Fear No Book
It is a part of our office to stand uncloaked, masked, sword bared, upon the scaffold for a long time before the client is brought out. Some say this is to symbolize the unsleeping omnipresence of justice, but I believe the real reason is to give the crowd a focus, and the feeling that something is about to take place.
Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer
I am hurt by the disappearance of spinning metal comic book racks in gas stations and drugstores and the petering out of bookstores in shopping malls and most well-trod public spaces. Part of my pain is the near-certainty that I was very well-served, as a child, by the fact of random-seeming paperbacks and comic books appearing before me as I learned to read. I knew in my heart that these items were somehow for me and very much on my side before I’d heard tell of a thing called literature. I worry that others aren’t so well-served and that younger-than-me people often end up estranged from the intelligence—the outlandish, the lyrical, the lore—that is rightfully theirs. I have a fight in me when it comes to people denying themselves or others books.
I also have sayings with which to snap folks out of the trance I think they’re sometimes in when it comes to other people’s sentences:
Books are people talking.
The Bible is social media.
Theory is thought.
Fear no literature.
If you know me, you probably know my girlfriend, Sarah Dark. She’s a public school librarian. In my state legislature, there is currently an effort to criminalize her work as an educator who helps kids find the right book at the right time. From what I can discern, the effort is backed by Governor Bill Lee and Senator Marsha Blackburn. Ironically, their own children were students in my classroom when I taught High School English. This is strange and unexpected. Stranger still is the fact that they appear to have decided to defer, on these matters, to John Rich, co-author of “Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy).” I did not see this coming.
Here’s some very helpful analysis on why this is happening.
Here’s very specific action a person can take to speak out against this ungodly legislation right now.
And here’s a link to the Tennessee Association of School Librarians’website (See statement below).
Conflict avoidance costs us everything. I understand the disinclination to “get into it” with people, but the moves of bad faith actors in Tennessee (even among people I’ve known for most of my life) are a clear and present danger to my family and morally serious people everywhere. Every form of thoughtfulness feels more fragile than ever. Please weigh in (and encourage others to weigh in) where and when you can.
Stand where you must stand. Be human there.