Tales of a Bookcase: #MeToo, Hate, and the Exceptions
Josh and I finished cleaning off the bookcases, and now all the books (for the most part) fit. We went with a gut approach when making decisions; this book made us happy so it stayed, this book was sort of boring so it went.
There were books we tossed because we no longer liked the authors, either because we moved in the same circles and the person wasn’t particularly kind or they had said something rude. They weren’t terrible people and these weren’t terrible books. But there was something yucky about the author, and it didn’t feel like we needed to give them space on our overly packed shelves.
BUT.
There was the guy who was a total dick to me, who has a reputation for being a douche overall, AND has a writing style I can’t stand… but we kept his book. Josh wanted to toss it, but I moved it back onto the shelf. I don’t know why. It just felt like I couldn’t toss it because maybe the twins would want to read it in the future. So we kept it.
There were the authors that we culled because they had been named in the #MeToo movement. Who wants to keep someone on their bookcase who sexually harassed women? Or sexually assaulted someone? Or held people back from career advancement unless they’d have sex?
BUT.
There was the guy Josh kept. He couldn’t explain why this one guy was allowed to stay while we had confidently tossed out the rest. But there he is, still on our bookcase.
Our bookcases are not clean. For the love, we even kept Knut Hamsun. But I won’t bring Orson Scott Card into my house.
*******
The moment the shelves had a little breathing room, we went to the bookstore. I’ve been wanting to read Agatha Christie, though I’ve never been able to bring myself to buy one of her books when I know that there’s a smörgåsbord of hate nuggets scattered in the pages. For instance, here’s part of the opening for And Then There Were None (plus let’s not forget the original title of that book!):
He had said it in a casual way as though a hundred guineas was nothing to him. A hundred guineas when he was literally down to his last square meal! He had fancied, though, that the little Jew had not been deceived – that was the damnable part about Jews, you couldn’t deceive them about money – they knew!
How can I in good conscience give money to Christie’s estate? How can I support her words? Even checking her out of the library and leaving money out of this is paying her with attention. I wouldn’t give energy to someone in the face-to-face world who used the racial slurs or anti-Semitic statements. And yet there I was, thumbing through Murder on the Orient Express.
I’ve been mulling over the exceptions; the ones who slip through because we let them slip through.
12 comments
When I started tutoring my favorite two students, the boy, J, was 11 and wouldn’t read. He would clean his room before reading. I threw a ton of books at him and the first ones to stick were the Encyclopedia Brown books.
After that he went to Agatha Christie. He loved Agatha Christie, mainly because he like to see if he was able to figure out the mysteries and in a few memorable cases he was.
J is Chinese and there were some pretty nasty bits about Asians in a lot of the books and it led to in-depth discussions about the time period and how Asians were viewed in that time and why. He moved on from Agatha Christie to Douglas Adams and now loves fantasy books. That being said he has a fondness for Christie, if for no other reason than he is the only person I know to figure out the ending to And then there were none.
My husband got me a huge collection of Agatha Christie books from a used book store…no money would go to the Estate that way. But also…a lot of it was the sign of the times, as Journeyeoman points out. Like Looney Tunes and all those old Disney cartoons…tons of racism and in-pc jokes to be found there, but it’s replayed over and over again on TV anyway.
And I’m trying to picture just what books/authors you had on your shelves that involved this kind of thought-provoking purging!
P.S. if the guy was that much of a douche, I probably wouldn’t want my kids to read his book. Surely it’s not a classic or something that great?!
I’ve been working on a similar project with bookshelves. And…yeah. I haven’t read Agatha Christie, but the snippet you quoted and the original title – YIKES. I recently re-read ‘Gone With The Wind’ and ooooof, so much racism, sexism, rape/rape culture that I didn’t pick up on when I read it as a teenager (yep, that’s my privilege showing). I think that one’s leaving my bookshelf. But I’m hesitating on the “Little House” series and probably letting that slip through despite some pretty serious racism and American Exceptionalism. It is tricky. I’m hoping that I can balance it a bit with books by women of color and Native American authors along with calling out and discussion of the problematic parts. But yeah, I hear this post so much.
Interesting. Couple thoughts:
1) You can have a broader conversation about historical figures and their flaws. My favourite example is Canada’s Famous Five (suffragettes, first wave feminists). They are lionized for expanding women’s legal rights in Canada. At least two of them also supported Alberta’s eugenics movement – with the best of intentions of course! – which is about as disgusting and offensive as anything I can think of. Should we revile them for that? I rather read it as a warning about people who are too eager to change society, and two a reminder to not thoughtlessly revere people.
2) do you have any reason to believe Agatha Christie’s estate is actively supporting anti Semitism? I have no idea, but probably not: so it’s kind of a stretch to say buying her book would be supporting Anti semitism, unless you think mere contact with the words has that much power. I don’t think it does…especially since you are reading with awareness. Maybe those passages could inculcate an anti Semitic viewpoint in someone who is reading without awareness. But if you refuse to read the books at all, then you are not in a position to have a dialogue with those people who might be unaware readers. What gives you more power: to be able to discuss Agatha Christie or to not discuss Agatha Christie?
It’s your bookshelves and you can stock them using any criteria you please, obviously, but since you frame this in broader cultural terms, that’s my input.
This is so hard! Big points to you.
There are some books I’ve kept because of who I was when I read them. As if, that book isn’t totally mine to give away.
It also reminds me of the Joan Didion lines:
“…I think we are well-advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were.”
This is a thought provoking discussion and media we bring into our homes. I completely see where you are coming from with who to support and who not to. But it’s more than that. There’s historical works that show the attitudes of certain periods that would lead to riots today and there are thoughts and insights from those that I adhore that are still very much in our society today.
Given the recent focus on the bubbles people chose to live in, Ive been more mindful about branching out into literature in order to gain insight into other people’s mindsets. But it’s also a question of how far one goes before you’re inadvertently supporting these thought-processes and ideas. Honestly, I don’t know. But I love the idea of conversation starters and being armed with insight that others aren’t expecting.
Ok now I’m glad I’ve never read the Christie books.
Ooh what a fascinating topic, Mel! I agree with those that see some value in reading with a discerning eye towards hate/injustice and using certain books as jumping off points for discussion. It does no good, really, to avoid historical truth.—it happened, and we should acknowledge, and wonder, and debate and learn about how to move on. I certainly agree with not outright supporting living authors that are continuing to commit abuse or spew hate—not interested in lining their pockets, but I honestly have no idea what the Christie estate is up to—maybe the descendants are doing good stuff with their lives.
Interesting discussion, especially as I’m about to purge my (not so big) bookshelves. I’ve been a library reader and now an e-library reader for years, so haven’t spent a fortune on books.
My main criterion for keeping a book would be that it makes me happy to have it on my shelves. I have thoughts swirling around about censorship and about being exposed to thoughts we might not like and about thinking critically whenever we read, but they’re all unformed. Maybe I’ll have more to add when I go through my bookshelves!
I didn’t know that about Agatha Christie’s estate 😯! We’ve been trying to purge our book collection at my house. We just don’t have room for them all. We usually donate them to a thrift store for a local charity, some came from there. Occasionally, we forget a book that we’ve already read and buy it again😁.
You didn’t know exactly about her estate?
This is all I can find on Agatha Christie and her estate, which is not engaging in any activity other than promoting her work, as far as I can tell.
https://www.agathachristielimited.com
People can choose whether they further continue her legacy by buying her books or movies, TV shows etc. Freedom of choice, etc. However I’m pretty sure those that do read and buy Agatha Christie novels and other products are doing so because they like mystery stories, not because they want to promote racism. Assuming otherwise is in bad faith, it seems to me.
I’ve found that it’s impossible to single out famous authors on the basis of anti-semitism. Dickens, Shakespeare, Trollope all expressed repulsive anti Semitic views. They’re still great writers, but the anti Jewish views have to firstly be contextualised and secondly responded to. I shudder when I read Dickens’ portrait of Fagin, but after a Jewish reader challenged him, he created Mr Riah in Our Mutual Friend too. Christie’s views were typical of large proportions of English society of their time. Frankly they’re entertaining books for a quick read, but you can borrow them from a library or buy secondhand if you’re really bothered about contributing to her estate.
My daughter loves Roald Dahl books but he was a truly repulsive modern anti Semite. I can’t really stop her reading his books and her (Jewish) school has purchased lots of them. It’s not at all simple.