#preserved forever and presented as art. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOURE WEARING THE MASK OF A MARGINALIZED UNDERREPPED DEMOGRAPHIC.

[britneyshakespeare]

Barnes and Noble’s website wouldn’t let me post my review of Mirrors: The Aborigine Poetry of Eldred Van-Ooy by Justin Spring because it “contained inappropriate content.”

I called the book racist because it makes up an Aborigine poet but in the afterword Justin Spring admits there was no Eldred Van-Ooy and he wrote most of the poetry himself (the rest was found from an unknown source and is being displayed in the book up to that point as if it’s an authentic representation of Aboriginal Australian literature, when there is no proof of that).

I was infuriated because I bought a book and it was literary blackface. This is one of two books on Barnes and Noble’s entire website that contains—or claims to contain—poetry from this 50,000-year-long, oldest-living-culture-on-the-planet whose members have been victims of colonization, forced assimilation, and genocide. 

And there is no information, on any website I’ve found (and I looked around quite a lot before I bought it), that will warn you that this book does not have authentic Aborigine poetry in it. Because that’s the point. Spring reveals in the afterword that it’s a lie as a part of some stupid thought experiment on how we interpret art, truth as a ground of “shifting mirrors” (where the title comes from)... and it’s just... there are so many ways you could write this concept into a book without exploiting marginalized people.

Other than that I don’t hold back in describing how offensive this book is, I don’t believe I was “inappropriate.” I did not use profanity, but I suppose whatever moderating system B&N has in place thinks I defamed Spring’s character, because I call him out for being a well-established and wealthy white author who does not sympathize with indigenous people, and is using people’s curiosity for an extremely underappreciated oral literary culture to profit and center himself. 

There have been even fewer books of Aborigine poetry published in English than you might expect, and Spring’s book is the first of few results that show up when you search the words “Aborigine poetry” on B&N’s website. I also pointed that out in the review, which is why I bought it on little information. He’s one of the sole visible voices for this entire group in the vast genre of poetry, but his book features zero actual Aboriginal people. 

Consumers deserve to be aware of this, and I should not have to mince words on how insensitive this book’s very existence is. It’s poison to literature, to academia, to culture, to philosophy. Who would want this? Who is enlightened enough to search for Aborigine poetry, and dense enough to think anything about this book is acceptable for publication? 

Does anyone know if it’s possible to appeal Barnes and Noble reviews, or should I just try rewriting the review again but taking out the part where I call the book an elaborate pull-my-finger joke? 

I don’t want to, but if I have to, I’ll sacrifice the final paragraph where I say a more genial approach to the author’s idea would be to start the book over again at page one, with simply: “We’re no strangers to love. You know the rules, and so do I. A full commitment’s what I’m thinking of. You wouldn’t get this from any other guy. I... just wanna tell you how I’m feeling... gotta make you... understand.”

Update 10/30/2021: Someone in a comment pointed out that the word “Aborigine” is considered derogatory, which I did not know as an American with no personal connection to this culture. Aboriginal people, First Nations peoples, Torres Straight Island Peoples, Indigenous Australians, or more specific culture groups’ names are more appropriate. None of the reading or schooling I’ve done in my life has ever distinguished between different terminology, which is probably because of its distance from where I am. I would also blame Justin Spring for using the word in his title and normalizing it. These are not excuses, though, and I do take responsibility for my ignorance, but I do not want to erase the evidence of its existence, so I’m writing this update instead of pretending I never made the mistake in the first place. For a more extensive reference on Aboriginal terminology, this PDF is a helpful read.