ELLE BEAUREGARD

I Want You To Quiet Down by Patrica Grullon

2011, acrylic and ink on wood

First person POV, especially first person present, offers the opportunity for very visceral, character-centered moments and inner thought on the page that other POVs don’t. I’ve written novels in third person, first-past, and first-present. They all have their place, and some stories are best suited for one over others.

In the days of classic literature for examples, Vampires were simply parasites literally drinking the vitality out of people, but they were based on something in reality that the writer deemed to be the cause of societal rot. Bram Stoker believed those parasites to the the wealthy, aging aristocracy choking the life out of the common folk. 25 years before THAT, however, Sheridan Le Fanu said the parasites were the gays.

In a more modern example, Sinners presents Vampirism as... less a metaphor for the violence and assimilation of white imperialism and more a monstrous branch of it. One of many. And it does a very good job at that , Ryan Coogler knocked it out of the fucking park.

34 years prior however, writer Jewelle Gomez, a black lesbian, writes a vampire story that's decidedly different in the Gilda Stories. A girl escapes a plantation and then becomes a Vampire so that the white man can never subjugate her again. She's tutored by elder vampires who teach her how to hone her abilities and fend for herself while also showing compassion and gratitude to those they feed on, showing that she is not a monster just because she has chosen to be strong and stand up for herself.

These are two very different vampire stories but are equally rooted in the identity of black Americans.

And of course there are the very mormon vampires in Twee-ligit, but that IP's been discussed to undeath already.

Bring back illustrations in books.

I want full page art that makes me pause mid-sentence and go “oh.”

Bring back little drawings at the start of chapters. Bring back weird decorative headers. Bring back maps that are slightly confusing but I will stare at them like I’m planning a military campaign anyway.

Where is my glossary. Where is my pronunciation guide. I am tired of guessing. I want to know if I’ve been saying a name wrong for 300 pages so I can feel betrayed properly.

Give me marginalia. Give me fake documents. Letters. Diagrams that look important but are emotionally suspicious. Let the book look like it’s been handled.

Why did we decide everything had to be Just Text. Who voted for this. Show yourself-

I want footnotes that feel like the author is whispering additional lore directly into my ear. I want diagrams that explain nothing and somehow make everything worse.

Give me endpapers with art. Give me symbols that repeat until I start connecting dots like a conspiracy theorist. Give me one illustration halfway through that alters my brain chemistry permanently.

Books used to come with bonus content like they were slightly haunted objects and now we’re just… behaving? No.

If I am committing to 300 pages, I deserve enrichment.

Let the text do things. Let it shift. Let it breathe. Give me a page that’s just one line in the center so I can sit there like I’ve been personally attacked.

We have the technology. We have the printing capabilities. Why are we acting like books have to behave.

Also imagine the DRAMA. A character dies and suddenly the chapter header symbol changes. A map detail you ignored becomes relevant. A little drawing you thought was decorative is actually foreshadowing. Hello???

Anyway this is my formal petition to make books a little more unhinged again. Add the art. Add the maps. Add the weird glossary entries.