Parnassus Books is pleased to welcome David Dark to celebrate his new book, We Become What We Normalize: What We Owe Each Other in Worlds That Demand Our Silence, in conversation with Bonnie Smith Whitehouse.
This is a free event which will take place IN STORE on Friday, November 10th at 6:30pm Central Time. Because space will be limited, registration is required to attend this event. Please register for free by filling out the form below! (Note: If for any reason you need to cancel your registration, please call the store at 615-953-2243 at least 24 hours before the event so your space can be provided to another guest.) Masks are strongly encouraged during this event.
About the Book
How do we resist the false idols of power and influence to seek true connection and community?
From one of the most respected thinkers and public intellectuals of our day comes a book that is both a cultural critique of the state of our country and a robust summons to resist complicity. As we move through the world, we constantly weigh our conscience against what David Dark calls "deferential fear"--going along just to get along, especially in relation to our cultural, political, and religious conversations. Dark reveals our compromised reality: the host of hidden structures and tacit social arrangements that draw us away from ourselves and threaten to turn us slowly into what we decry in others.
We Become What We Normalize counsels a creative, slow, and artful response to the economy of reaction, hurry, shaming, and fearmongering. Dark offers a deep analysis of the ways our conceptions of ourselves and our use of technology often lead us away from what we believe, reinforcing the false narrative that we must humiliate others in order to survive. "I suspect we become what we sit still for, what we play along with, and what we abide in our attempts to access more perceived power and more alleged influence," Dark writes. We Become What We Normalize calls for a new kind of struggle, ethic, witness, and spirit that helps us step away from the infinite loop of normalizing harm into effecting true change for ourselves and the worlds we inhabit.
About the Author
David Dark is an American writer and public intellectual. A frequent speaker and podcast guest, he is the author of several books, including The Sacredness of Questioning Everything; Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, The Simpsons, and Other Pop Culture Icons; and The Possibility of America. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Pitchfork, Paste, America magazine, The Christian Century, and Religion News Service. Dark teaches in incarcerated communities and at Belmont University. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, singer-songwriter Sarah Masen.
About Bonnie Smith Whitehouse
Bonnie Smith Whitehouse, PhD, is a writer and professor who studies storytelling, creativity, contemplation, and wonder. She is the author of Nautilus Award winner Afoot and Lighthearted: A Journal for Mindful Walking and Kickstart Creativity: 50 Prompted Cards to Spark Inspiration. A lifelong Episcopalian, she has spent the last twenty years as a lay leader of St. Augustine's Episcopal Chapel at Vanderbilt University. Bonnie is professor of English and director of the honors program at Belmont University, and she lives in Nashville with her family.
Registration: David Dark
