A Folly ban

The Post reports:

Whitcoulls management have ordered staff to refuse all customer requests for a local literary journal it deems offensive, and to send its remaining stock back to the publisher.

Last week Whitcoulls pulled copies of the recently published Folly issue three from its shelves, citing offensive content that didn’t fit with the retailer’s brand identity as a family-friendly store, according to an email The Post has seen. It was to be made available only on request.

Folly is an independent literary publication of writing and art, published annually in New Zealand. Each issue blends established and emerging voices. …

Broadmore is still in the dark on the exact reason for Folly being pulled from shelves in the first place, however one Whitcoulls staff member told her it may have been to do with the word ‘f…’ being included the issue’s inner cover page. The word is used in a poem by Australian writer Rachel Apps, entitled It Costs F… All To Look This Cheap.

Whitcoulls has the right to stock what it chooses, but it does seem to be overly puritanical. The f word on an inside cover may have been shocking in 1970, but hardly in 2025.