Twenty years ago I was at a statewide library advocacy event in Columbus and stood up in front a room full of Ohio librarians to declare that in general people did not support censorship or book bans so maybe we needed to frame the legislature’s attempt to tie library funding to internet filters in those terms. Pretty sure LOL had not been invented yet but that is what a great many older, wiser librarians did in their hearts as they came up to me afterwards, looked at my Shaker Heights name tag and said “well that explains that.”
Actually the prospect of my own book getting banned someday is a motivating factor, as it has something to offend everyone, mostly gays and women having opinions (and periods) but also a sound critique of the evangelical movement in the 90s. This book has turned more into a “how we got to now” piece than I intended, but given that Rust World Problems (set in 2007) is historical fiction now, maybe how we got to now is just my genre. Hmm.
Speaking of Rust World Problems, I went to my friend Arabella Proffer’s memorial service last night, which was full of Cleveland art people whose names I recognized but I’d not met in meat world before, and I was summarily introduced as someone who won a Creative Workforce Fellowship. “Oh what for?” was the inevitable next question, which I dreaded, as I had to fess up to writing this satirical book about hipsters and nonprofit shenanigans in a made-up Rust Belt city that lives on an old hard drive and nowhere else. But as the evening went on I realized how prophetic so much of RWP had been, and it felt strangely homey to be among people who understood its frame of reference so deeply.
It is always weird when someone your own age dies, and the fact that Arabella lived so loudly, in bold colors and leopard print, makes it doubly hard to imagine she is actually gone. Arabella was always very “do the thing NOW because you don’t know what tomorrow brings” and that should be sobering for someone like me, who is apparently trying to stave off death by not doing anything. That is not how this works though, and I grabbed some of her oil paints and brushes and a couple sketches as tangible reminders of leaving work unfinished.
“Don’t be a dick and stay home watching tv because you’re too tired from a job you don’t like much anyway” is classic Arabella life advice, the kind she knew I would definitely never take because I am a recluse. (Actually I met Arabella because someone dragged me out of my cave under false pretenses.)
On the other hand, you know what you can do at home? Finish your damn book. So it can ruffle some feathers that need ruffling.
—CB