reviewed
by Dan Bloom
Polly
and the One and Only World
(Green Writers Press) is a dystopian YA cli-fi novel that tackles
some pretty heavy themes, and author Don Bredes has pulled it off
without a hitch. The story he tells is stormy, dark, and deep, but it
ends with a note of hope as well, as befits a YA novel. It's a story
for our times, bound for a wide readership, but it's going to jangle
some nerves along the way. Given that America is still a very
Christian nation, and that Bredes's book casts Christian
fundamentalism in a pretty ugly frame, I asked the well-respected
Vermont author if he expects some backlash--and even perhaps
nationwide book-banning--due to pressure from the legions of
Christian fundamentalists and climate denialists (sometimes the same
people) who are bound to take offense.
''Sure,”
he told me, “I expect some criticism, especially from
fundamentalists. I’m not really worried about it. Back in 1977,
my first novel, Hard
Feelings,
was quite popular--it was named a Best Book of the Year by the
American Library Association, but, because it portrays adolescent
sexuality, it was banned in several communities. That kind of
controversy only attracts more readers.”
I
asked Don how he might respond if his new novel runs into protests
and threats of book-banning from religious groups. He said, “Well,
first, the novel is a fantasy.
It’s a cautionary fantasy for young people. It presents a grim
vision of some trends we all can see today in our culture and the
wider world. Will America become a repressive theocracy? Probably
not. But the possibility is undeniably there, and there are many
people in this country who would love to see it happen. Beyond that,
I have to say I lament the indoctrination of children into systems of
irrational belief. I would invite young readers to consider Polly’s
perspective--that gods are not real, they’re just emblems, and that
the stories in the holy books are poetic tales, some rich, some
silly.
They’re myths. Their original purpose as guides to conduct
or antidotes to our fears, like death, are no longer helpful or
useful. Adherence to myths about ourselves can keep us from seeing
life for the singular, fleeting wonder it is. It seems a terrible
thing for people to spend their lives behaving and thinking in strict
accordance with old, worn stories about supernatural beings and
places. To the extent that so many millions of people do
live their lives that way, these are still the Dark Ages. Polly
would say it’s much better to believe only in what, on good
evidence, we can be reasonably sure is true.
“The
other issue is world itself--the environment that sustains us. Our
human ‘conquest’ of nature has already begun to cause severe
disruption in the nurturing balance the world’s climate has enjoyed
for thousands of years. Further unchecked disruption will bring
increasingly intense storms, permanent drought, coastal flooding, the
possible collapse of the Gulf Stream conveyor, and the end of
industrial agriculture and trade. The potential for social strife,
for wars over shrinking resources and widening inequality, as well as
the potential for terrorist violence a thousand times more
devastating than 9/11, are also worth pondering right now. Somehow,
human beings will have to come to terms, and soon, with the ominous,
visible conditions that will shape human civilization.
“Polly
and the book's other heroes are witches. Their natural recourse to
transformative magick, which we all know is not real, is juxtaposed
in the novel to rituals like exorcism and belief in angels and
demons, which we all should
know are not real. Some readers won’t exactly approve of that sort
of perspective."
I
thoroughly enjoyed Polly
and the One and Only World.
But then again, I'm a deep green climate activist and a longtime
untheist. The rest of you better get ready. When this YA novel hits
the streets, all hell is going to break loose among the Christian
fundamentalists who populate this evolving nation in pockets north,
south, east, and west. Polly is going to be a wake-up call for
teenagers everywhere, but along the way it's going to meet some
strong, mean resistance. Don Bredes says he’s ready for the
challenge.
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