It may be 2019, an age in which everything is online, but still, let's hear it for libraries. Three of our Top 10 favorite places are libraries, and there's not even fried food there.
Those running the best libraries know that in order to survive in this age, it'd be wise to evolve those old static buildings into community centers, offering yoga, cooking classes, genealogy and even festivals. Fayetteville has a great library, and this week offered a festival of its own.
True Lit is a literary festival in its seventh year. Each event reaches thousands of writers and readers through panels, pitch sessions and guest speakers. This year's keynote speaker was a graphic novelist by the name of Gene Luen Yang, and on Wednesday night he gave a fascinating lecture on the importance of stories. A man after our own heart.
For those unfamiliar with Gene Luen Yang, he's the creator of an award-winning graphic novel called American Born Chinese. It had the distinction of being the first graphic novel to become a finalist for the National Book Award, which caused lots of controversy with those la-dee-dah folks who don't believe graphic novels have any literary merit. Didn't they once say that about American books?
A lofty soul might scoff at the idea of there being much depth or literary merit to any presentation on the importance of stories, if presented by someone who draws cartoons for a living. But that's where Mr. Yang has 'em beat. And he's not bad in person. His lecture was filled with American history from the Civil War up to the 1950s.
"Stories are important because they teach us what to pay attention to," Mr. Yang said.
One of his best examples: Chinese American immigrants. Mr. Yang is himself the child of immigrants who came here as graduate students and stayed, working hard to provide a good life for him and his brother.
But had some things not changed in our collective history, that might not have been possible. Mr. Yang talked about how, in 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibiting the immigration of all Chinese laborers. A stereotype existed, according to Mr. Yang, that Chinese immigrants were evil and sneaky. Some Americans didn't trust them.
This stereotype persisted for decades and is seen even in 1937 with the launch of Detective Comics Vol. 1.
Detective Comics would go on to give us Batman in 1939. But in 1937, its first issue featured a horribly offensive caricature of a Chinese villain on the front, complete with sharp teeth, a thin mustache that hung down past the shin and soulless, narrow eyes. Oy, vey.
Most Chinese American immigrants at the time had difficult lives, working low-wage jobs and living in what were then terrible conditions across the country. But things changed on December 7, 1941. Suddenly, Mr. Yang said, all of those terrible attitudes toward the Chinese were shifted to the Japanese.
On December 22, 1941, Time published a cover that featured what would today be considered an offensive caricature of a yellow Japanese man, this one specifically Admiral Yamamoto. Mr. Yang projected that cover next to the first issue of Detective Comics, and there are certainly similarities in the art style.
It was stunning to take the history we'd learned in high school and see it presented through Mr. Yang's lens. It certainly put a new perspective on these events. Of course, one can't gloss over how the story changed for the worse when it came to Japanese immigrants, many of whom were placed in internment camps, even right here in Arkansas.
One of Mr. Yang's recently finished projects is a Superman book called Superman Smashes The Klan. And he also wove the Klan into his importance-of-stories lecture. He discussed the origins of the outfit but mentioned that by 1915 membership had dwindled, and the group had grown complacent after the passage of Jim Crow laws.
That changed in 1915 with the release of what would have been considered a blockbuster movie, a silent film called Birth of a Nation, which is credited with the second rise of the KKK. The movie, which made between $50 and $100 million, was so powerful, it reignited the flames of hatred across the country. The KKK grew more powerful and wealthier than it had been in a long time.
DC Comics had a decision to make after World War II. Superman had spent the last few years fighting Nazis, but the German fascists were defeated. Who would be his next enemy? The creators eventually took a risk and had Superman take on the Klan.
On June 10, 1946, the radio series "The Adventures of Superman," started airing a 16-episode story arc called "Clan of the Fiery Cross." The story followed a Chinese American family moving to Metropolis, only to attract the attention of KKK members, who burned a cross on the family's lawn. That's when all-American icon Superman stepped in to save the day, Mr. Yang said.
Furious, the real KKK called for a boycott of the program, but listeners only tuned in greater numbers to hear about Superman's defeating these villains. Listenership grew, despite death threats being issued to the masterminds behind the show, according to Mr. Yang.
Suddenly, it was difficult to take the KKK seriously anymore, as they were portrayed as bumbling idiots on a popular nationwide children's show. The group went into decline, again. Mr. Yang credits Superman for playing a role in thwarting a third rebirth of the hate group. We knew there was a reason we always liked The Man of Steel.
Mr. Yang said he was so passionate about that storyline, he pitched a comic series to DC adapting that arc from the radio show. It was approved, and now Mr. Yang has just released Superman Smashes the Klan so a whole new audience can appreciate the narrative.
"That's how important stories are," Mr. Yang said.
No argument here. It was an amazing lecture filled with a combination of U.S. history and comics that showed us not just how much literary merit graphic novels have but the raw potential of stories themselves to shape history.
Someone in the audience asked Mr. Yang about diversity and inserting characters of certain demographics for the sole purpose of representation in stories. His answer was spot on.
The graphic novel artist spoke about his own faith as a practicing Catholic and the internal tension that comes from having an eastern cultural heritage but being a member of a western religion. In school, Mr. Yang said he wanted to write about faith, but a smart professor told him never to write directly about it.
Instead, the professor advised him: Live your faith, and then write about that. If a writer makes a work of fiction that attacks a controversial topic directly, it comes off as preachy. Be real with audiences, and they'll better connect with your story.
When his lecture was over, and all the questions had been asked, Mr. Yang asked the youngest kids in the room to come to the front, and he gave them all free copies of Superman Smashes the Klan.
Fayetteville has an amazing library, and it brings in a bunch of wonderful speakers. We'll add Mr. Yang's name to the list of people we're glad to have seen there.
Editorial on 10/26/2019