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Kathleen Parker’s May 14 Sunday Opinion column about book censorship from the left, “Readers, beware of dangerous novelists,” reminded me of the biblical caution about focusing on the “speck in your brother’s eye” but not considering “the beam that is in your own eye.”
I certainly agree that the censorship she mentioned is misplaced and some voices from the left have echoed an intolerance that they claim to be against. However, as a large-scale assault on literature of all kinds has been introduced and carried out politically in many red states, I would have been more convinced of her anger at censorship had she noted that as well.
Patricia R. Heck, Sewanee, Tenn.
In her Sunday Opinion column critiquing the idea of authorship as cultural appropriation, Kathleen Parker mentioned the controversy-ridden novel “American Dirt,” which plenty of critics maligned for having been written by a White author. I agree with her claim that authors of any creed or color can and do speak the truth. If there ever were a book to change hearts and minds about migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexican border, it was “American Dirt,” and its suppression has done a disservice to humanitarian causes.
However, Ms. Parker didn’t mention that authorship is in and of itself a sociopolitical construct and that requiring authors to represent their own gender identity and race is actually proxy for providing previously underrepresented authors opportunities to break into the publishing industry. Sometimes this formula goes awry, but, in general, more queer, Black, Latino and other authors have been given a chance to make their voices heard.
Caroline Wellbery, Bethesda
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