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Powell, Nate – Save It For Later
If you’re not political, if you’ve somehow managed to maintain that state of blissful ignorance into 2021 after everything that’s happened the last several years… well, shame on you, but this is also a note to say that you won’t be interested in this review. I will say that maybe reading this book will get you off your ass and you should give it a shot, but if you’ve convinced yourself that everything is going to work out, nothing I say here is going to change your mind. So what’s this book about? It’s an unapologetic call to action (whatever that means for each person) and an unflinching look at what’s happening in our country, which covers quite a bit of ground. I think it’s Nate’s best work, and the guy has been around for ages, so that’s saying a lot. Yes, March was amazing, but that was John Lewis and Nate, this one is all Nate. After a brief introduction where he goes into what the book is and isn’t, he starts the first chapter with a quick punch to the face: the day after Trump’s election in 2016. I’ve seen books reference this, sure, but it’s a clear indication right off the bat that he’s going to dig into everything. The first chapter is devastating, as it details Nate’s depression, how quickly the white supremacists came out of the woodwork to celebrate, and what small measures they could take in their lives to make any kind of a difference, or at least to make their voices heard. The second chapter shows them making the choice to explain to their young child exactly what type of a person Donald Trump is, how he’s constantly lying and without any redeeming qualities, but how she shouldn’t worry, as his opponent was obviously going to win. This also led to them having to tell her what happened the next day, and their daughter ended up having to comfort them after the conversation. The third chapter is “the parenting chapter,” I guess, as they watch old footage of John Lewis getting assaulted by cops and some white nationalist marches with their daughter, leading to an awkward conversation where Nate has to defend the cops as not all bad (despite what he’s thinking as he’s saying it) and explaining to her why it’s wrong to ever use a swastika, even when playing. He also tells the story of his first time seeing the Ku Klux Klan having a demonstration in his home town and how his parents tried to laugh it off at the time. The fourth chapter is almost sweet, as it tells the story of how he took some friends with him to a comic convention in 2011 and how seeing it through their eyes gave him a new appreciation for cosplay. That was the case, anyway, until the Nazi cosplayer showed up, all smug defiance, and how he eventually chose not to confront the guy. The fifth chapter is the densest in the book, and it should be required reading for anybody who wants to get into the head of a white supremacist, as it’s unsparing in its descriptions of who these people are, how they justify their actions and how the bleeding of colors from their chosen flags means a whole lot more than some bullshit “blue lives matter” nonsense. For the sixth chapter we get the coronavirus, which tied neatly into the theme of manchildren who are contemptuous of science and want praise for doing exactly what they want at all times. Finally the last chapter is a small guide to what anybody anywhere can do to protest whatever is important to them and how it’s important to design your sign so that anybody objecting has to side purely with evil; “No Nazis anywhere,” for example, is tough to get too mad about without really telling on yourself. I don’t usually go into this much detail in reviews, but I’m still just scratching the surface of what he’s accomplished here. It’s not a bullshit message of “we’ll get through this together” without details, and he readily admits that he doesn’t even know how much worse things are going to get by the time the book is published. It’s a clear-eyed look at how perilous the current moment is and should frankly be given to anybody who’s too complacent in their life. If you don’t try to get them to be better, who will? $25
