Wisdom Passed Across Generations
From “A Tale of Burning Books,” by Erika Kobayashi (translated by Brian Bergstrom):
“It’s like Heine said,” explained Grandma. “Where books are burned, in the end, people will also be burned.”
“Though wouldn’t it be nice if we never get to the point where we burn people again?” she added.
Bellflower didn’t understand what Grandma meant by that, but she tried as hard as she could to imagine how a person might burn up and disappear into smoke the way the books had. But she could never really get her little head around it.
The pillars of Grandma and Bellflower play a pivotal role in “A Tale of Burning Books.” They play old and young; experience and inexperience; weathered and innocent.
Grandma, with her wisdom and deftness, dips into the dark pool of all that people have done and what we could become. Bellflower, her grand-daughter, tempers Grandma’s words with her present innocence.
Together, they explain and encounter the difficult lessons of being and morality.
Particularly in this scene, Erika Kobayashi uses her two characters’ positions in life to highlight the trajectory of humanity.
It’s so sweet how Grandma passes along her wisdom to make Kobayashi’s point.
Grandma walks a thin line — not being alarmist, but speaking truth — when she talks about the books burning. I think she knows that the truth needs to be heard, yet she’s aware of her audience and her influence.
Her truth comes out plain, linking the actions of now with victims of the future. “People will also be burned.”
Her awareness comes out lighter, as hope. “Wouldn’t it be nice…?”
She says, Sweet child that is our future, don’t make these mistakes. Her short speech could not be more forceful or important.
And though Bellflower is said to try “as hard as she could” to understand, Kobayashi knows it will be a few years before those ideas fully take hold. Though in this moment of the child’s imagination, the people only literally turn “into smoke the way books had,” Bellflower will soon enough understand the nuance and consequence of the message.
Kobayashi knows she will, and waits as Grandmother does — pacing her story just so, and letting moments like these take full advantage of the gap between the generations.