Cushing Academy, just west of Boston, recently decided to update its traditional, brick-and-ivy look by becoming a book-less campus. James Tracy, the school's headmaster, claims this "isn't 'Fahrenheit 451' [...] [w]e see this as a natural way to shape emerging trends and optimize technology." Meanwhile, bars were placed on the bookshelves at Harvard yesterday to prevent the theft of valuable first-edition texts from among the university's 16 million titles. Students, upset at what they consider a "rash" response to thefts, have argued that the attempt renders books artifacts instead of resources.
These and other issues will likely be discussed at a panel titled "Are Books Dead? The Digital Future of Reading," on Saturday, October 31st at 10 am. The three panelists have yet to be determined, but they'll be discussing what the digitalization of books means for the way books are written and published, and for the public response to and the market for them. The Texas Book Festival has now released its schedule, and The Texas Observer's very own Bob Moser will be moderating a panel at 2:30 on Saturday the 31st.
Those of you who enjoy the popular blog "Stuff White People Like" will take particular joy in author Christian Lander's discussion of his new book, aptly titled Stuff White People Like: The Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions. Lander mercilessly calls out individualists on their utter conformity, and though his generalizations apply more to yuppies at-large, they do in fact eerily reflect the tastes of white people [as a monolith, obviously] is hilarious. Equally funny will be his warm welcome in Austin the Saturday of the Texas Book Festival.
Presumably to prevent more attempts to coopt her name and fame, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is now on Twitter. Though she has 50,291 followers, she currently follows no one [oh, so many meanings].
In case you had plans for November 17th, you should consider adapting them for this little gem: Sarah Palin's memoir, titled Going Rogue: An American Life, will be released far earlier than its anticipated spring 2010 date, and you couldn't ask for a better Thanksgiving gift. The 400-page book was completed in just four months, and Harper-Collins publisher Jonathan Burnham attributes the early release to both the passion with which the ex-governor threw herself into her work and the anticipated demand. In preparation, Harper is printing 1.5 million copies of the book. Not quite enough for each American to have her own, but we'll cope.
On a related note, this week is National Banned Books Week. Started by the American Library Association (ALA) in 1982, the last week in September celebrates the freedoms of expression and choice. As for the past 13 years, ACLU Texas published a report detailing the books that have been banned. The organization breaks them down by district and by ensuing challenges to their bans. Stephenville, Houston and Irving independent school districts reported the greatest number of challenges for the 2008-2009 school year, with Stephenville even going so far as to preemptively ban two different vampire-oriented series. To clarify: These books have not yet been published, but they are indeed banned from Stephenville ISD libraries. Ninety-eight challenges to public school book bans were reported across the state this year, and 27 books were banned. According to the ACLU report, the most challenged and banned authors of the year were P.C. Cast's House of Night series and Rachel Meade's Vampire Academy series, both dealing with paranormal romance. Interestingly, though, Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series remained unchallenged and unbanned, perhaps due to its message of abstinence and its author's own religious affiliations.
Though the quality of these new banned books raises debate about whether teens should actually be reading vampire romance at all, Banned Books Week serves as a reminder that, as the ACLU's report is titled, "Free People Ready Freely." So, if vampire romance isn't quite your thing, consider (re)reading one of the classic titles banned in Texas every year: Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima; Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men; Salinger's Catcher in the Rye; and--yes, irony is truly sweet--Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Because not only do they exist, they exist as alternatives to Palin's memoir. And that makes the freedom to read them even more appreciable.
Today is the 8th anniversary of September 11th, 2001--a day that radically altered the lives, world-views, and perception of safety of millions of Americans. The healing process has been fraught with tumult, but it has also recently been infused with a hitherto-unheard voice: that of Muslim-American artists. I won't go into the ability of art--of writing, and the arts in general--to heal and inspire and uplift, but I will, for a moment, express how unprecedented it is that the writings of Muslim-Americans about Muslim-Americans are being read across the nation. One of the struggles of the American people these past eight years has been to reconcile the World Trade Center attacks with a largely underdeveloped awareness of their Muslim neighbors. On the other side, Muslim-Americans were thrust into an unwelcome spotlight back in 2001, and they found themselves floundering for ways to undermine the Clash of Civilizations theory largely taking precedence in the public mindset. As mosques were desecrated and veiled women jeered at, the moderate Muslim majority had little recourse or method by which to indicate that they, too, ascribed to the values of their non-Muslim neighbors.
Today, Wajahat Ali, a 29-year-old writer from the Bay Area, debuts a play Off-Broadway. "The Domestic Crusaders" attempts to depict the experiences of three generations of a Muslim, Pakistani-American family that gathers to celebrate the 21st birthday of the family's son. The play has been compared to American classics like "Death of a Salesman" and "A Raisin in the Sun." Says Ali:
You dissect all their "strange" customs, take away their Urdish and Arabic they mix in with their English, remove the Islamic piquancy, and replace biryani with an ethnic food of your choice, and they could - or should- resemble you, your family, or your friends. If they do not, I have failed and deserve to be called out for creating cardboard stereotypes instead of authentic human beings with all their glory, flaws, and warts for the world to see.
Ali's artistic success reflects the mainstreaming of Muslim-American identity, though he claims TV and movie producers have offered him production contracts contingent upon his making the characters "a little less brown or Muslim." Closer to home, Austin-based author Shaila Abdullah writes about the experiences of a Muslim woman in the United States after 9/11. Her newest novel, Saffron Dreams, follows Arissa Illahi, a Muslim artist in New York City whose husband is killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center. The novel's cheesy exterior, which somewhat unfortunately plays to an exoticized portrayal of the mysterious, veiled Muslim woman, nevertheless belies its incredibly pertinent subject matter and the question at its core: what it means to be an American after attacks that brought to the foreground simmering dichotomies of race, culture and religion in U.S. society.
Some may find today's post disrespectful to the nearly three thousand Americans who lost their lives on September 11th, 2001. I shouldn't be writing about the conflicted identities of Muslim-Americans; I should instead be writing about the innocent people who suffered that day. With the utmost respect, I disagree. September 11th, 2001, can never and will never be forgotten. But, art and dialogue and activism have heralded a new beginning for this country: one in which these selfsame media mark proactive attempts to bridge cross-cultural misunderstanding and bring to the foreground the incredible pluralism showcased by the American people. The violence, extremism and separatism exhibited elsewhere needn't exist in this, the country that actually weathered the chaos and tragedy of 9/11. And, as Wajahat Ali writes, "[C]atharsis never comes by inaction and silence."
The Texas Book Festival recently released its 2009 author line-up, announced by Laura Bush on September 3rd. Second-man-on-the-moon Buzz Aldrin is inarguably the best known of the headliners, and he spent the summer talking up his third memoir, Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon, to be showcased at the festival. Aldrin's titles include Return to Earth (1973), Men from Earth (1989), and children's book Reaching for the Moon (2005). Reviews of Magnificent Desolation have been overwhelmingly positive, and Aldrin's book festival appearance coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.
In a statement issued by Harmony Books, Aldrin says,
From the pinnacle of Apollo, my greatest challenge became the human one -- overcoming alcoholism and living beyond depression -- a challenge that required more courage and determination than going to the moon.
While we're not sure Aldrin can break uncharted territory in his third autobiographical installment, his is a truly American story. From just north of the border comes prominent Canadian author Margaret Atwood, winner of the Booker Prize and Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction. Atwood's newest novel, The Year of the Flood, joins The Blind Assassin and The Handmaid's Tale on the shelf of contemporary sci-fi classics. Jimmy Santiago Baca, Jeannette Walls, and Taylor Branch also make the list of eminent authors among the 200-plus selected to attend this fall's festival.
Vanity Fair special correspondent Bryan Burrough, author of the novel-cum-movie Public Enemies, will be at the festival presenting what seems a compelling read about the rise of Texas' wealthiest oil tycoons and their contributions to modern conservative politics; and, author Jonathan Safran Foer of Everything is Illuminated explains to the general public, as he did to his children, the complexities of the American meat industry. In his book Eating Animals, Foer discusses his vegetarianism as the natural result of a paradoxical love of both animals and meat-as-food. With some luck, we'll find Foer's booth next to that of Andrew Busch--he of Republic of Barbecue: Stories Beyond the Brisket.
The Texas Book Festival will be held on October 31st and November 1st at the Austin Capitol.
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