littlcsongbird

[littlcsongbird]

How to Write Jewish Fanfic Characters

1.  Please don’t write them as “Jewish in name only.”  For one thing, that essentially takes away representation, which is hurtful, and for another, trying to prevent assimilation is a really big thing in the Jewish community.  The characters’ parents died when they were kids?  Write them as having been raised by other Jews (eg family members).  Honestly, doing otherwise is a cop out.  For centuries, people who hated us have wanted us to leave our Jewishness behind and fully assimilate.  You are inadvertently tying into that when you do write the characters as “Jewish in name only.”

2.  Consider writing them as at least somewhat religious.  Of course, there are certainly secular Jews in real life, but there are hardly any religious Jews in media and it gets tiring.  There would absolutely be practicing Jewish wizards regardless of whether Harry is religious; if we can keep our traditions despite progroms, the Holocaust, forced assimilation, and the American melting pot, being wizards won’t faze us.  There are religious Jews who participate in many cultures and subcultures around the world.  That there are no explicitly religious characters in Harry Potter is more of a function of Harry’s inability to notice these things (and JKR’s struggle with portrayals of minority groups) than an indication that there are no religious wizards.

3.  Even if they’re not religious, please write them as being at least culturally Jewish.  What I mean is, have them participate in Jewish culture. They celebrate Chanukah, for instance (if Harry celebrates Christmas, the Goldsteins can celebrate Chanukah, even if they’re secular).  They know some Yiddish words.  You don’t necessarily have to write that in, but it should be the background in your head.

4.  Don’t have them celebrating Christmas, unless they’re doing it solely for the benefit of Christian or culturally-Christian friends.  Cultural Christians tend to see Christmas as secular and universal, but for us, it’s not.  I don’t know any Jews who celebrate Christmas who aren’t part of interfaith families.  This may not seem like a big deal, but it is.  Christmas is a major signifier of complete assimilation.  When you write Jewish characters celebrating Christmas for themselves, you’re making a much stronger statement than you intend.

5.  Consider including positive details.  This is not strictly necessary (for fanfic writers, that is; JKR and Stuart Craig should have done it) but it is nice.  Positive details are little things that won’t disrupt the flow of the story, but will be recognized by your Jewish readers and will make them happy.  Examples can include a reference to candlesticks on a mantelpiece when describing a room, or mentioning that Passover is the reason a character is visiting his sister-in-law but not going into detail about the Seder meal.  Here’s an excerpt from a fic I wrote:

It is three years later (but somehow, it feels so much shorter), when Newt finds himself sitting in the afternoon sunlight, Tina by his side (her hands folded in her lap and somehow still breathtaking at the age of 109), looking up at the couple standing in the dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves twined into the posts of their wedding canopy. His grandson, grown into a handsome and capable young man, and Luna, as ethereal as she was at age twelve but now carrying herself with the maturity of someone who has seen all the horrors the world has to offer and has decided still to view the world with wonder, stand face to face, gently clasping one another’s hands and exuding quiet strength.

They are clearly following the Jewish custom of having a wedding canopy (chuppah), but I do not explicitly mention that it is a Jewish custom, and while it is clearly mentioned, it is not the focus.  The advantage to using positive details is twofold; it ensures representation without distracting from the focus of the story, but it also portrays Jewish customs as normal for Jews.  When I’m performing a Jewish ritual, it’s just a part of my life – I don’t stop and think about the fact that it’s Jewish, or think it’s at all out of the ordinary.

6.  Omit negative details.  These are things that would be inappropriate for a culturally or somewhat-religious Jewish character.  I can’t speak for anyone else, but they interrupt the flow of the story for me.  These are things like having a character eat something blatantly unkosher (pork, shellfish, dairy-and-meat-together).  It’s possible that they could be doing this if the character is very secular, but I already addressed that in Point 2 and, if this is the 1920s, plenty of secular Jews actually kept some level of kosher.  It’s entirely possible that secular Jewish characters in the 1920s could even have a fully-kosher kitchen.  That might seem very strange to you if you are culturally Christian, but Christianity and Judaism are very, very different.  The idea you have in your head of “religion” isn’t entirely applicable to Judaism.  Keeping kosher has cultural as well as religious significance.

7.  Mention major Jewish holidays if your fic takes place on or near them.  You don’t need to go into detail, but it would be odd to have, say, a fic during April with not even a single passing mention of Passover.  Likewise October and the fall holidays. This can be easily avoided if you simply set the fic at a different time.  If you’re not sure when the holidays are, Hebcal is a great resource.  Google “hebcal [year]” or “[holiday] [year].”

8.  Consider going into more detail.  This is not necessary by any means, but it a lovely thing to do and will certainly get you a reblog from @jewish-harrypotter if you let me know about it (fics with a lot of positive details will, too).  This is harder because it requires more research, but I’m always available as a resource.  I can’t tell you exactly what Jewish life looked like in the early 20th century, but if you’re okay with the fic not adhering to precise historical accuracy I can tell you what Jewish life looks like now (and the most basic aspects of the rituals haven’t really changed much).  I also very much recommend My Jewish Learning  as a resource.  Also, if any Jews reading this are also available as resources, please comment on this post.

9.  Listen to Jews.  If a Jewish reader points out that something’s off, trust them to know what they’re talking about.  If they’re telling you that Christmas is not a universal holiday, don’t tell them it is.  No one expects someone who isn’t Jewish to know about Jewish culture or religion, but there’s a difference between not knowing something and rejecting what someone is trying to tell you.

Hope that helped!  Thank you for reading!  I know writing about a minority you’re not part of is hard, and I appreciate you taking the time to read this to find out how to do it better!

[littlcsongbird]

One of my favorite parts of the Hunger Games was how, in the beginning, Katniss was jealous amd resentful of the townies for not having to work in the coal mines. Then, over time, she realizes they aren’t the true enemy. Then she sees the other district kids as so much better off than she is, because at least they don’t come from district 12. But then she realizes they aren’t the enemy either. And then she hates the other victors, before realizing they have all been exploited just as much as she has. So the enemy must be the Capitol citizens, who benefit from the exploitation of the districts, right? Wrong again. They are just uninformed and pampered people who have been kept in the dark about the true horrors faced by the rest of the country. Most of them, when push comes to shove, are perfectly willing to help the war efforts.

And slowly, over the three books, all theses separate factions of downtrodden people start to see each other as allies instead of enemies, and that is what propells them to eventual victory over the true enemy, the government that tried to pit them against each other. Just fun, totally fictional things to think about that have nothing whatsoever to do with our current life.

[littlcsongbird]

me when i torture my own oc: hahahahaha

when my friends torture their oc: NO

[littlcsongbird]

So if you’re at this blog looking for my currently active presence, you can find me over at @kathmcnamara <3

If you came from a gif page link, lemme just link you to my masterlist though so it’s easier on you!

[littlcsongbird]

I’ll name my first child #victoria secret fashion show, my second child @tchalcons, and my third child Jim.

[littlcsongbird]

Heads up that I’m switching back to my old blog. It’s been long enough I think it’ll be safe to move back, and I’m gonna be honest - content wise and url wise I liked my old blog a LOT better. I’m going to be sending links to people I’m close to or I like enough to let know where I’m going, and I’ll probably still be on this end of things for a little bit considering I’ll be leaving my sideblogs here until Tumblr support figures out what is going on with my one sideblog.

But honestly considering the reason I switched blogs I highly doubt is going to be a problem now, it’s probably safe to. And if it does become an issue again I’ll just.... switch back to here I guess.

[littlcsongbird]

Maybe don’t say Blizzard is the greedy ones? Anyone who has been following this story for the last year knows that this is Activision. The issue started when they got on the mostly independent’s section last year or so and getting on their ass about investors numbers.

Activistion also picks and the CFO and pays the bonuses at this point. The dev teams have been talking about their fears on Kotoku for literally a year now. I definitely think Activision is the scum of the earth (it’s not the first time they drove a company they bought out into the ground) but this isn’t exactly on the team at Blizzard. It goes higher than that.

i rly stopped caring abt overwatch like a year and a half ago but don’t let the hype for the new character make you forget that activision/blizzard literally just laid off hundreds of employees lol

[littlcsongbird]

Literally rule of thumb, if you want to talk to me about something in an aggressive manner, you better come off anon because I have zero tolerance for dealing with anons in these cases.

[littlcsongbird]

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[littlcsongbird]

~Insert joke about being in hell for half his life here~

[littlcsongbird]

The vape industry’s playing the youth in the same exact way the cigarette industry did years ago

[littlcsongbird]

I know I already reblogged the post about what name to use but to make things more loud and clear:

Do NOT use SS for Sword & Shield. For hell a lot of reasons actually. Just google it and you’ll find the answer, I’m not gonna talk more about it. And won’t answer asks discussing this further.

It’s best to use SwSh or Swish for the short name for these games. Please. For everyone’s sake. Use SwSh or Swish instead of SS for Sword & Shield!

And I’m off with this. Be safe, enjoy the new reveal we got today, and let the speculations on generation 8 in full scale begin!

[littlcsongbird]

Honestly one of the reasons I love live streaming live tv is because I might not be able to find the subtitle button on the remote, but I can sure find it on every tv channel app I’ve ever used.

[littlcsongbird]

NO ONE THAT EVIL SHOULD WALK THAT CUTE WTF

[littlcsongbird]

we need to be taught disability history in school because it is 2019, i am 20 years old, and i am only now learning that the National Association of the Deaf had to take Netflix to court in 2012 in order for closed captioning to be required on streaming sites (source). any amount of accessibility in our lives has been fought for, and those stories need to be told.

[littlcsongbird]

I love how, unlike we’ve briefly gotten with Isabelle and her Spanish-speaking Latina actress Emeraude, we never got an instance of Alec Lightwood speaking Spanish despite being a Latino character since Matt is a whole white, playing a Latino character who is not white and would likely speak Spanish like his sister if not for the fact that his actor is white and not a Spanish-speaking Latino or any type of Latino for that matter because he’s white and not Latino like the character is (a character who, I’ll remind you, isn’t white, like Matt is)

[littlcsongbird]

am i petty? am i going to celebrate the disney/pixar 6-year streak finally ending? losing to a movie i haven’t even seen? and feeling vindication on the behalf of all the animation studios who were ignored and scorned in the past? oh absolutely