Rose Bialk/The Mossy Log
In 2019, NPR published “Keeping It Civil: How To Talk Politics Without Letting Things Turn Ugly.” In the article, Catherine Kelly describes helpful tips and tricks on how to discuss political topics with those you may not fully agree with. More recently, The Atlantic published a similar, yet more general article: “Have the Conversation Before It’s Too Late.” This article discusses similar themes, identifying that although people are constantly thinking about politics and important conversations they need to have, they are not actually having them. Both articles signify a common idea that many modern Americans believe: That, amid political tension and rising polarization between candidates, parties and violence, there has been a movement to remove politics from anything that is seen as casual or for pleasure. This type of purposeful ignorance — avoiding an increasingly unavoidable political climate and instead turning to comfortability — has seeped into many aspects of our culture: family gatherings, dating and even the books we read.
One example of this movement away from political discussion is happening in a rather unexpected digital space. “BookTok,” as it is colloquially known, is a community of influencers, primarily on TikTok, who discuss books, reading and everything in between. One approach to talking about fiction that many of these creators take is to personally discuss the books that have had an effect on them. With this framework in mind, another trend emerged, but with a distinctly political twist. Many creators started compiling lists of the books that radicalized them. For many creators, it was impossible to talk about important books without talking about political reads. Jack Edwards (@jack_edwards) recommended “books you should read before they get banned.”
This idea of intertwining politics with reading, although popular, did not sit right with some creators. For them, BookTok was a safe space to escape by talking about imaginary people, worlds and places without allowing the real world to affect them.
In some readers’ eyes, books and politics can not only be separated, but should be.
The personal, confessional style of the videos mentioned above show us that above all else, reading is a deeply personal action. Reading is about understanding identities, perspectives, and stories that are not our own. Taking in viewpoints and applying them to real world conflict, is at its core, political. There is no doubt about it, reading is a political act: a resistance, a culture and a creation of identity, all in one.
To understand that all books are political, we must first understand that many books purposefully situate themselves in a political narrative. One example of this is Margaret Atwood’s classic “The Handmaid’s Tale.” While constructing the dystopian future present in the novel, Atwood crafted her world in a specific way.
She aimed to “not include anything that human beings had not already done in some other place or time, or for which the technology did not already exist.”
In doing this, Atwood allowed the novel to feel disturbingly familiar and deeply rooted in politics, not only of the past but also of the present. By exposing modern day and historical systems by placing them into a new context of the future, many modern readers of these books find similarities between the dystopias of the novels and present-day political parties and figures. It is nearly impossible to discuss these books without discussing the political implications they entail. In this case, the political ideas shown in the novel are distinctly connected with its theme and message. Its political resistance is in its creation: As a novel, it seeks to critique political systems of the present. Other creators, however, find political resistance in critiquing the novel itself.
Take the romance and fantasy books often discussed on BookTok. These books often contain heteronormative ideas about gender and societal expectations. These expectations are set up by the very systems many of these creators choose to ignore. By critiquing the ideologies present in novels and discussing the historical context with which it was written in, we participate in a political act. Their creation is also a political act, as they perpetuate a society’s standards of love.
Books themselves have been used as a political tool and scapegoat for projecting ideas of a certain party, figure or regime. The Nazi party famously burned books that did not fit within their fascist doctrine. Today, books have been banned for containing progressive material. If throughout history and the present, books have been used as a political tool, it must be a political act to read them.
When people call to keep politics out of books they may be calling for comfortability, but it will only result in ignorance. They ignore a powerful right that we all have: a right to critique, a right to understand and a right to read.
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Excellent analysis!