I don't recognize those old buildings that used to mean so much to me

[sovay]

Bertie Owen's keyboard is really breaking and I didn't fall asleep until well after eight this morning. I did not get much done today that was not work, but I did have post-holiday corned beef and soda bread with my parents in the evening. I did not have cabbage. I like cabbage in coleslaw and several other dishes—and I will eat it by itself if it's stir-fried—but when it's steamed or boiled I feel there is no safe ground between the raw food movement and sublimated into a fart.

1. In context of discussing the longstanding (and totally deserved) community argument with Michael Weingrad's "Why There Is No Jewish Narnia," my mother remarked that of course portal fantasy has Christian origins; Christianity has its other world into which you can be assumed or translated at any second right there in its conception of Heaven. On the one hand, C.S. Lewis himself presumed this link in his wraparound of Narnia into Aslan's Country. (Elizabeth Goudge made a similar connection in The Valley of Song (1951), though hers works much better for me on account of avoiding allegory and including Fairy.) On the other, I can't remember seeing anyone really write about it. Please point me toward articles to the contrary, if they exist? Otherwise I can tell my mother she just said something tremendously useful about twentieth-century fantasy.

2. Please enjoy a non-binary penned punk song about Claude Cahun: Worriers, "The Only Claude That Matters." rydra_wong, I thought you should know.

3. Everyone in general, I'm just really charmed by Madeline McGrane's "Vampire Horse."

4. Courtesy of moon_custafer: Brad Dourif in Fatal Beauty (1987). I will resist all efforts to explain to me that he is not playing the title role.

5. And then I made the mistake of clicking on an article about millennial millionnaire-billionaires:

I steer the conversation to the subject of how utterly detached from the real world elites seem to have become. "Elitism, the way I would define it, is obtainable," he replies. "All that stands between you and being elite is your own investment in yourself."

I tell Rosenthal that I've met many people in America who work as hard as him and his friends—harder, in fact—but struggle to make ends meet. He acknowledges that he's benefited from considerable advantage, but insists we now live in an era in which "the internet is the great equaliser".

"What are you doing to create the utility for yourself? Are you introducing people so they can collaborate?" he says. Struggling Americans, he adds, might want to "host a dinner. Invite 10 strangers. See what happens."

Rosenthal presses on with his thesis, telling me there are just not enough people in the world who will "excessively commit their lives to something. Journalism, cheese, automobiles, whatever. Rocket ships—perfect example. Everyone wants to work at SpaceX, no one wants to go to engineering school."

I believe the emotion I experienced at that moment is technically known as "eat the rich."

I am trying to convince myself to go to bed early; I have two doctor's appointments tomorrow and one of them is at eyebleed o'clock. This would be a more compelling argument if I didn't also want to read things.

Comments

[negothick]

I remember being on a Readercon panel specifically organized to rebut that "Why is There No Jewish Narnia" article--can't remember if it was the same year or the year after. Of course, if Weingrad had confined himself to "Why is there no English-language wildly-successful mass-market kid's fantasy series, also readable by adults, that explains Judaism to non-Jews using the mode of allegory?", then I might have agreed with him. As far as I know, there is no such book. Judaism isn't a proselytizing religion, with the exception of urging those already Jewish to be more observant. But then, modern Lubavitcher Chasidism--unlike its founders--are uneasy with the fantastic, and their kids' books are stupefyingly mimetic. And published in Yiddish. They don't want their kids to read the classics of Yiddish literature, which are considered too secular.

[kore]

Of course, if Weingrad had confined himself to "Why is there no English-language wildly-successful mass-market kid's fantasy series, also readable by adults, that explains Judaism to non-Jews using the mode of allegory?", then I might have agreed with him. As far as I know, there is no such book. Judaism isn't a proselytizing religion, with the exception of urging those already Jewish to be more observant.

Nicely put.

[sovay]

I remember being on a Readercon panel specifically organized to rebut that "Why is There No Jewish Narnia" article--can't remember if it was the same year or the year after.

Do you have any idea of Weingrad ever responded to his critics? Since that was basically the entire field?

[negothick]

Sadly, I do not. I'm sure he's never been to--or heard of--Readercon, and wouldn't be moved to respond if he did hear.