The latest victim in the ongoing Carnival of Cancellation is the book The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future, by Dav Pilkey.
When I heard how awful it was, I figured I should read it. After all, how can I avoid engaging in ‘passive racism’ unless I know what it is? And how can I know what it is unless I see some examples that are clear and compelling enough to cause this kind of reaction?
Physical copies are now instant collector’s items, and command high premiums. But it didn’t take long for people to make unauthorized copies available at various web sites, which you can find if you look around a little. (In the same way, you can find all the Dr. Seuss books that were recently pulled by the Dr. Seuss Foundation. Even as the desire to censor grows, the technology to neutralize attempts at censorship progresses.)
Having read it, all I can say is: If this is passive racism, tell me where I can find more of it, so I can expose my grandkids to it.
Master Wong, the kung fu master who teaches Ook and Gluk, is the kind of person I’d like to know. Hell, he’s the kind of person I aspire to be. (Which, I think, is the opposite of how ‘racist’ literature is supposed to work.)
The lessons he teaches Ook and Gluk are some of the same lessons that I learned as a kung fu student, and that I teach my own kung fu students.
I still can’t figure out what is ‘racist’ about the imagery in the book. Is it the traditional Chinese dress that Master Wong is wearing? I have news for the people who signed the petition: The sifu who taught my sifu (William Cheung) dresses just like that, at least when he is teaching. Here’s a picture of him from 2012:
The book is funny, creative, and written with the explicit goal of encouraging children to write their own comic books without engaging in the kind of self-censorship that would kill their own creativity. By itself, that makes it worth its weight in gold.
It also encourages children to look into philosophies (like Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism) that they might otherwise never encounter in an increasingly sterilized school curriculum.
Interestingly, although I was already familiar with some of Pilkey’s work (because it’s perfect for kids who are just starting to read), I didn’t know about Ook and Gluk. My hope now is that this book becomes an underground classic, passed around (in digital form) by kids and parents who understand the value of a good book, and by activists who understand the danger of cancel culture.
As for Pilkey, now that he’s so enthusiastically bent the knee, it’s only a matter of time before other petitioners start complaining about the passive racism in his depiction of black children, the passive speciesism in his depictions of dogs and cats, the passive anti-schoolism in his depictions of teachers, and so on.
Which means the books he’s published so far will be recalled. So you should get copies of them while you still can.
And the books he’ll write in the future? Well, from now on, he’ll have to engage in precisely the same kind of self-censorship that Ook and Gruk was designed to combat. Which means that, having promised to ‘do better’, he’s almost certain to do worse. Which is why I don’t plan to read any of his future works.
