“Remember, the firemen are rarely necessary. The public itself stopped reading of its own accord.” ~ Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451I have a problem. Granted, it’s a First World problem, but a problem nonetheless. A bit of a bibliophile, I currently have an estimated 1,500 books in my library. I had more, but a few years ago I started purging my collection and gave about 500 others away to friends. This may seem like a lot, but compared to the teetering stacks of some other people I know this is actually small potatoes.
I’m not a bibliomaniac, nor do I suffer from some obsessive-compulsive disorder, I just love to read. I keep them because I sometimes re-read them and use them as references for my writing and research. Few have any monetary value, and if they do it is purely coincidental; that is not why I acquired them. Yes, I value books, but not as fetish properties or investments.
To be clear, the problem isn’t that I have so many books or not enough shelving to accommodate them, I’m concerned about what happens to them after I die. Unlike my very modest coin and stamp collections, which can be easily stored or quickly sold off, it’s asking a lot of people to find a suitable home for them, let alone keep or store them.
Sad to say, no one in my family shares my enthusiasm for books or has shown the slightest interest in reading any of them. On the other hand, my friends who do share my interests, are in the same boat as me and voiced similar concerns when I broached the topic with them. Like me, they will be trying to figure out what to do with their own private collections when their time comes.
Truth be told after I die I couldn’t give a damn about what happens to my beat-up old paperback editions of The Moon Maid by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac, or Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. Not because I don’t love them or think people shouldn’t read them (they should), but because they are still readily available online and in print. I’m more concerned about my hard-to-find and “politically incorrect” material that is out of print or being suppressed.
Suppression of certain books is a real thing. Public libraries are hotbeds of revolutionary ideologues who quickly toss books they dislike down the memory hole. I’m not being over-sensational here, I’ve seen the garbage containers brimming with book donations with my own eyes. Schools, of course, are no better. Teachers tend to be just as progressive and ideologically driven as librarians, if not worse. I’ve also been to enough thrift shops and second-hand bookstores to know that they rarely if ever carry these types of books on their shelves.
While bouncing my thoughts off a friend in preparation for this post, he played devil’s advocate and said “Maybe this is because the books are unpopular and wouldn’t sell.” If this is the case, then why are there so many other awful books on the shelves? I know people aren’t reading a lot of the drivel being churned out, but publishing houses, distributors and sellers are still making them readily available to the public.
As Ray Bradbury astutely pointed out in his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953), “A book is a loaded gun.” Considering the left’s authoritarian penchant for censoring “thoughtcrimes” (i.e. uncomfortable truths and different opinions) and disarming the populace, this comparison of books with guns is apt. Ever striving to make that irrevocable leap from soft to hard totalitarianism, the left’s war on freedom of speech and law-abiding citizens' right to bear arms is a fundamental part of their disordered agenda. "Knowledge is power," after all, and they dictate what information the masses consume.
This brings me to another point: the failure of the right to defend our cultural heritage. There is a serious dearth of institutions dedicated to traditional Western studies. Even Catholic schools are woefully deficient in teaching proper catechesis. The so-called “Culture War” was won by anti-cultural radicals a long time ago. Except for a handful of marginalized religious groups and online websites, practically every institution of note is in the hands of philistines. Before you point out some area of GOP prepotency, remember, to me republicans, neocons and their ilk are just “moderate” or crypto leftists (i.e. controlled opposition).
If I live to a ripe old age, then there shouldn’t be a problem. Hopefully, by then I will have found deserving recipients and I can bequeath and distribute the books through my senescence accordingly and hang up my virtual quill in peace. My fear, after my recent health scare and the general uncertainty of life, especially while living in a dangerous city, is what will happen to them if I suddenly drop dead or I'm pushed in front of a subway car by a repeat offender out on the streets without bail.
Ultimately material possessions count for naught for the deceased. As the old saying goes, “You can’t take it with you when you die.” However, people and institutions inherit wealth, property, heirlooms, photographs, and other keepsakes from the dead. In my case, this includes books. I’m simply trying to look after a precious, though underappreciated and misunderstood, part of my estate.
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| A relatable meme from @WrathOfGnon |
My hard-to-get or expensive art monographs and history books, which are overwhelmingly focused on Southern Italy, should be easy to unload. Ideally, I would like them to go to a worthy Italian American institution; however, the key word here is “worthy.” Many, unfortunately, leave a great deal to be desired. These books taught me so much about my ethnocultural heritage, it would be a dream if some other Duosiciliano youths could benefit from them the way I did.
In the case of my diverse religious, political and philosophical works, they contributed mightily to my formation and helped bring me back to the Faith when I was lost. Amid the spiritual and intellectual morass that is modern society, books helped me, and continue to help me, learn more about the Faith and the salvation of my soul. Not surprisingly, considering the deplorable state of the church hierarchy, I learned more about our religion from books than I did in all my years of Catholic school. I believe they can potentially help enlighten future readers in the same way.
Please don’t write me and tell me you’re interested in taking them off my hands; I don’t plan on dying (God willing) for at least another fifty years. Truth be told, I already have a young man in mind. He doesn't know it yet, but I’m just waiting for a few key pieces to fall into place. The point is it shouldn’t be this difficult to safely donate this trove. If we were living in a healthy society, my extended kin would be envious of my heir and vying for possession in order to augment their own collections.
The purpose of this little exercise was to highlight the cultural hegemony of the left and the abject failure of the right’s counter-cultural efforts to carve out real live centers of learning, formation and fellowship for ourselves in the cultural and moral cesspool that is modern Amerika. We need to work harder in creating spaces and supporting people that actually teach, value and protect our cultural heritage and traditions if we are to pass them on to future generations.
~ Giovanni di Napoli, March 12th, Feast of San Gregorio Magno
