Make it Burn

Rachel Kushner's The Flamethrowers. And unfortunately, Utah.

It has been a rough month so far, in the world of book bans. This month, Utah banned 13 specific books from school libraries statewide, ordering them to shred their copies.

That’s assuming the librarians spent their meager book buying budgets on ACOTAR to begin with. Or that they have Judy Blume’s Forever (1975) in active circulation. Librarians reading this: what are the chances?

Sure. Don’t let the kids read about the 1970s. Let them think they invented sex. Nevermind they can learn about soft swinging from near-peers on TikTok and coming soon, on Hulu: Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

But this isn’t really about sex. It isn’t even about books. It’s about whether these librarians (mostly women) will comply.

I’ll be writing more about this topic and choosing a destination for my paid subscribers’ contributions to legal challenges to these very demure, very mindful sickening laws.

In the meantime, thanks to my new paid subscribers since my last post: Melissa, Bradley, Juliana and Ann. If…