The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-26)

C2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, MAY 26 , 2022

BY SONIA RAO

Matthew McConaughey is-

sued a statement Wednesday

calling for action after 19 chil-

dren and two adults were fatally

shot at an elementary school in

Uvalde, Tex., his hometown. The

tragedy, which occurred Tuesday

morning, was the deadliest mass

shooting at an American school

in nearly a decade.

“As Americans, Texans, moth-

ers and fathers, it’s time we

re-evaluate, and renegotiate our

wants from our needs,” the Os-

car-winning actor wrote. “We

have to rearrange our values and

find a common ground above

this devastating American reali-

ty that has tragically become our

children’s issue. This is an epi-

demic we can control, and

whichever side of the aisle we

may stand on, we all know we

can do better. We must do bet-

ter.”

Last year, McConaughey put

an end to rumors that he

planned to run for Texas gover-

nor — but did not rule out

running for office in the future.

In his Wednesday statement, he

said the “true call to action now

is for every American to take a

longer and deeper look in the

mirror, and ask ourselves, ‘What

is it that we can truly value? How

do we repair the problem? What

small sacrifices can we individu-

ally take today, to preserve a

healthier and safer nation, state,

and neighborhood tomorrow?’ ”

While expressing that “we

cannot exhale once again, make

excuses, and accept these tragic

realities as the status quo,” Mc-

Conaughey’s call to action nota-

bly avoided suggesting any con-

crete solutions to gun violence,

such as stricter gun control laws.

Other prominent figures in

entertainment have been more

pointed in their responses to the

tragedy. Writing that his words

“ring so true and cut so deep,”

pop singer Taylor Swift shared a

video of Golden State Warriors

coach Steve Kerr demanding

swift action Tuesday in response

to several shootings over the past

couple weeks, including the

murder of 10 people in a predom-

inantly Black part of Buffalo, and

the targeted attack at a Taiwan-

ese congregation in Laguna

Woods, Calif.

“When are we going to do

something? I’m so tired of get-

ting up here and offering condo-

lences to the devastated families

that are out there. I’m tired of the

moments of silence. Enough,”

Kerr said, adding that there are

“50 senators right now who re-

fuse to vote on HR8,” a bill

passed by the House two years

ago expanding federal back-

ground checks for gun purchases

and transfers.

“There’s a reason they won’t

vote on it: to hold on to power,”

Kerr continued. “So I ask you,

Mitch McConnell, I ask all of you

senators who refuse to do any-

thing about the violence and

school shootings and supermar-

ket shootings, I ask you, are you

going to put your own desire for

power ahead of the lives of our

children and our elderly and our

churchgoers?”

McConaughey, raised

in Uvalde, Tex., calls for

action after shooting

MATT WINKELMEYER/GETTY IMAGES

“As Americans, Texans, mothers and fathers, it’s time we re-

evaluate, and renegotiate our wants from our needs,” Matthew

McConaughey wrote after the Uvalde, Tex., mass shooting.

BY MICHAEL DIRDA

When I was growing up, my
father — always eager to instruct
his backward son — would regu-
larly intone the phrase, “I shall
pass this way but once.” Since
Dad wasn’t one to care about
anybody outside our extended
family, he never quoted the rest of
the old Quaker proverb: “Any
good that I can do or any kind-
ness I can show to any human
being; let me do it now.” No, he
simply meant that I shouldn’t put
things off, imagining that I’d
come back to them at some later
date.
To my surprise, this paternal
advice became, without my quite
knowing how, the abiding princi-
ple of my professional life as a
writer and reviewer — at least
until recently. Over the years I’ve
certainly returned several times
to a handful of writers, most
prominently those twin mon-
sters, Evelyn Waugh and Vladi-
mir Nabokov, but in general I’ve
never counted on rereading any-
thing. I give each book or subject
my best, then move on to some-
thing new.
Still, I often guiltily recall Os-
car Wilde pointing out that if a
book wasn’t worth reading over
and over again, it shouldn’t be
read at all. That’s essentially an
aesthetic attitude, the approach
of a connoisseur — or, more sadly,
the fate of a college professor
locked into teaching Milton for
the next 40 years. But since ado-
lescence, I’ve wanted to experi-
ence as many books as possible,
to familiarize myself with, as
Matthew Arnold’s catchphrase
goes, the best that has been
thought and said. It should be
emphasized that, for me, the
“best” means the best in every
genre, not just the traditional
classics of world literature.
Lately, however, I’ve begun to
question my life’s relentless, un-
ending hustle. Each week I settle

into three or four days of freneti-

cally intense reading and re-

search, as I try to make myself feel

mildly competent to say some-

thing halfway interesting about a

novel, biography or work of schol-

arship. The initial drafts I then

scribble almost always strike me

as — to use an irresistible oxymo-

ron — deeply superficial, short-

changing the author, the book,

the happy few who constitute my

“audience,” and even myself. At

that point I begin to wonder how

I ever got into this business in the

first place. No doubt some Post

readers speculate about this, too.

Still, the next morning I pull

myself together and go through

my draft literally dozens of times,

adding detail, sharpening my so-

called thoughts, thickening the

thin prose and laboring hard to

make it all sound easygoing and

friendly.

In the end, as my deadline

looms, I file each Thursday col-

umn feeling pathetically gloomy

and wishing it were better. In

truth, doggedness — my sole gift

from the gods — can accomplish

just so much. If only I’d been

allotted another 20 points to my

IQ! If only I hadn’t tumbled down

the basement steps when I was 2

and cracked my head — my father

later told me that I’d seemed

quite a bright little kid till then.

Being all too aware of my authori-

al shortcomings, I never torture

myself further by looking at the

online comments about my es-

says and reviews.

Of course, “the unspeakable

horror of the literary life” — to

borrow Mr. Earbrass’s phrase

from Edward Gorey’s “The Un-

strung Harp” — is a familiar

threnody in the writing biz. Still,

to use one of my own favorite

expressions, I soldier on, hour

after hour, week after week, pok-

ing at sentences in the hopes of

making them better. Of course,

any professional writer is su-

premely lucky, even blessed.

What we do for a living most

people around the world would

hardly think of as work. My hands

and clothes are clean at the end of

the day.

At least the evening does bring

a glass of beer or wine, along with

some Jarlsberg cheese and crack-

ers. The beginning of the day is

another matter. Every morning

when I glance at the paper, I

murmur to myself: Why bother?

Does anybody in these depressing

and violent times really care

about books? Obviously, some

people must, and yet today a

passion for reading seems vague-

ly quaint, while to be called

“bookish” or “learned” verges on

an insult, suggesting a slightly

ditsy, even elitist unworldliness.

After all, books emphasize interi-

ority, encourage empathy, require

thought, and are meant to foster

rational argument and dissent.

Good luck with those in an age

when the screed and the accusa-

tion have become our basic prose

genres.

Ever since being hired by The

Post, I’ve aimed to champion

experimental and innovative

works, genre literature and un-

dervalued classics. It’s an uneasy

mix, especially these days. Admit-

tedly, artists from the past some-

times use language and exhibit

attitudes we now rightly deplore.

But as Joe E. Brown observed at

the end of “Some Like It Hot,”

nobody’s perfect. One must bal-

ance Wagner’s music against his

reprehensible anti-Semitism. You

may choose never to listen to

“Tristan und Isolde,” but you can’t

deny its heart-stopping beauty

and profound influence. What

may be Joseph Conrad’s greatest

novella carries the “N-word” in its

title. How much does this matter?

Each person should be allowed to

make his or her own decision

about such things.

Does my tolerant laissez-faire

outlook imply a shirking of com-

bat duty in today’s vicious culture

wars? Absolutely. Don’t ask that I

start reviewing fiction or nonfic-

tion that addresses the hot-but-

ton topics of the moment. I’m not

that much of a journalist. Politi-

cal tracts, bandwagon novels, ce-

lebrity biographies, self-help

guides — these are the mayflies of

publishing. They enjoy a period

of ephemeral buzz and a year

later can’t be given away.

As I’ve grown older, the darker

memento mori aspect of my fa-

ther’s sage advice has come to

seem increasingly urgent. Conse-

quently, I now want to revisit

books that blew me away when I

first reviewed them, whether

Russell Hoban’s “Riddley Walker,”

Angela Carter’s “Wise Children,”

Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the

Rose” or A.S. Byatt’s “Possession.”

Yet I also hope to fill in some

long-standing gaps on my life-

time reading list, starting with

Lord Byron’s letters, Dorothy

Dunnett’s swashbuckling “Ly-

mond Chronicles” and Spenser’s

“The Faerie Queene.” And did I

mention the essays and rediscov-

eries I still want to write? Clearly,

this isn’t the time to dawdle or

slack off. Onward!

Michael Dirda reviews books for

Style every Thursday.

BOOK WORLD

In times like these, does anyone care about books? I do.

SINISA JANJIC/SHUTTERSTOCK

Regardless of the style or par-

ticulars of its design, the essential

thing is that it impose itself on the

landscape. It must be large

enough that no tour bus can pass

by without someone on board

asking: What is that? Why is it

there? Why are they still ham-

mering names on its wall and

how can we make them stop?

Perhaps it should have a bell, a

huge, somber bell loud enough to

be heard inside the Senate cham-

ber. Let it ring once for every gun

death in the United States that

day. With well more than a 100

gun deaths per day, it would mark

the quarter hours, at least. Make

it the Liberty Bell, the actual

Liberty Bell , and ring it until it

shatters. Because who can say we

are free when we cannot free

ourselves from this self-immola-

tion?

There are huge hurdles to cre-

ating new monuments and me-

morials in Washington, a process

that takes years. This particular

parcel of land is at the end of the

National Mall, in an area con-

trolled by the Architect of the

Capitol, and subject to a complex

process of oversight.

But the new memorial should

be defined from the beginning as

a temporary structure, to be de-

molished the minute it is finished

— perhaps when gun deaths fall

below some designated daily toll,

ideally zero, but at least some-

thing that isn’t an international

embarrassment. And let’s hope it

is finished. Let’s hope that one

day, for a full day, the bell never

tolls, and the masons chiseling

names on the walls can put down

their tools.

Pennsylvania Avenue, reversing

the direction of the inaugural

parade, to symbolically enact the

undoing of our own power, the

uselessness of political leader-

ship in a culture bought and paid

for by the gun lobby.

If the memorial is classical in

design — and perhaps that will

speak better to the audience that

needs to hear this message — let it

be engraved not with vague plati-

tudes but very specific pleas and

demands. Our poets will say it

better, so let them dress up words

to this effect and chisel them on

the frieze: Here we grieve those

who died because we were impo-

tent to help ourselves.

ask God to fix the things you

might easily fix if you had the

courage to do so? After every

mass shooting, turn on the

brightest lights, power up the

microphones, and let no political

leader who makes the symbolic

pilgrimage escape speaking actu-

al truth on a site sacred to those

who suffer.

It should be the obvious place

where the president, after yet

another mass killing like the rac-

ist killing of 10 African Americans

in Buffalo less than two weeks

ago, goes to make his or her

statement, and say his or her

prayers (if he or she is religious).

Let the motorcade travel up

of fratricidal carnage that we
actually fought to an end, unlike
our ongoing age of self-destruc-
tion.
The memorial would also be
contiguous, on its southeast cor-
ner, with the Peace Monument,
erected in 1878 and meant as a
Civil War memorial. Atop this
44-foot-high marble sculpture,
the figure of Grief hides her face,
weeping on the shoulder of His-
tory. At its base are the figures of
two tiny children, representing
Mars and Neptune. But forget
their allegorical meaning. Let
them just be children, like the
children who died at Newtown,
Conn. Like the children who died
in a fourth-grade classroom Tues-
day in Uvalde, Tex.
Visitors to the new national
memorial to gun violence will be
able to look up at the Capitol and
ask questions prompted by the
old Peace Monument: Why can’t
the United States of America pro-
tect its children? Why do we
continue to use weapons of war to
make war on ourselves? Why
have we committed to a doctrine
of self-destruction, when once we
thought we might wrangle His-
tory and define our own destiny?
Why does Grief never take a
vacation?
And what would this new me-
morial look like?
There is already a Gun Vio-
lence Memorial Project, con-
ceived by MASS Design Group
and conceptual artist Hank Willis
Thomas, which has been in-
stalled in Chicago and is now on
view (through September) in
Washington. It offers one very
sensible possibility for what the
new National Memorial might
look like. It includes four, house-
like structures made of glass
bricks, with niches in which the
families of gun-violence victims
can place mementos of their lost
loved ones. Scaled up to a necrop-
olis, it could make the right im-
pression, a modernist Hoover-
ville of death in the shadow of our
great national charnel house of
inaction.
But it would also need a focus,
a site for public speaking and
gathering. The essential thing is
that the new memorial force us
all, and especially our feckless
political leaders, to get beyond
the generalities and obfuscations
they have used for decades to
perpetuate this endless and cha-
otic civil violence. It must be a
place where thoughts are specific
and prayers are articulated pub-
licly.
No politician may come and
simply repeat the platitude of
thoughts and prayers. What, spe-
cifically, are you praying for? And
does your religion allow you to

NOTEBOOK FROM C1

A memorial close enough to shame Congress

ELMAN STUDIO/NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM

MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

TOP: The Gun Violence Memorial Project, which i s currently on

view at the National Building Museum, has niches in which the

families of gun-violence victims can place mementos of loved ones.

ABOVE: Three women embrace at a makeshift memorial outside

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in 2018,

where a shooter killed 17 people.