I'm the author of the book that the American Library Association named as the most banned and challenged book from 2010 to 2019, and those attempts to ban my book have only increased in the last few years. So I'm struck hard by Zohar Atkins' notion about Midrash, and the lack thereof, being a cause for book banning, maybe even being the primary cause. So now I'm pondering Midrash as I think about a theme in my book that conservative readers can't see and that the left might ignore because it too complicates both sides' narratives. That theme: My novel stars a liberal, sometimes profane, hilarious, artistic, rebelious Native American kid who finds love, friendship, acceptance, and success in a small white conservative Christian town—the kind of town in real life where the book often gets banned and the kind of town that often gets vilified by the left. Does my book get banned because its text is presented, studied, taught, and vilified in simplistic and unexamined ways?
It's a good question! Based on your description, we could distinguish what separates the broadly right- and left-wing censorial impulses. The right seems almost pathologically sensitive to the surface of a text—hostile to anything "profane" or anything that smacks of identity politics—without respect to deeper themes. The left, on the other hand, can overlook the surface, or they used to be able to, if you get the subtext right; but if the subtext is even complex or illegible, you're in their bad graces.
Sorry to hear you weren’t raised on Roald Dahl, Pistelli. I can’t think of other works that so encourage a child’s spirit of irreverence. Our cassette of Revolting Rhymes made me giddily happy.
I appreciate your sympathies, Alice! I think my childhood was pretty literarily philistine; I seem to recall learning irreverence from Saturday morning cartoons, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Garfield and Friends for preference.
I'm the author of the book that the American Library Association named as the most banned and challenged book from 2010 to 2019, and those attempts to ban my book have only increased in the last few years. So I'm struck hard by Zohar Atkins' notion about Midrash, and the lack thereof, being a cause for book banning, maybe even being the primary cause. So now I'm pondering Midrash as I think about a theme in my book that conservative readers can't see and that the left might ignore because it too complicates both sides' narratives. That theme: My novel stars a liberal, sometimes profane, hilarious, artistic, rebelious Native American kid who finds love, friendship, acceptance, and success in a small white conservative Christian town—the kind of town in real life where the book often gets banned and the kind of town that often gets vilified by the left. Does my book get banned because its text is presented, studied, taught, and vilified in simplistic and unexamined ways?
It's a good question! Based on your description, we could distinguish what separates the broadly right- and left-wing censorial impulses. The right seems almost pathologically sensitive to the surface of a text—hostile to anything "profane" or anything that smacks of identity politics—without respect to deeper themes. The left, on the other hand, can overlook the surface, or they used to be able to, if you get the subtext right; but if the subtext is even complex or illegible, you're in their bad graces.
Yes, great observation. The right afraid of text and the left afraid of subtext.
So much to admire here, John--with special love of footnote #1. Hear! Hear!
Thank you, Mary!
Sorry to hear you weren’t raised on Roald Dahl, Pistelli. I can’t think of other works that so encourage a child’s spirit of irreverence. Our cassette of Revolting Rhymes made me giddily happy.
I appreciate your sympathies, Alice! I think my childhood was pretty literarily philistine; I seem to recall learning irreverence from Saturday morning cartoons, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Garfield and Friends for preference.