Nuanced and thoughtful, as one expects from you, Ruth. I suspect Steiner's stance on Vietnam *might* also be viewed usefully through the prism of his wartime experiences; I suspect his fear and loathing of the "communist threat" was colored by some of that. And I think you're quite (sadly) correct about all the rest. Wishing you and your family well.
Your point about the preeminent value of someone caring about discussing ideas is a great one. We seem to be in a real danger of having no intellectual culture, but only war rooms and snark sheets. Thank you for the dose of sanity.
Ruth, you cost me another 20 minutes! Well worth it. I’d like to popularize a new term: “outrage porn”. Probably self explanatory, but it refers to media that seeks to inspire outrage for pleasure, giving the reader a feeling of self righteousness. Fox has it down to a fine art , but real media started to dabble in it during the Trump years, giving us a distorted view of his policies and blunting the effectiveness of our critique.
Outrage porn has contributed to our inability to hold nuanced views.
For the Israel/Palestine thing, I’m no different from most other people. I’ve got books by Finkelstein, Pappe, and Khalidi sitting next to my bed and I can’t summon the emotion energy to start reading them because I know they’ll challenge my point of view.
Would Death-by-Sontag by any chance be listed in the latest edition of the DSM? Howls. Thank you, Ruth, for an exceptional read, and if this offers any glimmer of hope I discussed the topic you rightly raised about civil discourse with a college student I happen to know. I was assured it has not altogether disappeared.
Great post. It's been difficult to have meaningful conversations. I love the idea of an Israeli/Palestinian book group -- it seems like a good starting point. I need to catch up on Minor Detail.
Thanks for this post. I'm definitely feeling a lack of nuance in discussions of Gaza-- and definitely trying to navigate relationships with people I love who hold very different positions.
I'm yet to read To the End of the Land even though it's been on my list for many many years.
Seeing what you wrote about Time’s Echo, may I suggest this book, which I read a few years back, but remember as really interesting. It also came with a lecture at Comic Con, which, also, fascinating :D
Thank you for this wonderful post.
Nuanced and thoughtful, as one expects from you, Ruth. I suspect Steiner's stance on Vietnam *might* also be viewed usefully through the prism of his wartime experiences; I suspect his fear and loathing of the "communist threat" was colored by some of that. And I think you're quite (sadly) correct about all the rest. Wishing you and your family well.
Your point about the preeminent value of someone caring about discussing ideas is a great one. We seem to be in a real danger of having no intellectual culture, but only war rooms and snark sheets. Thank you for the dose of sanity.
Ruth, you cost me another 20 minutes! Well worth it. I’d like to popularize a new term: “outrage porn”. Probably self explanatory, but it refers to media that seeks to inspire outrage for pleasure, giving the reader a feeling of self righteousness. Fox has it down to a fine art , but real media started to dabble in it during the Trump years, giving us a distorted view of his policies and blunting the effectiveness of our critique.
Outrage porn has contributed to our inability to hold nuanced views.
For the Israel/Palestine thing, I’m no different from most other people. I’ve got books by Finkelstein, Pappe, and Khalidi sitting next to my bed and I can’t summon the emotion energy to start reading them because I know they’ll challenge my point of view.
Would Death-by-Sontag by any chance be listed in the latest edition of the DSM? Howls. Thank you, Ruth, for an exceptional read, and if this offers any glimmer of hope I discussed the topic you rightly raised about civil discourse with a college student I happen to know. I was assured it has not altogether disappeared.
Great post. It's been difficult to have meaningful conversations. I love the idea of an Israeli/Palestinian book group -- it seems like a good starting point. I need to catch up on Minor Detail.
Thanks for this post. I'm definitely feeling a lack of nuance in discussions of Gaza-- and definitely trying to navigate relationships with people I love who hold very different positions.
Wonderful post.
I'm yet to read To the End of the Land even though it's been on my list for many many years.
Seeing what you wrote about Time’s Echo, may I suggest this book, which I read a few years back, but remember as really interesting. It also came with a lecture at Comic Con, which, also, fascinating :D
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/we-spoke-out-comic-books-and-the-holocaust