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Very grateful for your clarity and generosity, Becky. And the compassion, gentleness, and advocacy you describe here is so heartening. Having started the day with a deeply informative (and also depressing) Hartmann report, I’m also appreciating your sharing the work Yetzirah and Jews4Humanity are doing in this really hard time. Many thanks for all you do!
I am glad we have organizations like Yetzirah and Jews4Humanity to question what is going on in society today. I'll believe the lit mags issuing anti-Israel statements and failing to mention the Hamas massacre aren't influenced by antisemitism when they start treating totalitarian regimes with much worse human rights records, take China, Russia, Turkey, Venezuela, etc. the same way they are now treating Israel. When is the last time you saw a lit mag banner with "I support the Uyghurs" or "Free Kurdistan"? Okay, racist speech is protected speech under the first Amendment, but don't get upset when you're called out on your racism.
An option Blake Butler could've taken, but for whatever reason didn't, was to write about his wife via fiction. F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night comes immediately to mind, but I'm sure there are other examples. I assume Butler knew best how to handle telling Molly's story.
Very grateful for your clarity and generosity, Becky. And the compassion, gentleness, and advocacy you describe here is so heartening. Having started the day with a deeply informative (and also depressing) Hartmann report, I’m also appreciating your sharing the work Yetzirah and Jews4Humanity are doing in this really hard time. Many thanks for all you do!
Thank you for highlighting Best Small Fictions 2023 (which includes a piece of mine!)!
I am glad we have organizations like Yetzirah and Jews4Humanity to question what is going on in society today. I'll believe the lit mags issuing anti-Israel statements and failing to mention the Hamas massacre aren't influenced by antisemitism when they start treating totalitarian regimes with much worse human rights records, take China, Russia, Turkey, Venezuela, etc. the same way they are now treating Israel. When is the last time you saw a lit mag banner with "I support the Uyghurs" or "Free Kurdistan"? Okay, racist speech is protected speech under the first Amendment, but don't get upset when you're called out on your racism.
Thank you, Becky, for another informative and thought-provoking newsletter.
An option Blake Butler could've taken, but for whatever reason didn't, was to write about his wife via fiction. F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night comes immediately to mind, but I'm sure there are other examples. I assume Butler knew best how to handle telling Molly's story.
I'm disheartened by the blowback Blake Butler received. Everything is a controversy these days, it seems!