Interview with Jesse Kavadlo
"Since 2021, book challenges in America have reached unprecedented levels. Literature is being pulled from the libraries and curricula of high schools for the same reasons that the PMRC objected to metal—mainly for sexual content, but also violence, occasionally the occult, and even a new category: a focus on race and/or anti-American viewpoints. The exact opposite of what I’d hoped is happening. I wanted heavy metal to be treated more like literature: worthy of analysis, accessible. Now, literature is being treated more like heavy metal, and not in a good way: objectionable, censored, rendered inaccessible to teens.” -Jesse Kavadlo