I’d like to draw more attention to antisemitism that affects real Jewish people, because honestly? I have not seen as much outrage over the lives of actual people than I have over a fictional white gentile. So I’ve compiled a list of posts and blogs for my fellow gentiles to read.
Here is a post discussing why tumblr’s social justice community often forgets or dismisses antisemitism
Please support Jewish people, not just on Tumblr, but in real life. Please educate yourself on antisemitism so you can fight it, not just when it affects your fictional faves but when it affects real people.
Let’s start, this time, with a story. This is about Hillary Clinton – everything I write seems to be about her these days – but it’s about me, too. It’s about what it means, to be a feminist, or a woman on the left, and whether it matters. So before I get to her, let’s give you a good look at me.
I’m at a job interview. It seems like I actually have a shot at this one. Someone who likes me knows the boss here, and has talked me up to him in person. I can show him my most recent performance review, in which I’m described as “a joy to work with,” that “my editors fight over who gets to edit my pieces,” and where the “places for improvement” section mentions they actually have to “wrack their brains for something I could do better.” I’ve come prepared to talk about my strong, built-in reader base, which I built from the ground up; the fact that I’ve led several social media campaigns that received national or international press attention and raised substantial funds, one of which was enthusiastically endorsed by several pro-choice members of Congress; my award for social media activism, from a prestigious women’s media organization, which I won by popular vote; the fact that I wind up at or near the top of my magazine’s “most-read” traffic list every time I publish a new piece.
I can mention other things, basic work-ethic things. I can mention that I have not voluntarily taken a vacation day or a sick day for the past 18 months, and that the last sick day I took was only because I was hospitalized. (I do have to take the day off on federal holidays, but on those days, I usually write for fun.) I can mention that I have never been late filing a piece. I can mention that the copy comes in clean, doesn’t require much editing, and gets turned around quickly, with maximum co-operation. I can talk about all that, at my job interview. Those are the questions I’m prepared to answer.
I’m not prepared for the question they ask.
“We’re a progressive site,” the man across the table begins, “And our readership, as with most progressive sites, is mostly men. You’ve focused a lot on women’s issues. Would you be comfortable writing something that men would be able to read?”
It is very important that the language in your novel reflects the time and place in which the story is set.
For example, my story is set in Italy. My characters would never “ride shotgun”, a term coined in US in the early 1900s referring to riding alongside the driver with a shotgun to gun bandits.
Do your research! A free tool that I found to be very useful is Ngram Viewer.
You can type any word and see when it started appearing in books. For example…one of my characters was going to say “gazillion” (I write YA) in 1994. Was “gazillion” used back then?
And the answer is…YES! It started trending in 1988 and was quite popular in 1994.
#i still don’t know if the way he sings ‘ooh and aah’ is my favorite part of this #or if it’s coufeyrac’s and combeferre’s expressions #courfeyrac is just like ‘please stop’ and combeferre is like ‘it’s too late why did you even start’ #as enjolras rises like a kraken from the sea #’this does not sound like patriotism’
Feuilly’s ‘oh what did I just walk in on oh it’s Grantaire Talks Shit o-clock that sounds about right’ is a close contender though.
eirenical17 