From book bans to word bans
TL:DR? The Big Delete is the new memory hole
You know when someone tells you that you absolutely, positively, no way and no how can do something and that something wriggles into your brain like an earworm and won’t stop until…
Until you do that thing (so long as no one is hurt!). And you breathe that satisfied breath since doing the thing is the only way to get rid of the ban on not doing it.
Yes, until further notice, I am talking about the cheesecake someone told me I should not, could not, absolutely not eat (New York-style is the best and yes, send recommendations).
But I’m also talking about book and word bans. In just under a month, the current US president and his MAGA henchpersons have blasted through banning books to deleting words. Now, all I can think about are the banned words. Like, what? This is from Judd Legum’s Popular Information Substack.
[On February 10], the National Security Agency (NSA) is planning a "Big Delete" of websites and internal network content that contain any of 27 banned words, including "privilege," "bias," and "inclusion." (My emphasis) The "Big Delete," according to an NSA source and internal correspondence reviewed by Popular Information, is creating unintended consequences. Although the websites and other content are purportedly being deleted to comply with President Trump's executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion, or "DEI," the dragnet is taking down "mission-related" work. According to the NSA source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media, the process is "very chaotic," but is plowing ahead anyway.
And yes, there are more:
Anti-Racism, Racism, Allyship, Bias, DEI, Diversity, Diverse, Confirmation Bias, Equity, Feminism, Gender, Inclusion, Injustice, Prejudice, Privilege, Racial Identity, Sexuality, Stereotypes, Pronouns, Transgender
Gender? Um, it’s a thing. A fact. An observable reality.
Yet the point is crystal clear. The current administration wants to (among other things) erase any acknowledgment that racism, sexism, trans-/homophobia, and xenophobia exist now or ever in our history. This is George Orwell’s “memory hole” on steroids, with conman flair.
OK, here’s another beautiful cheesecake.
I’ve decided to make up some new words (since making things up, like executive orders against Constitutional guarantees; imposing new names on geographical areas; and garbling words that are then claimed as perfectly legit [covefe] seem to be the rage):
Uberwhelmed: several steps beyond overwhelmed, like completely fed up and ready to binge something scrapey and cleansing (think “Love Island”);
Cheetified: the act of blasting through a long-held norm that most people assumed was a law, from the “Cheeto” color of the president’s tanner;
Musk’s Law: when you have so much money that lack of accountability warps your ability to make rational, informed decisions and feeds a megalomaniacal conviction that you alone have all of the answers, creating an ever-more chaotic spiral.
Of course, none of this is in the least humorous. Book and word bans don’t work except sometimes they do, to frightening effect.
On Sunday, I learned that a friend, Ahmad Muna, and his uncle had been arrested in their family’s Jerusalem bookshop, apparently for stocking books Israeli authorities don’t like. The Educational Bookshop is a Jerusalem institution. The Munas are Palestinian and have long been engaged in efforts to promote discussion, education, and dignity, including for Palestinians to have a right to live as equal citizens.
What does any of this have to do with the theme of my newsletter (reminder: human rights and the intersection with kidlit, haha)? According to reports, Israeli police used Google Translate to search through the Munas’ stock, then charged them with “violating public order” based on a children’s coloring book.
WAVES HANDS WILDLY.
Like it or not, books for kids—and the education of kids—is among the most hotly fought over areas in today’s politics. Luckily, the Munas were released after an outcry but no one is under any illusion that this wave of banning won’t continue and worsen.
Kidlit has for many decades featured rich stories with dystopian or apocalyptic themes. Adult books like Orwell’s 1984 have distinguished foremothers (like Mary Shelley’s The Last Man) and a robust library of kidlit descendants. Think “The Hunger Games” series (by Suzanne Collins) and other franchises too numerous to list here (I posted a list of favorites on my Bookshop).
Yet most of this literature focuses on stories set after the disaster. That is, the plot doesn’t chart civilization’s downfall but rather the aftermath, when people have already adjusted to a brutal new normal.
There are exceptions. Pretty much any book set in the prelude to war evokes how quickly and sometimes silently norms vanish (for this blog, I interviewed Lyn Miller-Lachman about her spectacular Torch, set in the months before the Prague spring approaches).
But there are also “pre-dystopias” that now read eerily like our present days. One of my favorites is Karen Jean Walker’s Age of Miracles. An eleven-year-old protagonist is our witness to how the United States adjusts to the slowing of the Earth’s rotation. Hours of daylight—or of night, depending on where you live—either lengthen or diminish. The White House insists on “clock time" regardless of how long the sun shines or darkness deepens. Chaos isn’t sudden; it’s slow and deliberate, a bit like what is happening now in the United States.
What books are you reading—and what books are kids reading—in this turbulent time? Are you looking to escape or to dig into how authors have spun out stories of change (no judgment here)? Are you returning to old faithfuls or are you striking out into the unknown for fresh takes?
Leave a comment and let me know!
If you want to take action against book (and word) bans, here are some suggestions:
Attend local school and library board meetings — or run for a seat on the boards.
Write a letter to the editor in support of your school, bookstore, and library.
Talk to neighbors about why you’ll fight for the freedom to read and use scary words like gender and feminism. Share what you’re learning online and with friends and family.
Join a group working to defend democracy, like Authors Against Book Bans.
Thanks for reading!