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Update: I finally got a copy of 'Persepolis' shipped to my friend in Turkey
I tried sending it through a small bookstore in Istanbul that sometimes handles tricky orders, and after two months of radio silence, it just arrived at her apartment yesterday. The whole process made me realize how much we take for granted just walking into a library and picking a book off the shelf. Has anyone else had luck getting censored material into a country with strict import laws?
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morgan3165mo ago
Not quite right about the bookstore, though. I ordered it direct from a publisher who works with Iranian exiles in London, and they forwarded it through a freight forwarder in Dubai that repackages things to avoid customs flags. Small local bookstores usually won't touch that kind of risk unless you know the owner personally.
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daniel5526mo ago
That's awesome it finally got through. Makes you think about all the invisible gatekeepers controlling information flow, not just in other countries but everywhere. Algorithms deciding what we see online, paywalls on news articles, even which books get promoted in stores. We're surrounded by soft censorship that's easy to miss until you hit a hard wall like this. Really glad your friend got the book.
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henry5976mo ago
Funny how the most basic things become acts of rebellion. Remember when people used to smuggle music tapes or Xeroxed poems? Now it's graphic novels. Makes you wonder what the next everyday item will be that gets locked down. A friend in college had his plain white t-shirt confiscated at a border because the slogan on the inside tag was deemed "subversive." Sometimes the gatekeepers aren't even looking at the right gate.
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