April 19th, 2025
My book Theia is a proud part of a long lineage of literature that uses animals to speak truth about ourselves.
Two of its biggest influences are two of my favorite books: Watership Down and Animal Farm. Due to the current state of our nation, I recently bought myself a new copy of Animal Farm and read it again out of necessity.
Damn it.
Comrade Napoleon is Donald J. Trump and this deeply insightful novella prophesied his future real-life rise and tyrannical reign back in 1946, the exact same year he was born.
And all this got me thinking about a semi-viral video I made the day after the election.
In it, I get pretty emotional about the results; it’s hilarious if you’re into that kind of thing. But a specific message I shared resonated with a lot of people; I learned this through countless comments and messages and talking about it in the real world. It’s the idea that so many of us were raised on pop culture, and it is so disheartening and devastating to watch a world choose Darth Vader, or Thanos, or Voldemort, or Lex Luthor as the person they want to lead and be an example of us as a country.
The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized I left something out.
I remember playing X-Men with my friends on the playground during recess in elementary school. The X-Men are famously metaphors for minorities and the oppressed; we understood that and vowed to never be the people who feared and hated their kind. We idolized Batman and Spider-Man, who didn’t kill or condemn criminals; quite the opposite, they championed the idea of rehabilitation.
We fought with the rebels in Star Wars; we stood with Hogwarts against bigotry and evil; we volunteered as tribute with Katniss in the Hunger Games; we assembled as Avengers to save the world together over and over again.
What I’m trying to say is: we fucking trained for this.
And we have failed so tremendously.
We saw all the bad guys in our media and said: “I would never stand by that. I would be the good guy. I would do what’s right.”
And at least half of us not only did not understand the assignment, but joined the Empire willingly.
So here’s what I propose to all of you: dust off that favorite thing of yours and read or watch it this weekend. Think about the lessons it taught you and the person you thought you would grow up to be.
And see how close you are now.
Napoleon the pig is Donald the president, and it was cleverly delivered to us in 141 pages or 72 minutes, depending on your entertainment preference. Art distills life and rebuilds us, it informs us and allows us to think and feel deeper than we could without it; art shows us the beauty and horror of this world and reminds us who we want to be.
We, the people, are a long line of violence and bigotry and hatred; we, the people, are a long line of kindness and brilliance and love. We choose which every single day.
The Den 