An Art Hoe's Guide To

Completely Ignoring the Election and Reading Books Instead

I’ve had a lot of time in the tour van this week, and have been trying quite successfully to ignore the news and any social media scrolling that might cause me to accidentally encounter the “news” or anybody’s hot take on it.

I’m not arguing that pretending this election didn’t happen is the correct mindset, just that it’s the only one I feel capable of at the moment. Maybe that will change. Anyway, the result of this strategy has been a deep dive into audiobooks (I’m prone to carsickness so paper or digital books have never been an option for me in the van).

As I’ve had more time to listen and less time to read, I’ve begun to treat books like records, turning to one and then another at will, depending on my mood, rather than moving through them one at a time, start to finish, which has always been my standard MO in the past.

Last week, early on Wednesday morning, with a heavy heart and a long drive to Virginia ahead of me, I turned to Ta-Nehisi Coates “The Message” which I mentioned in my last Art Hoe Roundup, but had not yet read.

Narrated by the author, the book brought me to tears on that very vulnerable morning. I think I’ve been afraid to read Coates’ work in the past because I thought it would be hard to feel the feelings it would bring up in me, and yes, that was cowardly. But this book is beautiful, and inspiring, especially the way that Coates writes about writing (the whole book is couched as a letter to his Howard University writing class).

At one point, Coates describes how his father believed the answer to any question was in a book. He tried to read his way out of every problem. Maybe that’s what I’m trying to do right now, read my way out of this reality.

After listening to 2/3’s of “The Message”, I was not feeling emotionally prepared to tackle the 3rd section, which is about Palestine, so I jumped over to a novel called “North Woods”.

This is story that follows the inhabitants of a single house in the Massachusetts woods over centuries, starting in colonial America. This was for the more escapist tendencies inside of me, and yet it also helped me consider the way that the American Dream has always been a fallacy for so many of its people.   The brutal destruction of Native communities, racism, and horrific treatment of women, it’s all right there from the start. I say this not with depression but again, as an attempt to zoom out and look at the winding path of violence in history and be able to see our current moment is a broad context of the same cycle of greed, destruction, resistance, work, minuscule progress, regression, failure, and starting all over again.

While considering the problems with my own short story one morning, I fell down the rabbit hole of George Saunders, and decided to listen to his book “A Swim in the Pond in the Rain”, which is an analysis of seven Russian short stories, read by the Saunders and guests. I have to admit that I have been severely underslept this week with 7 AM van calls and midnight hotel arrivals, so a few of these beautiful and scenic Russian stories had me snoozing on the bench seat. But I loved hearing Saunders’ analysis of each author’s work, and it gave me ample fuel with which to tackle my own story.

So that’s three books, none of which I have finished, all of which have brought me joy this week. I have never jumped around from book to book like this before, maybe it’s a new era! I’m also 75% of the way through Rachel Kushner’s “Creation Lake,” in print. I love this book but it got interrupted by the arrival of my new Sally Rooney, and then set aside because of travel (I am prone to car sickness so I don’t usually try for book books in the van). So I still have that ending to look forward to.

I hope you all can find some art that brings you a little peace this week, or some entertainment, or at the very least helps you fall asleep ;)

Wishing you all extra croissants this Sunday

Rachel