The character in question? A 216-year-old red oak tree.

July 21, 2024 1:57 PM

Earlier this year, Floyd County School District cancelled their planned community read following complaints that the middle-grade novel depicts a monoecious red oak, a tree with reproductive parts that can pollinate and flower simultaneously. In the book, originally published in 2017, the tree claims an identity that is “both” female and male and responds to diverse pronouns. Author Katherine Applegate visited Floyd, VA this month. ‘Wishtree’ Author Responds To Virginia Community’s Cancellation Of ‘One Book’ Program (audio interview with transcript, WVPB)
posted by bq (13 comments total)

Trees

BY JOYCE KILMER

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

[And hey look God made trees with four reproductive systems so boo ya fuck off church lady]
posted by chavenet at 2:36 PM on July 21 [12 favorites]

Good lord, it’s a TREE, people! But looking more closely at her work, the book in question has a sympathetic portrayal of a Muslim refugee, and her other works seem to address questions of sexuality and environmentalism, so the right wing cancel machine would find a reason to cancel her voice one way or another.
posted by TedW at 2:52 PM on July 21 [8 favorites]

I guess they really hate books about earthworms.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 2:55 PM on July 21 [5 favorites]

next we're gonna be putting skirts on chairs because they have LEGS
posted by Clowder of bats at 3:10 PM on July 21 [8 favorites]

LEGS

Please watch your language. In this household we refer to them as "limbs" instead of using the provocative term that you did.
posted by WaylandSmith at 3:57 PM on July 21 [11 favorites]

What kind of stories do giant sequoia trees tell?
Tall tales [treesgroup]

trees can't tell jokes? my ash
posted by HearHere at 4:14 PM on July 21 [1 favorite]

Wait 'til Christmas comes around and they see all those fir trees in drag.
posted by PlusDistance at 4:23 PM on July 21 [12 favorites]

My literal reaction:

Field of Dreams (1989)

Terence Mann: I'm going to beat you with a crowbar until you leave.

Ray Kinsella: You can't do that.

Terence Mann: There are rules here? No, there are no rules here.

[advances with crowbar]

Ray Kinsella: You're a pacifist!

Terence Mann: [stops] Shit.

posted by ob1quixote at 4:33 PM on July 21 [5 favorites]

School administrators need to stop kowtowing to rightwing assholes.
posted by signsofrain at 4:44 PM on July 21 [10 favorites]

School administrators need to stop kowtowing to rightwing assholes.

They will. Just as soon as they can afford armed home security for their families.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:45 PM on July 21 [6 favorites]

A friend of mine is from the town of Floyd, and I've visited it a couple of times. It's a really lovely small town in southwestern Virginia. The local joke is, or used to be anyway, that it's the "People's Republic of Floyd" due to its unusually progressive culture in an otherwise blood-red part of the state. I believe it was a site for a few hippy communes back in the '60s or '70s, which led to a lot of folks with leftwing politics moving there. Fifteenish years ago at least, it was a tiny town with just one stoplight, a large and active natural foods coop, at least a couple of acupuncturists, and, if my memory serves me, some kind of crystal shop.

Floyd County is extremely rural, and I think that, tiny as it is, the town of Floyd is probably the biggest population center in the county. I think the culture clash between the town of Floyd and the more reactionary elements of the county has been playing out for decades. I'm saddened but not surprised to hear that the book burners have come for Floyd, and heartened that it sounds like there are still people there rallying to fight back and defend books and free thought.
posted by biogeo at 8:32 PM on July 21 [9 favorites]

It's almost funny how nature is so bad at playing along with the "but it's unnatural!" accusation.

Do you think they know about all the trees that switch sex over their lives, sometimes back and forth from season to season? And the ones that can produce male and female flowers at the same time? It's not a newfangled woke trend, either: here are the modern adventures of Britain's oldest tree.


biogeo, I was just looking up Floyd County when you posted your comment. (I was curious how much exposure to nature people there get; quite a bunch, it turns out, so I guess glossing over nature's lack of Christian values necessitates lack of observation, intentional blindness, or compartmentalization.) The wikipedia article is unexpectedly interesting - all sorts of very different niche communities seem to have taken up residence there over the years. The conflation of post-war Republican voting with modern-day Republican voting seems pretty sloppy, though.
posted by trig at 8:51 PM on July 21 [4 favorites]

They are coming after tomatoes next!
posted by Dotty at 11:21 AM on July 22