Talk:Norman Spinrad

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Bibliography[edit]

I have commenced a tidy-up of the Bibliography section using cite templates and tables for short stories, poems and/or book reviews. Capitalization and punctuation follow standard cataloguing rules in AACR2 and RDA, as much as Wikipedia templates allow it. ISBNs and other persistent identifiers, where available, are commented out, but still available for reference. Feel free to continue. Sunwin1960 (talk) 05:02, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Iron Dream[edit]

The section on this book includes the text ". . . in Germany . . . the public display of the book or its covers was prohibited, despite the fact that there were no swastikas on the cover of the first German edition"

However, the relevant law (see Strafgesetzbuch section 86a#Symbols affected) includes "the Sig rune as used by the SS", and this was indeed depicted on the cover (twice), so the text statement is both misleading and verging on synthesis. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.200.67.136 (talk) 09:59, 2 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding "According to Spinrad,[12] the book was banned for twenty-five years in Germany", the source [12] reads:

Zauberspiegel: »The Iron Dream« had been indexed as publications harmful to young persons in Germany for 25 years as a »glorification of National Socialist ideas«. How does an author handle with this? Norman Spinrad: Heyne Verlag was very supportive during 8 years of legal battles. And in the end, we did win. And aside from the German court case, the novel, which was published in a dozen or more countries and extensively reviewed, was almost never misunderstood.

So it was not him claiming "25 years", but the interviewer. This is relevant, because it is pretty wrong. The book was published by Heyne in 1981, "banned" in 1982 and released by court in 1985 (and after appeal again in 1987). There's no 25 years here, Spinrad is (almost) right with his "8 years" (it's probably only 7, but fair enough). jcnolte (talk) 09:30, 26 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. "Indexed" is not "banned", because it only restricts sale and display (to protect minors) rather than forbidding it. The problem with our current text is that it conflates two separate issues, the "indexing" because of the text's anticipated effect on minors, and an additional possible "display ban" because of the cover art's inclusion of the SS's Sig rune, banned under entirely different legislation. Obviously, non-German individuals involved in the events and discussions may not have had a full grasp of the German laws involved. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.195.172.49 (talk) 19:30, 17 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]