(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Language of the Night: Gargoyles, Demons, Angels, Ghosts, and "Moms for Liberty" [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-11-27 Trinity Marrow is just like other teen girls who lust after junk food, binge on Netflix, snark with friends, chafe against restrictive rules, worry about the future, and wear cute underpants with a double entendre printed across the backside. She also — NOTE: Some spoilers ahead. Look, you aren't going to plow through a 500-page young-adult "paranormal romance" supercharged with relationship angst, interrupted by snippets of backstory, and proceeding blow-by-blow through a series of pitched battles -- are you? No. That's why I've done it for you. Selected here are IMO the most interesting parts -- including the tale of three Florida "Moms" determined to censor poor Trinity's story. Enjoy! Many of us here saw a recent piece on DK relating how a Florida "Mom for Liberty" sought police involvement when a 17-year-old borrowed, from her high school library, a fantasy novel the complainer alleged to be "pornographic." Our local library has the same novel in its collection: Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout. Curious about the fuss, I borrowed and read it. Before we get to the content: more details have emerged about the report to police. The 17-year-old's actual mother is not happy. Apparently the student was requested by "a teacher" to check out the book in the first place. The volume was then handed over to two other Moms for Liberty members, who delivered it to the local sheriff's office, as evidence of an alleged "third degree felony" committed by the school librarian. This was confirmed to the TV station by one of the Moms for Liberty complainants. The student's actual mother told Pensacola-based WEAR-TV that she herself didn't approve of the novel, but she objected to her kid's being recruited as an agent of Moms for Liberty, without parental knowledge. "I'm very angry because my daughter was used to do someone else's dirty work. Do I think the book should be in the library? I'm a Christian lady and I don't think anyone should be reading those books. But I do not think my daughter should have been used to go to the police without her mother's permission," a mother who wished to remain anonymous told WEAR News. The TV news report noted: The group [Moms for Liberty] says it exists to defend parents' rights, particularly in schools. The "teacher" who induced the student to check out Storm and Fury was not identified in news coverage. More later. * * * So, here go the spoilers! Trinity Marrow is just like other 18-year-old girls....except that she is very, very, very, very, very, very special. The only one of her kind in thousands of years. So special, she's confined for her own safety in a fortress-like West Virginia compound, where cohorts of other young folk undergo training, then graduate and head out to fight demons. So special, she has a personal bodyguard, linked by a lifetime spiritual bond. So special, she's being kept in reserve for some emergency. Trinity Marrow sees ghosts and spirits. Leaps 50-foot walls in a single bound. Dispatches trespassing demons with her personal weapons, a pair of iron throwing knives. Has a unique and deadly superpower, hard to control, called grace. She's forced has to hide who she is, though. Except with a very few close confidants in the know, she has to pretend to be merely human. She's No. 1 on the demonic kill list. They can smell her blood. And -- she is slowly going blind. Ulp — * * * This situation only reveals itself in bits and pieces, because the foreground is occupied by a subject even more compelling: the terrible urgency and angst of negotiating boy-and-girl relationships. This is, after all, paranormal romance. "Whoa." "What?" His eyes were still closed, his hand was still on my breast, and his hips were still moving. "I said just a kiss," I reminded him, tugging on his hand. "That's more than a kiss." "You're not having a good time?" Was I? I had been, key word being had. "Not anymore." I had no idea what it was about not anymore that somehow translated into kiss me again, but that's what Clay did. He pressed his mouth to mine, and that pressure was no longer nice. It was almost bruising.... I glared up at him. "Get off." "I was trying to," he grumbled, lifting up.... Porn? Uh. In annoyance Trinity pitches Clay, that clod, out of a window. He later ends up dead. Oh, I forgot to mention: Clay's a gargoyle, or as they are called since descending from church roofs a decade ago, a Warden. Looks human most of the time, only taller. But can shift, like the Incredible Hulk, into another form, horned, winged, supermuscular, skin like steel. All the kids in the Potomac Highlands compound are Wardens in training, other than Trinity. Obviously, Clay was not Mr. Right. Then there's another Warden, Misha, Trinity's assigned Protector. She was once smitten with Misha, briefly. They're spiritually bonded and psychologically close, despite how his protective scolding gets on her nerves. There's just no chemistry between them now. Oh: "Peanut." He's an exception, not a Warden, actually. Merely a ghost. From the dated 80s. Annoying. Nosy. Gossipy. And gay. (As are a pair of the Warden teachers.) Then Zayne enters the picture, a 23-year-old Warden on a diplomatic mission from D.C. Movie-star handsome, smart, magnetic; he and Trinity can't seem to cross paths without crossing verbal swords as well. There's something odd about Zayne's eyes, they look bleached. A dubious reputation, too. Why has he fallen out with his family? Misha gets kidnapped by demons. So naturally, Trinity and Zayne head to Washington to find him. And naturally, she has to stay with Zayne, alone, in his apartment. Literal heat rolls off Zayne in Trinity's presence. So naturally, he sleeps on the couch. And naturally, given need for stress relief, and their mutual hotness, not to mention other characters' hotness swirling around them, they might fool around a little. In some detail, fool around. In fact they, once, very nearly have sex. No penetration, though. This six-page scene is definitely erotic. But not completely explicit. Certainly not obscene. I will confess that as an adult, I was maybe close to blushing at it, but that would be because I felt -- given the age of the principals -- a little too much like a voyeur. Not the intended audience. :-) Meanwhile, they're bickering less, too. And Zayne is kind. After serious demon-caused wounds, the two of them patch each other up. But Trinity's not sure how far his liking for her really goes. Both are still virgins on the last page. (Give Zayne a break; he's barely survived a terrible case of potentially soul-killing, ultimately unrequited love. With a hot, hot, hot half-demon.) Sequel incoming! Porn? Nah. * * * A deeper dive into the sequence of events surrounding the police complaint has been published in Popular Information, an online newsletter devoted to "accountability journalism," which is written and published by ThinkProgress founder and former editor Judd Legum. Legum revealed that a player in this incident was Vicki Baggett, one of the two most prolific reporters of allegedly inappropriate school library books in the state of Florida. A teacher in Escambia County, at the tip of the Florida panhandle, Baggett was interviewed by the Pensacola News Journal last year, when her complaints caused county officials to set aside more than 100 school library books for scrutiny and possible removal. The newspaper reported that Baggett was the driving force behind a book investigation, which began with her reading "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" in May of [2021]. Baggett said she has read about 150 books circulated in the district since then, finding about 116 of them to be disturbing…. "I started profusely reading books. I actually went into a dark place and it was because I had been exposed to pornography, to put it bluntly," Baggett said. Baggett said if she, a teacher of 22 years in the district, had been losing sleep over what she had been reading, she can only imagine the toll it would take on the minds of students. The books flagged by Baggett were removed to a restricted section, pending further review by a series of committees. Reportedly Baggett also has objected to books dealing with racism, saying of one that it could make students feel "white-shamed," as well as books with LGBTQ characters (including a storybook about the two famous male penguins that raised a chick). "[C]urrent and former students alleged that Baggett openly promoted racist and homophobic beliefs in class," according to Popular Information. "The Escambia school district is now facing a federal lawsuit from a group of authors and First Amendment advocates," Legum reported. The police complaint targeting Storm and Fury occurred in adjacent Santa Rosa County. One of complainants acknowledged to the newsletter that Baggett had been "helping us," describing her as "a valiant warrior for the kids, an amazing English teacher, and a wonderful Christian woman." * * * Angels and demons and warrior Wardens, whose job is to protect humankind from demons that spill from Hell and roam around making trouble...some kind of apocalyptic battle is evidently in the offing...but keep alert. Storm and Fury may interestingly contravene conventional Christian assumptions. Man must believe in God and Heaven and their faith must come from a pure place and not from fear of celestial consequence. If man was ever to find out Hell truly existed, things would go south fast for everyone, including for the Wardens. It was up to the Wardens to dispatch the demons and keep mankind in the dark so that people could live and thrive with their free will and all that jazz. [p. 18] CLUNK. The banal jolt is typical. One reason why Storm and Fury is not great lit. Well, it's not supposed to be great lit. It's freaking paranormal romance! We're not the audience! OK, and it's right to reflect the teenaged phobia of taking anything too seriously. I do feel frustrated sometimes, though, because this particular move seems often to come so close to working, but not quite. As if the piano keys might need a few felts replaced. But stay alert! What? We're not supposed to believe in Hell? But...Bible? More: the good guys may not always be good. "[P]eople think that Wardens are above evil because of the purity of our souls. Even other Wardens think that...but just like humans, we have free will too." [Zayne, p. 186] Trinity's mentor, her Warden father-figure, Thierry: "We learned the hard way with people we thought we knew. Greed for power knows no discrimination, no boundaries." [p. 81] Bad guys may -- well, just possibly might -- not always be entirely bad. Trinity's introduced to an actual Prince of Hell -- and yes, of course, he's hot. Very hot. So (albeit "slightly creepy") is his SO -- and OMG, she is Zayne's unrequited love! How badly is Zayne still stuck on her? A soft smile pulled at Layla's lips as she tipped her head back. The kiss Roth dropped was light and quick, but still floored me. I was thrown by the affection, at the obvious love between them. I was so confused. I'd never been taught that demons could...love. Yes, they could experience lust, but love? Every lesson I'd been taught implied they were incapable of such a human emotion. [p. 294] Angels, on the other hand, are said to be immune to personal love. Towards the end, we meet one. This angel is in fact Trinity's actual father. And despite herself, Trinity's shocked. He didn't care that Misha was never supposed to be bonded to me, or that Misha was now dead. He simply just did not care. And why was I surprised? Angels didn't have emotions. They didn't even have a soul. [p. 490] It must have been all part of the "grand plan," says Trinity's dad. And that's that. Zayne reminds Trinity that there is a reason for the existence even of demon tempters, who induce some people to give up just one little slice of their soul for some temporal gain, and maybe another, and then another....And the ultimate outcome is on the person. "You know there are rules. There must be a balance between good and evil." [p. 306] And summing up, it would seem: "Just because we are told something is right doesn't mean it is." [Zayne, p. 374] We never do meet the Big Guy. But it's funny, once you notice: Trinity and other characters constantly take his name in vain, quite casually. Another throwaway exclamation: "Hell." It's occurred to me to wonder if the flap over Storm and Fury is really all about s-e-x. Or how about, just possibly, religion? * * * Body-cam video of the Oct. 25 in-person complaint to the Santa Rosa County sheriff's office was released under Freedom of Information requirements. 12:24, audio begins at about 0:45 Moms for Liberty member Jennifer Tapley is also one of two hopefuls who have prefiled to compete next November against the incumbent for the District 2 seat on the Santa Rosa County school board. The county has five school districts. At the sheriff's office Tapley requested anonymity, in case "someone at the school" might try to find out who had filed the complaint. The interviewing officer made no such commitment, however, and Tapley later gave media interviews. Tapley brought with her a child in a pink hoodie with floppy rabbit ears (features blurred out in released video). Also with Tapley was Tom Gurski, another area Moms for Liberty member. Gurski explained at length that this was by no means their first effort to involve police. He and Tapley had made several previous attempts that went nowhere, for lack of physical evidence. Gurski said he'd recently submitted one book from a different high school, under a different police jurisdiction, to those police together with an affadavit, and that "they have that now for investigation." Tapley also asserted that the pair had already challenged the book "under House Bill 1069, which...works together with 847.12" and would require the volume to be placed "in quarantine" pending a committee review. Talley charged that this requirement was often ignored. The claim that they had officially challenged Storm and Fury, appeared to be mistaken, Legum reported. Further, Tapley specifically complained at the sheriff's office about the county's chief chief school librarian and others, displaying copies of social media posts as evidence of involvement in a group called "Stop Moms for Liberty" and other liberal causes. She referenced group members getting "death threats" without being specific. She also diverted to a spreadsheet that she claimed indicated an "entire book" on (whispered) *anal sex* allegedly being ordered for placement in a K-through-8 school. Tapley acknowledged to the interviewing officer that Storm and Fury was not checked out by her own daughter ("I'd be over there behind bars"), but said the borrower was "someone we know...someone that approached us." Vicki Baggett had earlier tried to report Storm and Fury to police, b Taply said, but her complaint had not been accepted because Baggett was not a county resident. Tapley and Gurski's police complaint about Storm and Fury appears to have already been dismissed, according to Popular Information. Not so, perhaps, the other police complaint about another book loaned to a teen at a different high school: Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List, which police confirmed as under "open and active investigation pending State Attorney review." * * * Human politics are not without their shadow in Storm and Fury either. There were fanatics like the Church of God's Children who believed that wardens were a sign of the end times or something lame.... [p. 17] and are hostile. Young female Wardens are there with the boys in training camp. But the girls don't get trained. Trinity doesn't get why that is, and doesn't like it. People had no idea that many demons blended in among them so well that some of them had even been voted into government positions of great power and influence." [p. 18] Some humans knowingly work with demons. One happens to be Majority Leader of the United States Senate. "The illustrious senator is involved in a lot of charities that benefit at-risk youth. Comes from a long line of Baptist preachers. Goes to church every Sunday.… "[I]t's always the last ones you suspect, in my experience. The ones that hide their dark souls rather than show the world what a sh*t ball they are. And...even though he's involved in all these good works, he voted down every reform or bill that would have actually helped people in need." [Roth (demon royalty), p. 455] (Remind me who was Senate Majority Leader when the book was completed, in 2019?) ;-) As a lifelong resident of the Washington, D.C. area, another small regret I have about Angels and Demons is that Armentrout makes it such a generic city. The Washington Monument, thanks to Trinity's eye problem, appears just briefly as a blur in the distance. As for the rest, Armentrout's seems to have somehow located the Potomac River between D.C. and Maryland, rather than D.C. and Virginia. She's inserted a lot of distance between D.C. and Bethesda, amid what is in reality one continuous conurbation. And, okay, this is petty, but the D.C. subway system uses escalators. Not stairways at the entrances. Come spend some time? :-) Armentrout herself lives in northern West Virginia, and her bio says, "All the rumors you've heard about her state aren't true." As someone whose work once took them to West Virginia quite a bit, I might amend that to, "Not all the rumors about her state are true." A few places in the north part of West Virginia can be outright liberal. Most of it used to be Democratic. And it is a state of much beauty and atmosphere, deserving a place in paranormal fiction every bit as much as the Olympic Peninsula in Twilight. * * * A few more closing notes about Armentrout. She started writing seriously in 2007. First published in 2011. Two years later she was interviewed by Forbes on "how to make a million dollars by writing books." Shorter version : break all the old publishing paradigms, create your own, and bust ass. She is now the author of more than 50 published books, including several series. She started an annual writers' convention called AppolyCon. And -- she is slowly going blind. It's retinitis pigmentosa, a piece of genetic misfortune. It can hit at any age. There is, at present, no effective treatment. Armentrout created her superpowered protag, Trinity, with this same disability, specifically to help bring attention to the condition. How things may go for either of thrm is not yet clear. I don't think I could ever really take to romance novels as a regular diet. And I could cavil at a few more aspects of construction and style. But looking back while composing this, Storm and Fury is stuffed with imaginative world-building, thought-provoking ambiguities, and between all the hotness, outright existential questions. Worth wondering how she will (or has) worked it out. Porn "without significant literary value "? No way in Hell. 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