Watching Trump win the election rendered many of us speechless. There don’t seem to be words, emoji, or guttural noises appropriate to describe what it feels like to see the outcome of this election. Like any sentiment that seems too horrible to comprehend, we gain a modicum of comfort from writers, those with the power to translate raw emotion into something coherent. Authors and essayists have been diligently putting into language what many of us are feeling this morning, rounded up by our literary friends at Lithub.
George R.R. Martin predicts winter is coming in his blog post titled “President Pussygrabber”:
There are really no words for how I feel this morning.
America has spoken. I really thought we were better than this. Guess not.
Trump was the least qualified candidate ever nominated by a major party for the presidency. Come January, he will become the worst president in American history, and a dangerously unstable player on the world stage.
And the decimated Democrats, a minority in both House and Senate, do not have the power to hinder him.
Over the next four years, our problems are going to get much, much worse.
Winter is coming. I told you so.
Roxane Gay describes in The New York Times the hopelessness of seeing the presidency go to yet another man:
On Monday night, I was hopeful and excited. I thought Nov. 8 would be an amazing day. I thought we would finally see a woman president after 44 men held the office. To see the highest glass ceiling of all cracked, the idea of that meant so much to me. Now I wonder, will I see a woman president in my lifetime?
I feel hopeless right now. I am incredibly disappointed, but I cannot wallow in these feelings for long. I will not. The world will not end because of a Trump presidency. Tomorrow, the sun will rise and the day will be a lot less joyful than I imagined, but I’ll get through it. We all will.
In “Taking My Daughters To Vote,” also in The New York Times, Jennifer Weiner writes about what this means for girls and women:
They learned that, while we tell our daughters “you can do anything,” the presidency still might stay a theoretical.
They learned that, as we inch toward equality, there is still work to be done.
They learned that “boys will be boys” is still a valid argument, even when the boy in question was 59 at the time. They learned that men get excused for their misdeeds, while women are blamed for their mistakes—and those of their spouses.
They learned that, if you try to break a glass ceiling, you’d better be prepared to get cut.
Lithub rounds up more fantastic writers putting feelings into words much more eloquently than the rest of us can. Check out the rest, which includes words from Marilynne Robinson, David Remnick, Attica Locke, Jonathan Freedland, and Andrew Sullivan.