven" removed several pages from the book "Hello, menstruation!" Authorship of Yumi Styins and Melissa Kang.
• The AST publishing house this week withdrew at least six books from the sale for three days, in which they found signs of "propaganda of LGBT and sex change." The ban, in particular, were the book “Heritage” by Vladimir Sorokin and “Little Life” by Khany Yanagikhara.

How the Russian authorities are trying to ban books of objectionable authors - in the podcast "What happened"