Against Amazon

Author's name: Jorge Cariondar Publisher: Al-Arabi for Publishing and Distribution Year of publication: 2021 Brief about the book: Cariondar writes in a language that combines moral anger and cultural nostalgia, between the voice of the thinker, traveler, and reader who sees the book as a living being, not a commodity measured by speed or reduced to a purchase click on a computer screen. In his introduction to the book, he recalls the story of the birth of his first booklet titled "Seven Reasons Against Amazon," published online in 2017 and turned into a symbolic phenomenon after being republished, translated, and distributed in hundreds of bookstores around the world. He says, "Since that moment, when you search online and type 'against Amazon,' only my article will not appear... It coincided with the spread of Amazon distributors wandering our streets with large bags bearing the Amazon logo." This phrase is not just a sarcastic remark, but a cultural announcement of the moment of awareness of the danger: the company has invaded cities and spaces, becoming a symbol of a new era that devours the details of life and transforms them into a single system of digital obedience. He sees, "It seems impossible to write about who occupies the forefront in the world of books in the twenty-first century without considering Amazon as a rival." With this awareness, he begins his long text to write a defense of the paper book, and of the human experience in reading, against the logic of monopoly, speed, espionage, and commodification. Cariondar points out that what Amazon does is not just a commercial activity, but a symbolic seizure of the very essence of culture itself. It, as he describes, is not a library but a hypermarket that places books alongside snacks and household goods. He continues, "I will not tire of repeating that Amazon is not a library, but a hypermarket where you find books next to toys and skates." Cariondar regrets turning the book into a quickly traded commodity, and turning the space of reading into a soulless store, where nothing reminds of the journey the reader embarks on in search of the book, or the dialogue between the seller and the customer, or the old scent of paper. He writes regretfully about old libraries in Barcelona that closed to be replaced by branches of clothing brands and restaurants, "Seizure and replacement have become a real and symbolic matter." He reveals in several places how Amazon changed the relationship between the reader and the book, making reading an automatic act without soul, while it was once a sacred ritual. The machine, as he says, turned the reader into a number, the worker into a semi-automated entity, and the text into a traceable material. He says, "We all rely on an artificial limb; the mobile phone, we are all semi-automated; many of us are human, and few are mechanized, but we do not want to be automatons." This is how Cariondar describes the human condition in the post-Amazon era: humans moving with robotic efficiency, subjected to the rhythm of algorithms, led by the illusion of digital freedom, while the essence of the simple human experience is being stripped away. He continues that Amazon promotes itself as a platform for freedom of publishing, but in reality, it practices a more dangerous soft censorship. It allows the sale of books defending Nazism or justifying pedophilia, while marginalizing books by authors who oppose its interests or those of its allied publishers. "Amazon defends its right to offer books that promote pedophilia or Nazi ideology, claiming they are against censorship. Yet it applies another, hidden form of censorship when it comes to what does not serve its interests." In his view, this is cultural hypocrisy, turning freedom into a commercial slogan, and making the market the highest censor of thought. Cariondar also reveals that Amazon is not just a book company but a global empire building a "parallel state" with its own laws. It establishes a parallel global state with its rules, bureaucracy, and police... It has an intelligence agency and highly secret laboratories affiliated with it... It is a state that not only controls the market but also behavior, knowledge, and communication. It possesses algorithms to predict desires, and manages human data as if it were raw material for profit extraction. In his precise words, it is an "empire born from a cultural material—the book," but it has used its value to build the largest hypermarket hidden behind the curtain of a library.