So leave the ways that are making you be what you really don't want to be

[sovay]

After shutting Twitter down for the day, spatch informed me that he had seen a Trump-defending, America First-ing user deciding to respond to his critics by identifying and tagging the Jewish ones. I am not on Twitter and therefore have not been able to see if this was a neo-Nazi triple-parentheses thing or just a lot of hashtags or does it matter, really.

I've been following the reponses to Pence's fucked-up Evangelical Zionist Holocaust tweet, of which this thread and this article seemed especially on point. I just disagree with the latter's classing of Defiance (2008) among dubiously inspirational Holocaust narratives because it's not a story about implicitly non-Jewish "people who saved Jews during the Holocaust," it's a story about Jewish resistance—Jews who saved themselves and other Jews—and while we can argue about whether the not-at-all-Jewish Daniel Craig should have played Tuvia Bielski, the fact remains that his character is not a righteous gentile, he's a very angry Polish Jew. I don't think that's "inspirational," I think that's necessary. (Even if I just now thought of Jason Isaacs as Tuvia and if I could have gotten him and Liev Schreiber in the same movie? Oh, man.)

Tonight begins Tu B'Shevat, a holiday which my family has never especially celebrated. It's a bit hard to plant trees in January around here, especially since it was snowing earlier today. On the other hand, I have always liked—even just to hear about—the part where the Tu B'Shevat seder is structured around the Tree of Life which is the Kabbalistic pattern of the Sefirot. On the yet other hand, while I like quite a lot of dried fruits, I can't really eat nuts.

I will not be listening to the State of the Union address. I will read about it afterward. I am sure it will be horrifying. I plan to do something constructive with my night instead, like write about a movie with Ida Lupino.

Comments

[muccamukk]

There were certainly problems with Defiance, but that... wasn't really one of them. Would have preferred Jason Isaacs, yes.

I liked that tweet stream, especially the bit at the end about the duty of Christians to educate themselves about what Revelation etc actually says. A Catholic lecturer I was listening to recently was talking about how widely read Left Behind was (most popular series after Harry Potter and Twilight), and how if Christians didn't want that to be THE interpretation, then they were going to have to start engaging, because it wasn't going to go away. (And it's some horrifying shit, as you know.)

[gwynnega]

Every time I think Pence can't sink in my estimation any further, he drills down toward the center of the earth.

[moon_custafer]

Don’t know if it’s what you had in mind, but Fred over at Slacktivist has been taking down the Left Behind books from both a theological and a literary standpoint for several years: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/

[muccamukk]

Oh, no, I'm familiar with it myself (and with Fred Clark), I just liked that it was included. There's a wonderful ranty book by a Lutheran Minister called
The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation which was basically 300+ pages of WRONG ON THE INTERNET aimed at all this.

[sovay]

There's a wonderful ranty book by a Lutheran Minister called
The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation which was basically 300+ pages of WRONG ON THE INTERNET aimed at all this.

I'm so glad to hear that exists.

[sovay]

Every time I think Pence can't sink in my estimation any further, he drills down toward the center of the earth.

One of the things I most hate about 45 is how he makes even unforgivably immoral, incompetent, and generally awful people look half-decent by comparison, which is how we have reached such a state of nostalgia for the W administration that Will Farrell had to resurrect his impersonation on Saturday Night Live.

[rosefox]

I'm starting the (apparently fairly common) practice of planting parsley on Tu B'Shevat and harvesting it as spring greens for Pesach. We need all the green growing things and promises of spring that we can get.

[sovay]

I'm starting the (apparently fairly common) practice of planting parsley on Tu B'Shevat and harvesting it as spring greens for Pesach.

I didn't know about that custom and I like it a lot. Thanks for telling me.

[rosefox]

You're welcome! I learned about it from a picture book called Sadie's Snowy Tu B'Shevat, in which a girl tries to plant a tree in the snow and her grandmother teaches her this custom instead. A small child in your life might enjoy such a book if you wanted to find it and read it to them. :)

[sovay]

A small child in your life might enjoy such a book if you wanted to find it and read it to them.

I have got a couple of candidates . . .

[rosefox]

Sort of apropos of this, the other night Kit watched me while I made havdalah, and it turns out I was totally incapable of describing it as "I'm doing this"—I could only say "we do this, this is how we do it, this is why we do it this way". We're not raising Kit in a faith (what this means is sort of evolving), so I kept trying to change my phrasing, and I could not transmit the knowledge any other way! I'm not sure whether this is because Kit is my child or it would have happened with any child. I found it disconcerting and fascinating.

[thisbluespirit]

I will not be listening to the State of the Union address. I will read about it afterward. I am sure it will be horrifying. I plan to do something constructive with my night instead, like write about a movie with Ida Lupino.

That sounds eminently sensible in the circumstances. (And from my vantage point in this timezone, I see you did get the review done!)

[cmcmck]

The tree of life shows up in so many religious beliefs and I find this a good thing.

[gilana]

My biggest memory from Tu B'Shevat growing up was eating baksar (carob) in school. It was terrible.

[vandrendehare]

Oh that just hurts my head. Of course he thinks as he does. Of course. Why do I retain the ability to be shocked by this? More importantly, how do I, how does anyone retain that ability in the face of such gratuitous, purposeless, unself-aware hate.

[vandrendehare]

It scares me how kindly we're disposed to the man who paved the way for this. I let my hatred for 43 go when he got in the helicopter to leave Washington, but maybe that was a mistake, since no one else remembers what he did, or how responsible he is for where we are.

[sovay]

it turns out I was totally incapable of describing it as "I'm doing this"—I could only say "we do this, this is how we do it, this is why we do it this way".

It makes sense to me. It's the way Jewish traditions were explained to me as a child: this is what we do, meaning family, meaning people who were like my family. It's all very communal. You need a minyan to say some of the most important things in the religion.

[sovay]

That sounds eminently sensible in the circumstances.

I think my blood pressure certainly appreciated it.

(And from my vantage point in this timezone, I see you did get the review done!)

I did! I should probably write about something that isn't noir in the near future, before I burn out my audience's interest, but I enjoyed it!

[sovay]

My biggest memory from Tu B'Shevat growing up was eating baksar (carob) in school. It was terrible.

I knew of carob strictly by reputation until I was an adult. spatch was actually given it as a kind of earthy-crunchy chocolate equivalent as a child and has been very clear about the fact that it is really not chocolate at all.

[sovay]

The tree of life shows up in so many religious beliefs and I find this a good thing.

Agreed. Trees are important. They hold up the sky.

[sovay]

There were certainly problems with Defiance, but that... wasn't really one of them. Would have preferred Jason Isaacs, yes.

It never occurred to me before, but he would have been perfect.

[cmcmck]

Given how much ancient woodland we now live among, I'm glad the sky isn't about to fall on my head! :o)

[sovay]

Why do I retain the ability to be shocked by this? More importantly, how do I, how does anyone retain that ability in the face of such gratuitous, purposeless, unself-aware hate.

What I've been feeling over the last year is that there is a real difference between knowing the worst that people are capable of and seeing them enact it: there's still a line broken every time. So you can be entirely, wearily, sickeningly unsurprised in the general way, but still hurt by the specific incident. It's the worst possible version of "Oh, they went there."

[sovay]

It scares me how kindly we're disposed to the man who paved the way for this.

Yes, exactly that. There's a clear chain of nudging and shifting the Overton window of competence and legitimizing the nationalist-Evangelical right and mainstreaming hate speech and everyone who doesn't buy or defend it seems to remember the responsibility goes back to Reagan, but W was the immediate proof of concept. And now people feel warm and fuzzy about him because he disapproves of 45? That's a low bar! Anyone with a fragment of conscience or a halfway functioning awareness of ethics should disapprove of 45! The pat on the head is not worth the wars.

(While writing this comment, I ran into this comic. It rings true to me. I remember the rhetoric at the time.)

I let my hatred for 43 go when he got in the helicopter to leave Washington, but maybe that was a mistake, since no one else remembers what he did, or how responsible he is for where we are.

I think it was fine not to hate him as you did when he could do harm on the scale of a president, but I don't understand how that has transmuted into this belief that he was harmless. I wanted him prosecuted for war crimes. I still do. How did historical memory get this short?

[coraline]

I'm curious -- in your head is that "this is what we [the Jewish community] do" or "this is what we [this part of this family, of which you are a part] do?"
I can totally see why it's not just "what I do" since you're doing it as part of a tradition and a community and a heritage. I think I would still describe it that way to someone I didn't consider part of the group?

[drwex]

Very true. We've always known that agents of our government had fascist impulses, but that's a far cry from watching ICE agents drag away a child in handcuffs, or ambush a father on a hospital visit to his child.

This is why I keep saying that DJT is not the problem - he's the symptom, the enabler, the justifier, and the mouthpiece. The legitimizer. But he didn't create these people - they created him. And when he's gone we'll still have to deal with them.

[sovay]

But he didn't create these people - they created him. And when he's gone we'll still have to deal with them.

That's true. But it will be a lot easier to do that dealing when all the top-down reinforcement of the country is not rapacious white supremacy.

[rosefox]

It was "this is what we, in this family, do". Which—it isn't! It's only my thing, and havdalah isn't even a thing I grew up with in my family! But that's the language I have in my head for the transmission of knowledge from parent to child.

I would actually have a very hard time saying "we" meaning community, to my child, without including that child in that community. That feels painfully distancing and uncomfortable.

[drwex]

from your keyboard to G-d's ears. Three more years...

[kore]

I just now thought of Jason Isaacs as Tuvia

WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME. //helpless Isaacs crush intensifies

[sovay]

WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME. //helpless Isaacs crush intensifies

SORRY NOT SORRY IT WAS HIS ICE-BLUE EYES AND ACTUAL JEWISHNESS.

(Seriously, he would have carried all the hard complicated vulnerability Craig brought to the role plus a Jewish education and personal experience of having to fight with the National Front. I don't understand why no one even thought of him. In 2008 he was not unknown.)

[kore]

AGREED. I had to eat that stuff because my mother thought it "was just like chocolate but not bad for you." Carob bars taste of sadness and disillusion and lies and wet cardboard.

[kore]

SORRY NOT SORRY IT WAS HIS ICE-BLUE EYES AND ACTUAL JEWISHNESS.
(Seriously, he would have carried all the hard complicated vulnerability Craig brought to the role plus a Jewish education and personal experience of having to fight with the National Front

//whimpers helplessly

I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS, I ALREADY HAD TO WATCH HIM ALL BLOODY AND IN A LEATHER JACKET ON DISCO JUST THIS PAST WEEK

[kore]

That is a really good point. Sadly.

[sovay]

I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS, I ALREADY HAD TO WATCH HIM ALL BLOODY AND IN A LEATHER JACKET ON DISCO JUST THIS PAST WEEK

THE HORROR. THE HORROR.

(And going out with a bang, I heard.)

[kore]

IT WAS SO TERRIBLE! I COULD BARELY WATCH MY TV SET.

It was super awesome and satisfying. This show has misstepped a lot, but it's also done some really lovely things.