#onetrueharem

hahahaha oh man, I do not fully know how to explain my beef with Alex Rowland in a coherent manner because it is one of those things that is like. partially rational but also has possibly strayed into "bitch eating salad" territory sometimes in that I find myself having a kneejerk irritation reaction to the sight of their username/name alone. (me looking at shelves in a bookstore making faint hissing noises.)

I will admit that I have not read their actual published work. I started reading one of their books (A Conspiracy of Truths, I think it was?), was unimpressed, drifted to another book, was told by a friend that it wasn't worth it. this was before I was aware of their Online stuff.

it's a bunch of really small things, honestly, and my general kneejerk dislike of most certified BNFs is one of them, but I guess to break it down a little:

It feels like they have a tendency to pontificate. There's an assumption of authority, as though they have an ability to speak for The Masses from a position of greater knowledge. It's a certain feeling I get from some, particularly prominent, people online, where there's a sense of their opinions just inherently mattering and requiring expression to enlighten everyone else. Maybe I am overreading. This is really the core of it, I think, and has previously been my Issue with other popular internet personalities.

They were the originator of the word "hopepunk" and the elaboration thereof. The concept was around, but they were truly the articulator of its "meaning" (such as it is) and its moral value. Unforgivable.

They were the one behind the whole Beau Brummel thing which was mostly just annoying, and I think about this article about it all the time.

Then there was the most recent thing with the "any sufficiently deep enthusiasm is indistinguishable from academic rigor" and more significantly their response to someone's complaint about it.

don't be sorry, your opinion is vALID

onetrueharem replied to your post “��”

I still think about you every time I eat pineapple on pizza!

PINEAPPLE HIVE

golden deep; what’s your favorite season?

Spring, which is happening now, so yay for me! I just love all the buds opening, the new leaves, the flowers, going outside without flinching from the cold. It just fills me up.

cobalt blue spectral; what is the most beautiful place you have ever been to?

I'm going to cheat and name two. Both completely overwhelmed my emotional circuitry. I think there were tears and smiling so much my face hurt. One is the Taj Mahal, which is as beautiful as a jewel but much bigger so it's a lot. And Muir woods. The redwoods are so big and so old and they'll live forever if you give them half a chance and I wanted to hug every single one. It was such a religious experience.

sepia; name five things that always make you happy

master of tea! that's a new one. I'm into it though

so some caffeinated teas...I'm going to start with ones that are fairly easy to find at a grocery store and also not loose leaf only because I'm not sure how dedicated you're feeling to the bit (though if you are, my personal favorites are Victorian London Fog from Harney & Sons and Creme de la Earl Grey from Tea Chai Te, at least at the moment).

but as far as caffeinated teas I enjoy that you can find pretty easily, in my experience:

Good Earth Sweet & Spicy. This one I've had a weirdly difficult time finding in NYC but I think that might be an NYC problem? At any rate I should probably order more online. It's a nice sweet and spicy blend (as the name implies) that tastes good even when you accidentally steep it longer than you meant to.

Hot Cinnamon Spice from Harney & Sons. I introduced this one to a Swedish friend and got her hooked on it. Another one that's good even if you steep it on the too-long side. Also on the sweeter side as far as teas go, if that is a selling point or a detracting point.

Twining's Lavender Earl Grey. You might have gathered that I really like Earl Grey. It is true, and this is one of the variants that I enjoy (though not as much as the ones I mentioned above). It can be a little more elusive than just plain Earl Grey from Twining's, which is also decent, though if I'm going for an Earl Grey on its own I think I tend to prefer Harney & Sons', actually.

Twining's Chai (Vanilla or Spiced Apple). Their normal chai is fine but not particularly interesting, in my opinion; I like these ones for a little bit of extra spice (ha, ha).

I don't know how you feel about fruity teas - I don't usually like them but speaking of Stash I have a weird soft spot for Stash's Peach Black. It's possible it's just because it was one of the first teas I started drinking with any regularity, but.

deets. I wish to enter the salt mine

​it's not even so much a specific list or specific books it's more just me looking at several different lists and going..."this is ya. this is a retelling of a myth or fairytale. this is marketed as hopepunk and/or contains the word 'uplifting' in the descriptive copy. this is the 12th book in a sarah j. maas series. already read that one and it was mediocre."

and just feeling like. profoundly alienated from the state of the genre, I guess, and kind of going BUT WHERE IS THE STUFF FOR ME about it all, and also feeling a little bad because it's good other people are having fun or whatever but. also I'm grumpy

okay!!! finally getting to this after, like, forever, on account of me wanting distractions right now and this being a good way to get them (by which I mean ‘answering asks in my inbox I’ve been sitting on forever’).

obviously disclaimer that this is all personal and interpretive and if you asked another Jew they might well say something completely different. but I imagine you knew that.

I will say first of all that there is something to be said for the fact that the secular Jew who doesn’t observe any Jewish customs is a little bit...it can be frustrating, sometimes? It’s like the trope of a Jewish character who never actually shows their Jewishness in any way other than maybe a reference to celebrating Hannukah, etc. So the first thing I would consider is what other ways this character’s Jewishness does come up. Just because as someone who has become more aware of Jewish representation between “being in a long-term relationship with a Jew” and “converting” I know it’s something that I’m a little sensitive to. 

That being said - a lot of secular Jews do indeed not keep kosher! I know several of them! Some also...sort of do, i.e. won’t eat pork or shellfish but otherwise don’t worry about all the other restrictions. So that’s another thing to consider when thinking about how your Jewish character practices: what kinds of traditions might they want to keep and what others aren’t important? Even secular Jews do sometimes keep certain traditions either out of habit or because they grew up with them.

Another thing to consider: what’s their relationship to the decision to not keep kosher? Do they have one? Is it something that’s come up, a decision they made deliberately, or just how they grew up? This kind of falls under the “consider how else your Jewish character relates to Jewishness” category. 

For your concern about cliche - there is, as mentioned above, a certain cliche of the “Jewish character in name only.” I wish personally that there was more of a category open for Jewish characters who are orthodox of some stripe, or practicing or even aren’t practicing but still have a relationship to Judaism in the same way that people who grew up Christian or have Christian parents likely have some kind of relationship to Christianity, even if it is an adversarial one. I wouldn’t worry too much about this as a single scene, but I would consider how else this character’s Jewishness is or isn’t a factor in other ways. 

Because I would argue that even for secular Jews, being Jewish is still a factor in how they interact with the world. For most of the Jews I know, even the ones that don’t “practice” (whatever that means! that’s complicated!) have some kind of relationship with being Jewish.

okay (a) yessssss I’m glad you’re watching this now I hope you like it come yell at me with all your feelings please and (b) I have zero trouble believing this because yeah I really am that predictable