There were 850 books on that list. Anybody heard of Mr. Sach's book? No? Now you have.My Book Was Censored in China. Now It’s Blacklisted — in Texas. https://t.co/las6lEV1Rw
— Jeffrey Sachs (@JeffreyASachs) November 24, 2021
Sachs mentions that Matt Krause put his book on a list and that Krause's committee was going to start "inquiries" into his book, among 850 others. But shortly after Krause issued that letter the Democratic members of his committee called bullshit because they'd never seen this list nor heard of this "inquiry" by the Committee.
The major school districts in Texas told Krause to pound sand. Several smaller school districts treated it like a request under the Texas Open Records Act, and told him (per the Act) what the estimated costs would be to comply, and will that be cash or check?
Krause did all this so he could be Texas' next AG. But he was not ready for prime-time, and now he's decided he wants to be Tarrant County's DA (Tarrant being a relatively safe GOP county). He got the notoriety he sought; it wasn't the notoreity he wanted. So he doesn't even want to be a Lege back bencher; he'd rather live off the government full-time (Texas legislators are part-time, working only six months every two years). He's no longer coming for anyone's books, nor pursuing his inquiries. The story is as dead as Marley, or the proverbial door-nail, whichever you find more seaonally relevant.
And I doubt anybody noticed Jeffrey Sachs' book among the 16 page list of books Mr. Krause made temporarily famous; until now, anyway. The Texas Tribune didn't notice them. I don't know of a school district who pulled his book from their shelves. Nor does Mr. Sachs mention one. He says his book has been "censored," but it's no more censored than if it had received a bad review from a school librarian. Or if some libraries in some Texas schools declined to put it on their shelves to begin with. Selections have to be made, some books don't get the shelf space for any number of reasons. Censorship? Or just a decision on what suits the school? It's not that fine a line.
Mr. Sachs is crying crocodile tears in the pages of the NYT just in time for Xmas. His motives are his own; but they don't seem to be entirely pure and altruistic, concerned only with the sanctity of freedom of the press. Texas, despite his desperate cries for attention, is not China. His book is not being removed from bookshelves here. And that list he's so worried about? Nobody's paying attention to it, except him, and belatedly.
Maybe this will help his book sales.
Call me cynical.
This is one of the dumber ways for Republican-fascists to get publicity for themselves to give it to books they figure their cult members wouldn't like the idea of (they'll never look at a copy, themselves). I think you're probably right about him using it to promote the sale and maybe even reading of his book but if low-life gives you lemons you may as well make pie with them.
ReplyDeleteI read the op-ed and think he may possibly have some justification given the common experience of older LGBTQ people growing up under bigotry and discrimination to react strongly to this kind of rejection but, as you point out, he'll probably come out the better off for it in the end.
I have to say it again, if they think the kids reading books and hanging out in libraries are the ones who are going to be fooling around they're living in an imagined past that seldom happened in the past. I think the idea that books are entirely without effects of those kinds is clearly false but today with the mass media, movies, TV, internet, internet porn, books, especially books of text, are about the least likely to influence behavior.