A Cancellation Trilogy

Nothing stifles great art like censorship, whether through overt acts by government censors or through acts of pillow-smothering by conformist claques eager to display their virtue. As far as the pillow-smotherers are concerned, it’s no secret that the mainstream publishing houses only look to publish work that conforms to a few preset narratives while robustly censoring anything that tweaks their puritanical orthodoxy. Starting in 2020, when thought-policing in creative fields peaked, publishing houses were often the first to “do the work” of acquiescing to cancellation mobs and dumping writers who didn’t immediately kowtow to the party line of the day, or simply didn’t check off the right identity boxes. This is not a surprise for an industry that is overwhelmingly made up of affluent liberal arts college-educated tote bag-carriers living in coastal metropolises.