Brgp12
1yr ago
I think the line, "Everything else is custom or adaptation." is carrying a lot of your argument. The Rabbi claiming the holiday isn't important does little to make the day seem less special to the kids getting a bunch of presents. I would argue holidays are almost entirely born of "custom", and whether or not their origin story is still relevant or meaningful in a cultural or religious sense has little to do with how much modern participants value them.
I've also never heard anyone actually get upset by "Merry Christmas" in real life. I've a pretty large sample size of generally liberal folks and literally nobody has ever had a problem with the phrase. Anecdotal of course, but are we sure we're not just confusing Twitter with real life here?
What do folks here think of The Blacktongue Thief? I'd seen it recommended quite a bit and am two-thirds of the way through and think it fits his search pretty well.
It's certainly quite different in it's language and characterization than your standard genre work. Although the MC might be a bit of an edge lord (I'm not totally certain what this means) but I think if he is, the self reflection in the first person narration takes the edge off it a bit - he's presented as pretty self aware.
Curious to hear what others here think of the novel.
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