Books to see us through
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Loading... - Noah Hemsworth
- 24 Feb 2023
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The written word can provide shelter for whatever is coming.
Friday the 13th, March 2020: The world of public education in Los Angeles paused, and we went underground.
I told my students, “Some people stock up for the apocalypse with mountains of toilet paper and buckets of hand sanitizer.” They nodded, cast rueful, nervous smiles.
I asked, “You know what I stock up for the apocalypse with?”
With a knowing look, some of them ventured: “Books?”
“Books!” I trumpeted back. Books: our medicine, our escape, our refuge, our daily dose of empathy, one way of reimagining the world together. I pitched options for the two weeks: Kindred and Chronicle, Bluest Eye and Underdogs — stories of small and vast apocalypses. Class ended and I set them free, hoping the books they carried out could offer some shelter from whatever was coming. Read More..
