Let's Have a State Book (Contest)!

Ignoring the amusement at beating the Globe to the punch by several days (who knew you could scoop someone on an editorial?), the Globe's stance on an official state book did convince me of one thing. First, though, here's a quote from the editorial.

There are undoubtedly less literary states where the official book designation would be as lightly contested as a Massachusetts congressional race. It would be to the state's credit if a proposal for an official state book did set off a donnybrook here.

And before legislators come down on the side of any of the candidates, they should be reminded that every corner of the state has writers at work on books that in a decade could leave Melville, Wharton, and company in the dust.

Well, now that you put it that way...

The other day, when I wrote my blog, I thought it was all a bit trivial.

I guess the real lesson here is why do we need a state anything at all? With a few state anythings, it's almost as if there's a state everything - causing state somethings to be devoid of the meaning behind the efforts of their installments to begin with. Soon, they're as meaningful as Quequeg's harpoon up against the belly of the great white whale, as Massachusetts becomes the Pequod in the stormy seas of legislative productivity. It seems as if that great push for Moby Dick will - or ought to - fall flat against the impenetrable Moby Dick Beacon Hill.

While all of that is true of the state donut, and in some capacity would be true of a state book, there's something a little, well, more meaningful to a state book. Imagine how fun a state-wide debate would be if it were about literature. Heck, we can even compare the poll numbers on Walden versus Moby Dick, or start a March-Madness esque tournament. Instead of people talking about Sanjaya being tossed from American Idle, maybe some of them would have an healthy debate on whether or not Melville's whale of a tale is more deserving than the Scarlett Letter. Or, is the "influential" Walden more deserving than the read-by-all Red Fish, Blue Fish?

Such a state-wide debate would be so, well, weird and fun, surreal and once-in-five-lifetimes-ish that I just don't think I can miss it. It would be like missing the Revelation, because all of the stars have to be lined up for this kind of a heated political contest. In fact, if we do enter into this debate, I promise to read all of Emily Dickinson's poems, Moby Dick and the House of the Seven Gables just so I can give my expert educated opinion. Ryan's Take on the politics of literature in politics is just too good to pass up.

Just imagine the phone calls to your state rep!

PS: I need a funny tag for all these stories, since it seems like there could be more blogs ahead. Best one in the comments win.