Opinion: In Targeting The King in Yellow, Cancel Culture Has Gone Too Far

Like many of you, I woke up Monday morning to find #Carcancelled trending on Twitter and soon discovered that work on the highly-anticipated Broadway production of The King in Yellow had been suspended. Prominent actors, playwrights, mediums, and professors of the occult lead the charge against The King in Yellow, asserting that it is not a play at all, but a memetic, madness-inducing ritual originating from the liminal plane, Carcosa. These self-proclaimed “experts” further demand that showings of The King in Yellow be cancelled and that all parties associated with the production be de-platformed. Dr. Jane Smith, a psychologist speaking on behalf of an undisclosed government agency, sided with public concern in a document released Monday afternoon:

 “The contents of The King in Yellow are viral in nature,” Smith claimed. “Those already exposed to the play may exhibit erratic and sometimes violent behavior. Do not engage with The King in Yellow in any form and avoid those who have.”

The doctor’s warning reiterates the myth that violent media can somehow perpetuate violent behavior in its consumers, a long-favored means by which individuals acting as moral police have sought to narrow the scope of the First Amendment right to free speech. Cancel culture has recruited the public to amplify these claims and The King in Yellow is only the most recent target for the uninformed masses. This isn’t speculation; most social media users joining #Carcancelled freely admit to being unfamiliar with The King in Yellow outside of the campaign.

“SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK,” wrote one Twitter user, “If you read The King in Yellow, you’re part of the problem.”

“Banal anti-mask rhetoric in Act 1,” wrote another, “Count me out.”

On the other hand, those who have read or witnessed the play in full offer rave reviews of The King in Yellow. I placed a call to a former colleague who had attended a dress rehearsal of the aborted production and he expressed disappointment that so few people would have the chance to experience it live. He spoke favorably of the play, praising its delivery of irresistible truths before his voice cracked and became a whisper and his whispering faded to silence but for the sound of distant music.

Cancel culture seeks to substitute the time-honored practice of patient and nuanced research for the sort of reactionary us-vs-them rhetoric that garners ‘likes’ with users on the far ends of the political spectrum. In decrying mob-mentality, I humbly resign myself to becoming a new target for attacks, be they from hand-wringing mobs of Twitter users or from the mobs that have flooded the streets of New York City, familiar, somehow, but dressed in the yellowed garb of eras long past.

My intent is not to tell people what to think but to implore them to think- to consider that “irresistible truths” may exist in uncomfortable forms. Cancelling The King in Yellow is another step down a slippery slope, at the bottom of which is a culture as clouded and stagnant as accursed Demhe. It’s strange to think that one should have to risk irreparable damage to their reputation in navigating public discourse, but stranger still is Lost Carcosa.