Hearing the Auckland Unity Books spokesperson's discussion of Wishart's Macsyna book with Kathryn Ryan this morning made me sorry for the Unity folk here in Wellington. It appears that Wellington and Auckland are not under the same ownership,  Wellington may nevertheless pay a price for the feeble intellect and triviality of their Auckland associate, if, like me, people  who would never want to read the book nevertheless steer our book buying away to shops that do not presume to impose their mundane hypocrisy on us.

The Auckland spokesperson, who had not read the book,  was indifferent to the censorship and bookburning implications of refusing to sell it (saying she would destroy the already ordered copies instead of delivering them to her customers). Her repeated reason was that it was not right for someone to make money from a book about such misery. On that test she'll soon have pleny of space on her shelves.

Of course she should be free to decide what she stocks and does not stock. But I look forward to the Unity/PaperPlus/Warehouse Index Librorum Prohibitorum. No doubt they will first list moral horrors in order of deplorability, so we can all know  where they place their cut-off threshhold. They could start with a handy precedent – sins have previously been categorised from venial to mortal.

More groping by our intelligentsia toward filling the gap for a secular priesthood.

Monday – Sorry to see that Wellington Unity has expressly adopted the Auckland policy.