hello everyone!

something I've been musing on lately as I read a lot of books about perennial issues such as racism, misogyny, genocide, etc is whether books are capable of reaching everyone. I guess I'm wondering what everyone else's take on this is and whether there could be a model of the right ingredients for people in different groups (i.e. those who have simply never interacted with the group of people they're prejudiced against vs those who grew up in a diverse community, but have been brainwashed to hate everyone who looks differently, etc).

this has been swimming in my brain because I recently read Kindred by Octavia Butler and one of the blurbs said that it should be handed to everyone who thought slavery was actually not that bad. Don't get me wrong, I agree with this. At the same time, I think there might be people who would truly never embrace anti-racism and accept that racialized communities are telling the truth about their experiences unless they experienced structural racism first hand. Some people have their brain closed off to certain perspectives and refuse to be changed.

Do you agree with this? Do you think there is a magical formula of the right books for every person to be radicalized?

Editing to clarify: I’m asking if there might be a unique magical formula for every single individual, not one that would work on everyone! Like some people might just need 3 or 4 specific books and some people might need a hundred to accept that racism = bad

Also editing to add that I’m literally pitching a philosophical/psychological discussion about books and i genuinely don’t understand why it’s being downvoted. If anyone could shed some light on that I’d appreciate it!

Find fanart with all the characters + names + houses and keep it on hand. So much easier to keep track of who's who if you have a face to the names!

*also the audiobook is very good and you can always use the wiki if confused, but beware of spoilers. gl!

Edited to add--- JUST POSTED A PIC IN THE COMMENTS :)

It’s giving Cinderella can’t go to the ball.