Bestsellers "Snuff" and "Soft Machine" Strain Turkish Court...

The fifth hearing of the trial related to the Turkish translation of William Burroughs's bestseller Soft Machine was held before the Cağlayan (Istanbul) 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance on Tuesday (13 March). The book was translated by Süha Sertabiboğlu and published by the Sel Publishing Company.

At the same day, the third hearing regarding the book Snuff written by Chuck Palahniuk was handled by the Çağlayan court. This internationally successful book was translated into Turkish by Funda Uncu and printed by the Ayrıntı Pulishing Company.

Both cases are based on reports of the Prime Ministry Board for the Protection of Children from Harmful Publications. Problems related to the appointment of experts continued in the case of Snuff.

At the previous hearing on 18 January, the court had announced that experts to investigate the books could not be found for either of the works. The defence lawyers of both cases had suggested experts in the field from a Department of Comparative Literature and Western Languages.

Waiting for answers

At the Soft Machine hearing the court board announced that the book was sent to two experts from the Istanbul University Department of Comparative Literature and Western Languages who prepared a report in the meantime. However, subsequently the book was sent to a criminal law expert and the referring report has not been obtained by the court yet.

As far as the book "Snuff" is concerned, an expert could still not be found. The court is currently waiting for a reply from the Bosporus University Department of Literature.

"You cannot decide on literature on the basis of a report"

İrfan Sancı, General Publications Director of Sel Publishing, emphasized at the previous hearing that no court was able to decide whether a work was literature or not by means of a report issued from any institution.

"This book is freely read and published as a work of literature all over the world. Did it just occur to the Turks to investigate its literarily quality?" he had questioned. The judge replied, "It has to be investigated too whether the translation was done properly".

Sancı responded that this could be done "and decided" by the Association of Translators.

What happened?

Publisher of the Turkish version of "Snuff" Hasan Basri Çıplak and translator Funda Uncu are indicted on charges of "interceding the publication of obscene publications".

William S. Burroughs is an important representative of the Beat Generation. The Soft Machine is part of The Nova Trilogy and was first published in 1961. Sel Publishing executive Sancı and translator Süha Sertabiboğlu stand trial for translating and publishing the book in Turkey.

The next hearings for both book trials were scheduled for 8 May 2012. (IC/VK)