Thread by @ashleyhopeperez

Long thread here, in response to messages to the effect that my books are “disgusting”...

PS: This is the same content as in the previous thread, except now it's

(a) accessible

and

(b) less annoying because there's no clicking on images.

Learning, y'all!

As an author, former Texas HS English teacher, professor, mom, and human, I try hard to take seriously what folks say, even where I disagree.

I work to assume that, even under personal attacks, there is some wish for meaningful dialogue.

I am a Texan. I care about Texans, our kids, our histories, our future.

I understand the cultural climate, pressures, and perspectives that can prime folks to react to material that challenges their understanding of the past and what they’d like to believe about the present.

I am a mom, and I understand the wish to protect teens from difficult topics. With books, as when it comes to films, music, and many other things, different folks will have different ideas about what is appropriate.

The Lake Travis library holds *many* books that would benefit from conversations to support teens as they read them.

Grownups, if you're worried about what your teen is reading, read with them. . Support them in making sense of the world of the book and the world around them.

Literature does a lot of different things for different people.

One function is to create a space for imaginatively reckoning with realities that have existed or do exist in our world.

Many of those realities are unpleasant or downright disturbing.

But my experience as an educator and parent is that young people will stop reading books that they aren’t ready for or aren’t comfortable with. Books are easy to close.

MS/HS libraries have a responsibility to serve students who ARE ready for difficult material, not just shelter those who aren't. That a book is in a library does not mean every student should read it. It's there as an option for the reader who needs it.

The painful dimensions of reality are especially intense for historically marginalized communities. Examining these realities has value for anyone who believes that understanding the past can illuminate the present & open up different possible futures.

OUT OF DARKNESS takes place in a time in history when segregation, terrorization, & lynchings were part of non-White Americans’ daily experience.

My book can't do its job of exposing those historical realities without also showing the depths of harm they caused.

And that creates some painful pages, pages that give voice to perspectives I wish never existed.

I deal with sexual abuse, racism, crude language, racialized violence--not because I relish any of these--but because they are part of my characters’ world in 1936.

I portray friendship, loving family, community, & healthy sexuality because they, too, are part of my characters' world.

That a book includes an action or situation shouldn't be presumed to be an endorsement. I’m guessing many of the folks objecting to OUT OF DARKNESS understand this point when it comes to *certain* books with difficult content. For example...

The Lake Travis ISD libraries have multiple copies of a book that includes gang rape, incest, infant murder, sex trafficking, bestiality, & more. But Ms. Bell (from the viral school board video) hasn't challenged it or denounced its content as unsuitable for "children".

I'm willing to venture that Ms. Bell owns copies of this book herself, and that--if asked--she would be adamant that her kids and other people's kids SHOULD read this book!

Maybe you already guessed, folks, but that book is....

THE BIBLE.

(I grew up in a Bible church; I read it cover to cover, many times.)

For just one instance of “disturbing” material in the Bible, check out Judges 19: a traveling man puts his concubine out to be gang raped through the night—along with his host’s daughter—to avoid experiencing harm himself.

He leaves this woman suffering until the next morning, when he finds her unresponsive on the threshold, and tells her to get up.

He then carries her home, dismembers her (possibly while she is still alive), and sends pieces of her body around the countryside as a call to arms.

That’s “objectionable,” right?

That behavior is “gross and disgusting,” right?

But most folks who think Bibles belong in hotel rooms and libraries don’t leap from that to the conclusion that God, preachers, and Sunday school teachers are “gross and disgusting.”

Why not? Bible readers likely feel that, however difficult some of the Bible's content may be, that content is part of a whole that is valuable.

They recognize that the events in Judges 19 can be part of the Bible without it meaning that the author, or the faith associated with it, is condoning them.

And presumably these folks think that there are ways for teens to read the Bible without being harmed.

Let's be careful not to underestimate teen readers and not to idealize their experiences or the world they live in. (We’re naive if we imagine that a library book somehow is the sole space where they might encounter challenging content or experiences.)

Let's talk about *how* we can support parents when they have concerns about books. Let’s support stakeholders in respecting the range of experiences students bring to the library and the range of needs that different books meet for different kids.

Let’s work together to prevent the disaster of removing books the instant a parent gets agitated—especially in the absence of any consideration of the whole book.

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