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129 S A bookstore! I said, and waited. We were all at A’s, assembled . It’s already a cliché, Vivienne said—pages burning, which means history; covers burning, which are skin. But that’s all kind of true, A said. Was this Sara’s idea? Ford said. Yes, I said. He raised his eyebrows. Yes, we could burn books, Viv said. History has established that—where they burn books they will soon burn people? Isn’t that it? So we burn books to observe that in fact we’ve already burned people, whole cities, but no one paid attention. That this is how backwards it’s all become. Interesting, Ford said. That it’s hard to tell effects from causes, A said. Do clichés become true or do true things become clichés? That it’s hard to tell books from people, Viv said. 130 Or extremely easy, Z said, looking at her. But you recognize, Viv went on, that the confusion is real. When you set fire to one book, you can’t say it wasn’t another. Just as years from now, you won’t remember who started this conversation. I will, I said. Probably you won’t, A said. I already thought about all this, Ford said. Really? A bookstore, yes. Did you? V turned toward him. Will my books be in it? I’ll be furious. I’m already furious. Well, not really, she added. Everyone says there are too many books in the world, I said. People also say there are too many people, Z said, but we draw a line. We do, but not everyone does. These are real differences, A said, sounding too satisfied. ...
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