The biggest literary news of the week

Spoiler: It’s the patriarchy

There are a few things in life that are guaranteed: death, taxes, and the fact that every now and then, the Discourse decides to feed itself by wondering why men don’t read fiction. (And no, it’s not because book cover design alienates men, although I have a thousand-word essay on that for another day.) This question of men and fiction is not a new one, or even, frankly, an interesting one. Since the 18th century, fiction has been aimed at and increasingly directed by idle women, and through the magic of capitalist patriarchy in which men are considered most successful when they are visibly most productive, men are encouraged to assert their masculinity by distancing themselves from any cultural product primarily associated with women.

Men are being given a centuries-old message that if they want to be sigma (hello, friends!), they better stay on the right track, and that means reading only nonfiction, if they read at all. And that’s too bad! Fiction is fun and uplifting. Men should be able to enjoy all of its benefits, and the rest of us should be able to enjoy a world in which men aren’t so limited by narrow definitions of masculinity. It’s almost as if patriarchy is bad for everyone! The next time someone feels the need to write a “Why Don’t Men Read Fiction?” article, I hope they pick up Liz Plank’s For the Love of Men instead and focus their time and energy on the real issue.

Utah Bans 13 Books From State Public Schools

After passing one of the most restrictive book bans in the country, the state of Utah has released its list of books to be banned from schools statewide. The bans are for books that are considered “objectively sensitive” or “pornographic” (six of the 13 are romance novels by Sarah J. Maas), and those books are on average 13 years old. As my colleague Kelly Jensen points out, this highlights the fact that “the so-called problem of pornography in schools only came up when it was a practical topic of discussion.” Funny how that works.

The vast majority of Americans disagree with book bans and believe they infringe on parents’ rights, and that’s part of the problem. It’s not the books, it’s a small minority of far-right conservatives who know they’re losing power in American culture and who think they should be able to restrict everyone’s freedom. Go to your school board meetings, volunteer, and vote in November. Let’s remind them that this is a losing issue, just like it will be in 2022.