Flag-Crusher

lets talk about how captain america, an irish immigrant who grew up poor and ill, channeled his experiences into empathy and understanding and positive action, was made by jewish men to dunk on hitler.

lets talk about how the first marvel and dc comics were mocked up in "yinglish," a mix of yiddish and english commonly spoken in jewish quarters. lets talk about how the format of the graphic novel as we know it was pioneered by an Auschwitz survivor

lets talk about how the first superman comics were clark picking up hitler and stalin, and dumping them at the united nations to be prosecuted for his treatment of defenceless and downtrodden people the world over

let's talk about why x-men resonated with so many people who fundamentally share an understanding of oppression by discriminatory systems, across time and cultures. written by the sons of jewish immigrants.

so jewish people looked at a new, avante garde, fun, different kind of entertainment that had even been founded by a jew, and saw potential. jewish artists and writers positively flocked to the burgeoning comic book industry because they were quite literally blocked out of everywhere else.

In short, superheroes are prophets.

No, like, legit. Prophets.

The rambam talks about the principles of prophecy in Guide to the Perplexed, and there are several orders of prophecy. The first order is shared by all of them, and it is, in short, the fact that a prophet must be someone who sees evil and feels the need to stop it. God is on their side, that's vital, but they don't need to talk directly to God, they don't need to have visions, all they need to do is save someone. Prophecy is not a talent, according to the rambam. It is an action.

The first of the degrees of prophecy consists in the fact that an individual receives a divine help that moves and activates him to a great, righteous, and important action - such as the deliverance of a community of virtuous people from a community of wicked people, or the deliverance of a virtuous and great man, or the inspiring of greatness.

(this is a somewhat edited paragraph, as I'm contrasting the english translation with the Hebrew translation with my dad's knowledge of the original Arabic text and finding it lacking.)

My lecture went into great detail showing parallels between different comic book characters and people from Jewish history (specifically moses and superman, david and captain america, and my personal favorite, "Other One"/Elisha Ben Abuya and magneto). But beyond that is my claim that we learn something very important from the first Hebrew - Abraham himself. Because his task is not only to create a people and teach them what is righteous and to deal justice (again, an action), but also that all people may learn from his example - see above, "inspiring of greatness". The prophet must not only serve his own people, but also the whole world.

This is why superman's motto includes not only the "american way", but also "truth" and "justice". This is why captain america becomes nomad when he is disillusioned post watergate/rebels against his own government in the winter soldier. Because there is a universalism inherent to the Jewish hero that requires that we not only help ourselves but also everyone we could possibly help (this is in the mishnah as well).

And with magneto, I claimed that what makes him a villain (an anti-villain, but a villain nonetheless) is the very fact of his interest in his own people alone. He cares for mutants and mutants alone, and even though his interests at times align with those of all of humanity/the marvel universe, if they don't he does not hesitate to turn on those he might have teamed up with previously.

I didn't say this in the lecture because I didn't have enough time to research it properly, but I don't think it's possible to imagine a world in which we have comic book heroes that in any way resemble our own in an alternate history where Jews weren't the people behind the concept of the superhero. Whereas christians value speech, self-sacrifice, and forgiveness, Jews value action and change.

It's not just that our superheroes are Jewish.

It's that they can't not be Jewish.

Because, yes, listening to a story and reading a story use mostly the same parts of the brain. Yes, listening to the audiobook counts as "having read" a book. Yes, oral storytelling has a long, glorious tradition and many cultures maintained their histories through oral history or oral + art history, having never developed a true written language, and their oral stories and histories are just as valid and rich as written literature.

We still can't call listening in the absence of reading "literacy."

The term literacy needs to stay restricted to the written word, to the ability to access and engage with written texts, because we need to be able to talk about illiteracy. We need to be able to identify when a society is failing to teach children to read, and if we start saying that listening to stories is literacy, we lose the ability to describe those systemic failures.

Blind folks have been knee-deep in this debate for a long time. Schools struggle to provide resources to teach students Braille and enforcing the teaching of Braille to low-vision and blind children is a constant uphill battle. A school tried to argue that one girl didn't need to learn Braille because she could read 96-point font. Go check what that is. The new prevalence of audiobooks and TTS is a huge threat to Braille literacy because it provides institutions with another excuse to not provide Braille education or Braille texts.

That matters. Braille-literate blind and low-vision people have a 90% employment rate. For those who don't know Braille, it's 30%. Braille literacy is linked to higher academic success in all fields.

Moving outside the world of Braille, literacy of any kind matters. Being able to read text has a massive impact on a person's ability to access information, education, and employment. Being able to talk about the inability to read text matters, because that's how we're able to hold systems accountable.

Absolument pas - absolutely not

Certainement pas - certainly not

Du tout/pas du tout - not at all

Mais pas du tout ! - but not at all/of course not

Pas absolument - not absolutely/exactly

Pas à ce point - not to that extent

Pas aujourd’hui - not today

Pas autant - not that much/so much

Pas ça - not that

Pas celui/celle-là - not that one (m, f)

Pas ceux/celles-là - not these ones (m, f)

Pas comme ça - not like that

Pas complètement - not completely

Pas du tout - not at all

Pas du tout, au contraire - not at all, on the contrary

Pas du tout le cas - not at all the case

Pas encore - not yet

Pas entièrement - not entirely

Pas exactement - not exactly

Pas forcément - not necessarily

Pas le moins du monde - not in the least

Pas maintenant - not now

Pas moi - not me

Pas nécessairement - not necessarily

Pas question - no way/out of the question

Pas si vite - not so fast

Pas tellement - not particularly/not so much

Pas tout à fait - not quite

Pas tout à fait cela - not quite that

Pas trop - not too much/not really

Pas vrai - not true

Pas vraiment - not really

Plutôt pas - rather not

Pourquoi pas ? - why not?

Probablement pas - probably not

Sans doute pas - probably not

Surtout pas  ! - absolutely not!

Vraiment pas - really/truly not

And something I've noticed recently is that the attitudes of progressives today regarding Jews in media and art is very reminiscent of the Soviet era, where Jewish participation in art and culture was praised as long as it wasn't actually Jewish.

Jewish actors are allowed to be loved as long as they never talk about being Jewish or only turn it into a punchline, like in Friends. Jewish writers and directors are allowed to be in the writing room as long as they don't make the show or movie too Jewish. Jewish comic artists are loved for their works and allowed to make their characters Jewish. . . as long as it's as a metaphor that can later be erased or twisted into something Christian.

I've noticed this very strongly in the reception to s2 of The Pitt; Noah Wyle was praised for including the Shema and having Robby wear a Magen David in s1, but in s2 where Robby is more openly Jewish in a way that isn't gifable or aesthetic or fascinating to a gentile audience, suddenly Robby is the evil villain and Noah Wyle is a baby killing evil Zionist and the show is just Israeli propaganda. Because Robby's Jewishness is no longer something that the fandom can ignore or turn into an aesthetic, it's front and center, it's something he openly talks about, he has a synagogue and a denomination and a complicated relationship with Judaism that doesn't fit into Christian ideas of religious trauma.

the reason Michael Caine and Tim Curry are so good in their respective Muppet movies is that Michael Caine treats the Muppets as fellow actors, and Tim Curry treats himself as a fellow Muppet