The Chicago Humanities Festival brought two midwest authors to Northwestern's campus last Saturday afternoon and a packed crowd of literature lovers. Rebecca Makkai and Indiana’s John Green had the audience laughing and banding together to fight the good fight against banned books. Green of The Fault in our Stars fame and the upcoming Everything Is Tuberculosis spoke about his own Chicago connections, and rallied with Makkai, author of The Great Believers and I Have Some Questions for You. They discussed how place is not a character in writing, and the status of the author as an entity within a work. It all, culminated in a rallying cry to join forces with teachers and librarians on the front lines, fighting book banning to keep valuable, pivotal, and life-changing books in our schools and libraries.
Green wrote his first two novels while living in Chicago, and in true Anthropocene Reviewed fashion rated Chicago a 5-star city. Many of Green's novels are set in Chicago, though he now lives in Indianapolis. For both Makkai and Green, setting is simply a place where real living happens. It puts pressure on the characters and is infused throughout the book. Makkai specifically spoke about how setting, even when done very well, is not a character, nor should it feel like one. It is its own entity and holds its own importance in the shaping of the story.
Writing about the places they know and live in, their surroundings, and the life experiences has influenced their character choices, but also raise questions about who those characters are based on. Both Makkai and Green have faced the dilemma of the ever-changing face of authorship in our very social world. Whether seeming too autobiographical or facing cringe questions from Terry Gross, Green spoke about finding a balance between inviting curiosity but refusing to clarify when it comes to characters. For example, whether they, like their fictional characters, have panic attacks while kissing, .
Green’s first novel, Looking for Alaska, is currently one of the most banned books in the country. This led to Makkai and Green talking about the valiant efforts of teachers and librarians who risk their jobs to keep books on shelves and to advocate against censorship. They heralded the power of books, to heal, to thrill, and to shock us. Books are meant to test us and teach us, they said, they are not meant to be governed, dumbed down, or to solely share a singular thought. Fiction and storytelling has the capacity, if we let it, to change lives, and both Makkai and Green plan to continue doing so.
For more information on the Chicago Humanities Festival, visit chicagohumanities.org.
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