On Book Burnings

On Book Burnings

June 03, 2023

The Written Word Matters

On Book Burnings: A Lineage

I almost walked into a used bookstore in Heidelberg earlier this week. I was drawn by the stacks of old books, many of them from the 1960s, the 1950s, the 1940s perhaps. But my German is still very bad, so I didn't go in, and besides, the bookstore was full of dozens of youths perusing the shelves.This was an encouraging sign. Books are resilient. But lately, back in the states especially, the literary community finds itself on the defensive on multiple fronts: on the picket lines as the WGA strikes, online against generative A.I., and in school districts and court houses.I don't know how many books from the 1930s graced the shelves of this used bookstore in southern Germany, or if there would be any at all. The destruction of books was a symbolic tactic of the early Nazi regime, and preceded political, state-sanctioned violence. Since then, book burning in the US has become synonymous with censorship, even making an appearance in the film Footloose. Today, there is an obvious relationship between book bans in schools and larger projects of social policing. Pride Month has begun with a wave of transphobic legislation coinciding with attacks on any text about or from queer authors.None of this is new. The first large-scale book burning of the Holocaust began 90 years ago last month. On May 6, 1933, Nazi students and other participants raided the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, one of the most advanced and progressive research centers for human sexuality at the time. Its founder, Magnus Hirschfeld, who himself was gay and Jewish, dedicated his life and research to understanding and advocating for gay and trans people. The Nazis targeted the Institute's library as "degenerate," pulling books from shelves, piling them outside, and setting them ablaze. It's estimated that over 20,000 books were destroyed.What matters here is not just the symbolism. Books are vessels of wisdom. Their destruction entails the destruction of knowledge and meaning alike. The first major book burning was utilitarian in nature, its purpose the destruction of the craft of research and a widening, more compassionate understanding of the human experience. Today, book bans serve the same purpose. It's telling that these apply first and foremost to school districts.Recently, there was a somewhat hopeful example of what I meant by all this. Last Wednesday, Louisiana Republican Fred Mills blocked a bill banning gender affirming care for trans youth, because he actually bothered to sit down and read available studies about gender affirming care. In his words, "My decision was really, really based in the numbers."What numbers would have been available at Hirschfeld's institute? What information would have lent itself to a kinder and more complex understanding of queer experience, and what literature would have flourished in a kinder, more complex society? And, I can't help but wonder, what happens when A.I. companies decide not to include certain books in their algorithms? Whose lives will be left out of the future, if this is the future we allow?The opposite of a book burning is a library. The next best thing, I suppose, is a used bookstore you can wander into on a hot summer day. Maybe, then, it's readers who are the resilient ones.In the meantime, I hope you keep writing. The world needs it.Peace,Keene ShortEditor-in-ChiefAtticus Review

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