We have one institution that is under constant assault, constantly menaced by the neoliberal mandarins of the society. In the United States, we have public libraries, and we have our librarians. They cut hours, they cut librarians, they cut budgets, and yet these libraries still survive. They’re the proverbial most rugged tree we got.
Barely. Let me tell you, barely’s better than dead. I’m not knocking what they do to us. I’m simply saying: We still have libraries. We got stuff that people in Santa Domingo have no access to. Zip. Zero.
Ultimately, this is a serious issue. The majority of what we would call education, with its tremendous specialization, requires the kind of capital that very few people can mobilize on the planet. The book is simply emblematic of a larger set of hierarchies that price people out. Shoot, most people don’t even have the luxury of spaces of deliberation.
Reading, intellectual life across the planet is super ridic. Fortunately, some folks find ways around this, but it isn’t easy. It is not an easy situation. I find so many people, when I go to Santo Domingo or I go to certain neighborhoods, they’re just like, “Hey, my library doesn’t even have your book.” What do you say then? You’re stuck in a reality where what you do is not immediately accessible. And for a lot of people it’s a bridge too far. And for me, this is less a question of the writer and more how sick our society is.
We’re a sick society that folks don’t have ready access to books everywhere. We’re twisted. But everybody knows more about fucking Kanye West and Kim Kardashian? Yo, I like my Kanye, but damn, yo. So, you know, we’ve got issues.
