Turkish publisher faces jail time for publishing William S. Burroughs novel

Melville House Publishing
17 May 2011

Irfan Sanci

Turkish publisher Irfan Sanci is going to court again over publishing something that has offended some people, for which he faces some time in jail.
In November, it was his decision to publish Guillaume Apollinaire’s Adventures of the Young Don Juan that got him into hot water with authorities. Now, he faces obscenity charges again over his plans to publish Williams Burroughs‘ novel The Soft Machine according to this report in the Associated Press by Christopher Torchia.
In March, the “Prime Ministerial Board for the Protection of Children from Harmful Publications,” a government board that oversees newly published works, said that The Soft Machine “ lacks narrative unity” and is “written in an arbitrary fashion that is devoid of cohesion in meaning.” They went on to say that “The way the book deals with the coarse, sleazy, vulgar and weak aspects of humans will develop an attitude that allows the justification of criminal activities in the readers’ minds.”
As the AP points out, the board’s conclusions aren’t legally binding but prosecutors have decided to go after Sanci anyway. ”There is a conflict between society, and the laws and the government,” said Sanci.
Torchia outlines the context of the case within Turkish society with respect to free expression thusly:

The case is part of a debate about free expression under a government that has successfully battled over Turkey’s secular political system with the military and other hostile state institutions. The ruling party, led by devout Muslims who call themselves “conservative democrats,” leads in the polls ahead of June elections, but opponents say its vows to pursue democratic reform mask an autocratic streak.

On Sunday, protesters in Turkish cities demonstrated against government plans to implement Internet content filters, saying the new system amounted to more censorship in an already heavy-handed effort to control information. Thousands of websites are banned under regulations aimed at curbing child pornography, illegal gambling and other cybercrimes.

As Bilge Sanci, the publisher’s daughter and executive editor at Sanci’s publishing house Sel Yayincilik, notes about the disconnect between the government board and the classic Beat novel, “You can’t judge the moral code of the Beat Generation” if you don’t understand ”literature or aesthetics.” (Ruhi Ozbilgic, the head of the advisory board, has worked in customs, agriculture and state planning.)
The print run for the new edition of The Soft Machine is a modest 2,500 books. Yet depending on the government’s ruling, it may be more than the cost of those books that Sanci will have to eat. If convicted, he faces steep fines. Or jail time.