A short literary passage that seems to me increasingly apropos to our culture of rising intolerance and cancellation — see this egregiously silly case, for example — appears at Ring Lardner, The Young Immigrants (Indianapolis: BobbsMerrill, 1920), 78:
“‘Shut up,’ he explained.”
That's really interesting, and I especially appreciate Doctor Scratch's literary-historical analysis of the deeper meaning behind Dr. P.'s use of this passage. Is this unintentional or, dare I say, a veiled form of confession?
Something else I find quite humorous here is how this quote illustrates the inverse of Mopologetic method
without any change in the power dynamic. Allow me to rewrite Lardner here:
"In response to the child's simple, direct, and innocent query, her father embarked upon one of those lengthy, detailed, and altogether befuddling explanations that was tantamount to saying, in its superfluity of words and jargon, 'Shut up.'"
And that, my friends, captures the spirit of Book of Abraham apologetics à la Gee and Muhlestein. Honestly, we can say the same thing about the book of pseudo-sociology that has just been "suppressed" (i.e., had the implicit ecclesiastical imprimatur of Deseret Book sales removed).
The irony, of course, is that, as I have said in this very thread, the decision to have such a book pulled is consistent with the
modus operandi of an undemocratic organization such as the LDS Church, which both asserts and reserves its right and freedom as a legally recognized religious organization and corporation the ability to take such unilateral action without consulting anyone, including the book's author.
If this were a book the Mopologists found offensive, then they would surely rejoice at its removal and would be the first to remind those who mourned the decision that the LDS Church was undoubtedly within its rights to do so, and that we could comfortably assume that this was perhaps a manifestation of the wisdom of revelation as conveyed through a general authority to the managers at Deseret Book.
I don't know what to say about this situation except that the sword of Damocles hangs over the heads of all who subject themselves to the tyranny of an undemocratic organization. Live by the sword, die by the sword. It is delicious to contemplate that sword dangling over the heads of our enemies, but when it hangs over our own heads, we start to justify our predicament in ways we would never dream of doing for them.
In this case, the sword has fallen on what appears to me to be a crappy book written by an author who is unqualified in the field he chose to comment in. Maybe it was the mercenary calculation of some middle management person that here was a book that was more potential trouble than it was worth.