Dear Side Questers,
The name of today’s newsletter, auguries of autumn popped into my head and refused to leave. Sometimes bits of text do that to writers, like they know something we don’t. Fine, I said, auguries it is. But first I’ll have to look it up to be sure I understand the word.
An issue, I’ve noticed, of being a lifelong reader, is that some words become intuitive based on their use and decades later, you realize you can’t explain them. Auguries; as in sooth-saying, fortune telling, etc. So I looked it up, to discover that the original augury was the practice of telling the future by observing birds.
I don’t know if I’m a superstitious person. I do like learning about omens and meanings from a magical, cultural standpoint that appeals to my inner storyteller. Then I remembered that pair of blue jays I mentioned in last month’s newsletter, teaming up to chase a very embarrassed-looking hawk from their territory.
I would very much like that to be an augury from birds.
Banned Book Club is a graphic novel written by Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada, and illustrated by Ko Hyung-Ju. Set in 1983, this book is based on true events that unfolded when South Korea was reigned by a military regime with heavy censorship rules enforced by torture and murder.
The main character, Kim Hyun Sook attends university for the first time, wary of the student protests all around and everything she’s been taught about them. She soon learns that what she’s been taught is not the whole truth and joins a club for banned books. Illegal banned books, I should point out. Spies are searching for them. Her friends are tortured, all for the ‘relentless rebellion of reading.’
It’s a high adrenaline, fast-paced book that I enjoyed immensely. There was a particular page (31) that stopped me in my tracks when I realized how well it represented current events.
The 3-S’s: sex, sports, and screens. If you plug that into a modern-day context, it can get quite disconcerting. It’s been almost a year that the headlines have been dominated by Epstein Island and the rape of children. More recently, they’ve added the FIFA world cup, “bring the [world cup] so they can cheer for their country instead of against its leaders” (page 31, Banned Book Club). And as for screens, well, you’re looking at one right now.
I read this book when it came up at Red, Wine, and Blue’s (ahem) banned book club, a semi-monthly online book club. The group brought in Ryan Estrada (co-writer and husband to Kim Hyun Sook) to offer a small lecture ahead of the discussion.
The hosts asked him what his reaction was when he found out that his book was being banned from school libraries in certain American states. He explained that his main task was to understand why. It’s a book that has won multiple prestigious awards and has historical value, after all.
What he found out was unexpected. Many of the banned books are culled from a list that is sent out to groups like Moms for Liberty. These groups rarely have time to read the books in question, simply because there are so many, so the list is heavily relied upon.
The hosts mentioned that they’ve heard this from several other of their banned book author guests. There’s a list, their book is on it, and nobody actually read their book to confirm.
I’d like to add a caveat of my own here. In the fundamentalist Christian cult I was raised in, we were always discouraged from reading books that come under scrutiny because they could allow the evil “into our hearts,” sway our faith, and the part that was not said out loud: wreck all the hard work of brainwashing us. We were simply to accept that the books were what our leaders told us they were and preach accordingly. And we did, because that’s what we were trained that faithfulness to god looked like. I strongly suggest that this control tactic has more to do with the books not being read rather than that the lists are simply too long.
In addition, Estrada found that if a book happens to have the first three title words of another book that is on that list, that book will get caught in the net and pulled as well.
All of this, as an author, is infuriating, but it got weirder (puts on conspiracy hat). Remember, this book is based on his wife’s lived experience, so Estrada wants to understand. He keeps digging and follows this list to a private school thinktank (my term, not his) who developed this list to discredit public school libraries, knowing that by selecting a certain type of book, they could get religious groups to do the hard work for them and redirect funding from public into private schools.
This is wild to me as someone who lives in a place where public schools are the norm and private schools are a rarity. But it’s a zoom book club and I’m watching the mostly American audience nodding along like this is common. The upper class weaponizing Christianity to funnel more money their way; a literal medieval tactic still in play. Banning books for greed. Ugh.
If you’re enjoying this banned books content, you might also enjoy my book, Care and Feeding of Your Little Banned Bookshop, a cozy, contemporary fantasy novella about a magical bookshop who delivers banned books to the readers who need them most. Check it out here.
We continue to have fairly regular rain, though I’m cautious to write that “out loud” with another drought raging in Europe right now, looking as brown and brittle as we did this time last year. Our rainwater collection is ridiculous, yet I can’t bring myself to empty the containers that were so precious last year, just in case we anger the gods or what have you.
Here in New Brunswick, the forest is still recovering from the drought, which has been a curious thing to watch. One of the young yellow birch trees (perhaps 10-15 years old) near the spot where we hang our hammocks only leafed out along a single branch this spring, and even those were thin. I think I counted six leaves. Perched on the edge of a steep section of hill, it left a noticeable hole in the canopy, but dead trees are important, too, so we consoled ourselves on the loss and left it alone.
Slowly, carefully, the tree sprouted a few more leaves, close to its center. A few weeks later, a different branch bore a thin stretch of leaves. Then again, and again, as I realized with some wonder that each tiny leaf is playing this massively important role of strengthening its tree enough to push the next leaf, one at a time until they save themselves.
This is the part of the newsletter where I should probably say, never believe you’re too small to make a difference, because you’re not, or even that nothing is ever truly hopeless. But mostly I just want to sit in the wonder of trees for the moment.
With rain also comes mushrooms, and they’ve been showing off a little extra for having had last year off.
After years of hearing about blue-staining boletes, I found my first, and then dozens more (they are the orange ones to the right in the photo above). In a fit of creativity, I decided to use a stick to stain a poem onto one, which delighted me to no end, but I’m not sure anyone else saw as anything more than someone who wrote on a mushroom with a blue pen. Ah, well.
Then it started to decompose, as all mushrooms do, only I’ve never seen a poem decompose before. Have you?
The article I mentioned last month, that I was hired to write for the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Legion, was published this month. It was an honour to write this, and deeply satisfying to know that, by writing them down, these stories are saved… for now.
The story also coincided with my own research into WWII for my current novel-in-progress, which is now reaching the halfway point. Serendipity! I couldn’t quite believe it when I got the assignment, and I like the way learning these local stories grounded the history for me.
The article is also the most action I’ve ever written! Tank explosions, motorcycle dispatchers being shot off their bikes, and the first Allied member to learn that Hitler was dead was a lady soldier right here at home. ‘Magine! Of course you can read it, too, as it’s available without paywall here: https://www.connectingalbertcounty.org/culture–heritage/heroes-of-albert-county
Appropriately, this volunteer poppy bloomed to coincide with the publication, which was another lovely bit of serendipity.
Well, that’s all my news for this month, but what about you? I’d love to hear from you! Simply hit reply or leave a note in the comments with what you’re reading, your summer adventures, or anything at all.
Until next month, stay enchanted, friends.
