IT'S A NOVEL
- - with a memoir as its base. The novel Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe is declared disgusting by one of our more enlightened Iowa senators. Senator Zaun has declared "This book is disgusting and does not belong in our schools". One can only presume that senator Zaun has read the book in order to declare it disgusting.
It would seem that senator Zaun is not what one would call a literary man - - one who reads literature - - for he apparently is not aware of the function of literature, in this case a novel based on the author's experiences growing up here in the United States. This article is not an exercise in literary criticism nor a book report; it is simply an effort to give senator Zaun some idea, however faint, of the purpose in reading novels.
Novels are not meant to be soothing nor nondisgusting - - some are disgusting and some aren't. Novels, at least serious novels, one of which is Gender Queer, have several functions. One function, and the most obvious, is to give the reader an idea of how other people live and their lives as they live it. One can learn something about other people if one reads novels. Normally, one's immediate circle of acquaintances are not much different from oneself and learning about other people can be beneficial, especially in an Iowa senator, who one would presume, is representing non-binary people as well as binary people.
Now Gender Queer shows the reader, in language understood by all, the issues a person has growing up when not like everyone else. Growing up is difficult, something that senator Zaum has forgotten, but it is even more difficult when you are different. Senator Zaun believes the book to be disgusting. What he is saying is that the main character in the book is disgusting, not because he/she is going through the normal adolescent traumas, but because some of the traumas are shown explicitly and are different from what the senator has experienced or even thought about.
A second consideration we can take from senator Zaun's pronouncement is the underlying premise that senator Zaun's opinion is the only opinion that is allowable. Apparently election to the Iowa Senate brings with it the authority that one may determine opinion; that a senator's standing in life is equivalent of having a special opinion status - - one who is able to decide what other's opinion will be, not just his own.
Unfortunately for senator Zaum, I and others will decide for ourselves what is disgusting and what is not. And also I and others will actually have learned how difficult it is to grow up without a set or stable gender identity. Gender identity does in fact exist whether senator Zaum wants to recognize it or not. Some people who look male don't identify as male; some people who look female don't identify as female. This is a fact that the readers of books, including Gender Queer, will learn which again is the function of reading novels written by people with something to say. The result will be that you are not quite as ignorant as you were before reading the book.
So in closing, let's suggest to senator Zaun that we the readers make our own determination as to what is disgusting and what is not and that he is not qualified to determine what we will have available to read if we are so inclined. Possibly, the book might actually do him some good if he were to actually read it; his understanding would be enhanced.
Richard E H Phelps II
Mingo
