Stephen King has never been one to shy away from involving himself in political conversation via social media. In this particular instance, he has even more of a reason to get involved, as the Republican Governor of Florida, Ronald DeSantis, is now coming for something King holds very dear to his heart — books.
DeSantis is one of the Republican frontrunners for the 2024 presidential elections and is probably Donald Trump’s biggest competitor. The conservative politician has pulled a number of stunts recently, including stating that he would not assist with Trump’s extradition from the state as part of his indictment and signing a bill behind closed doors with only the NRA present that allows anyone to carry a concealed weapon in Florida without a background check, permit, or training. Go figure.
In another unpopular move, he started combing through and banning books that are not deemed “fit” for educational consumption. He, of course, makes the claim that they are only banning books that could be considered pornographic or violent and therefore unsuitable, but many have complained that books covering topics of LGBTQ+, racial struggles, and sexism have also been deemed “unsuitable” as Republican officials try to sanitize children’s education on these topics.
King, known for his crime, horror, and mystery work, responded on Twitter with a photo of what we believe to be his own extensive personal library with the text “No such thing as too many books”
This tweet came as videos circulated of Florida’s school and public libraries showing empty shelves as books have been stripped of books.
We know from history that the banning or burning of books has never been a good sign that civilization is on the right track, and that the pigeonholing of knowledge hardly leads to a more educated or even empathetic society. By banning certain books related to race or LGBTQ+ matters DeSantis is effectively silencing those voices and ensuring that children grow up unable to understand or learn from their stories.
King tweeted again in response to another user jokingly stating that “DeSantis is on his way” (presumably to clear out King’s own personal collection), to which King wrote,
Despite Florida’s assertion that the only books being banned are those deemed pornographic, the overall ruling has been far to broad and has resulted in some children’s books also being given the boot, such as And Tango Makes Three and Stella Brings the Family, both books which feature same-sex parenting, with the former featuring penguins, not humans. Another banned book, All Boys Aren’t Blue, about Black queer youth, was also banned.
The United States is currently embroiled in an internal culture war as people seem to become more and more divided over where they stand on certain topics. At least we know exactly where Stephen King stands thanks to his critique of DeSantis and his ilk over on Twitter.
Update April 10, 5:50pm CT: The original version of this article referred to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis erroneously as Robert DeSantis. WGTC regrets the error.”