JD Vance Called Out for Seemingly Mimicking bell hooks' Bibliography with His 2 Similarly Named Memoirs

Some social media users have been posting side-by-side images of Vance's and hooks' book covers and offering theories about how the similarities came to be

NEED TO KNOW

• Avid readers pointed out a couple of substantial parallels between the titles of JD Vance’s memoirs and the works of author bell hooks
• Both have books containing “communion” and “elegy” in their titles, but which represent vastly different ideologies
• Social media users speculated that the similarities may have been intentional, so as to have Vance’s and hooks’ works directly pitted against each other in search engines

Avid readers are noticing some key similarities between the titles of bell hooks' books and JD Vance's memoirs.

On March 31, HarperCollins announced the vice president's forthcoming memoir, titled Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, which will chronicle his time away from Christianity and his conversion to Catholicism. Vance's new memoir comes 10 years after his best-selling 2016 book, Hillbilly Elegy, a candid account of his childhood, upbringing and personal life in Appalachia.

Upon the news of Vance's next book, social media users spotted some significant parallels to works by another author, celebrated activist bell hooks. The most notable similarities are right on the cover.

Two of hooks' famous works include her 2002 book, Communion: The Female Search for Love, a commentary on women's self-love journeys alongside the pursuit of romance; and her 2012 book, Appalachian Elegy, a collection of poems inspired by her childhood growing up as an African American in Kentucky.

In addition to "elegy" and "communion" both being employed in the respective authors' titles, hooks and Vance also published their second work 10 years after their first.

When author B.N. Russo noticed the similarities in Vance's and hooks' titles, she opined that there could be a larger implication of "search engine manipulation and keyword appropriation that will result in the detraction from Black feminist thought." By using similar titles to hooks, Vance's books will now directly compete for digital space alongside hers, Russo predicted, amounting to "de facto censorship."

Soon, other social media users caught wind of Russo's theory and offered their two cents. One user echoed the speculation about search engine manipulation and said they believe the similarities in titles could not be coincidence.

"It's also disturbing to think of JD Vance reading bell hooks under the covers with a flashlight and cheetos just so he can craft his demented counterpoints to feminism," they added.

Another pointed out the vast differences in the two individuals' ideologies, stating, "It's ugly to even put their names in proximity," while many others similarly expressed their belief that the similarities were so significant that "there is just no chance JD Vance didn't do this on purpose."

One user offered a view on the disparities between how the two authors, both of whom have aligned themselves with Appalachia, may be perceived within their own community.

"bell hooks was a leftist Black woman and an ACTUAL Kentuckian," they wrote. "People in Appalachian literary circles respect her, unlike him, and he resents that."

PEOPLE reached to the vice president's office for comment about the naming of his memoirs and did not immediately hear back.

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