John Boyne properly nails his colours to the madt

[PretzelKnot]

It’s taken a while but well done John.

”A really smart piece by Brendan O'Neill for
@spikedonline.
The people who are currently trying to destroy @roisinmurphy's life & career for defending vulnerable children are mirror images of those who tried to destroy Sinéad's life & career 30 years ago.

Self-appointed moral arbiters and men's right activists who cannot bear the idea of a woman's voice being heard.

For me, this story is the straw that broke the camel's back.

I am no longer going to stay silent on the way that women are treated.

I will defend women's rights, children's rights, gay rights, and lesbian rights to my dying day. I will also defend trans rights.

But I will not defend the online activists who are neither gay, lesbian or trans but who exploit the lives of LGBT people simply to earn followers in the hope of giving themselves a voice in the world and, in time, monetising that.

If that costs me readers or my career, so be it.

On June 9th 1954, at a Congressional hearing, Joseph Welch said to Senator Joe McCarthy: "You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?"

I would ask the same question of the people who are trying to destroy the life of a woman who has done nothing - NOTHING - but suggest that vulnerable children should be protected.

You have done enough, all of you. Have you no sense of decency?”

https://twitter.com/johnboynebooks/status/1698793743761969267?s=46&t=f8U9xaap9RM6pcBCdpsFIA

I agree he is not antisemitic. I'm Jewish and I have worked with him - he's a nice guy and his heart is in the right place. BISP is an awful book and schools should stop teaching it, but he's absolutely 100 percent not a Jew-hater.

For someone who hasn't read the book, what is the issue exactly?

There are many issues but @NitroNine posted an excellent and extensive post about this earlier on this thread.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4888086-john-boyne-properly-nails-his-colours-to-the-madt?reply=128952158&utm_campaign=reply&utm_medium=share

It is set in a concentration camp and denies the reality of what happened in them.

I haven't read it - I believe that there are some subjects that should only be written about by those with direct experience, where using them for entertainment and amusement (even in a sentimentalised tragedy) is a betrayal of the victims. I avoid other fictionalised treatments of 'true crime' as well, but the scale of the crime against which this one is set puts it in a class of its own. I think Boyne wrote in ignorance and arrogance, not out of any anti-semitic intent, but that doesn't stop BITSP from being a damagingly false narrative.

But he has just demonstrated a great ability to change his position, move on, and act graciously, so who knows where he'll go next.

This is correct. It also suggests the camps were easy to get into and out of, and that high ranking SS officers' families were unaware of the reality of the Holocaust.

It cheapens and trivialises the whole thing. Schools like it because it's far softer and easier to tackle than the horrific realities.

Again, though, speaking as a Jewish person who lost many relatives in the Holocaust, and who has worked personally with JB, I do not for one moment believe that he is an antisemite.

I believe that there are some subjects that should only be written about by those with direct experience, where using them for entertainment and amusement (even in a sentimentalised tragedy) is a betrayal of the victims.

I disagree with that but if you are going to write about such a terrible point in history (any history really, but especially something like the holocaust) you need to have researched it extensively and then you need to research it some more. And then you should get at least one expert on the subject to beta read it and then listen to their feedback. If you make any changes to the real history, you need, have a damn good reason and explain why in a note to your readers. Fiction is a very effective way for people to learn about difficult subjects because it helps people to really empathise and understand the human effect. But because of that, fiction writers have more responsibility than I think most of them accept. Their story becomes the reality to a very substantial number of their audience. So you can't just shrug your bad/complete lack of research off, as it just being a story.

This is pretty good on the problem with Boyne's novel:

https://mhm.org.au/boy-in-the-striped-pyjamas/

Quite simply, it's historically grossly inaccurate. An example from the above link:

"Students engaging with this text should be aware that Auschwitz had a thoroughly defensible perimeter, prisoners were always under guard, and the inner fence (there was more than one) was heavily electrified."

The story Boyne tells couldn't possibly have happened.

It's not just that prisoners couldn't get out. Children were almost always murdered as soon as they arrived at the camp. That was the official policy. Letting modern schoolchildren read a book that suggests otherwise is a disgraceful denial of that reality.

But I will not defend the online activists who are neither gay, lesbian or trans but who exploit the lives of LGBT people simply to earn followers in the hope of giving themselves a voice in the world and, in time, monetising that.

Neat description of the twatterstormers.

Just popped into John's thread on this, his Twitter feed generally. No pile on. No rabid froth. No abuse. In fact, nothing other one Tweet after another offering props to him for being a reflective adult.

Now, imagine it wasn't John. It was JKR, or any female author. Indeed any female, especially in the public eye.

The vitriol would be dripping off the screen, the Twitterverse would be in meltdown.

Anyone still unsure this is a MRA movement and an elites sanctioned gloves off signal to terrorise and abuse women with the full protection of those who have chosen themselves to govern public discourse and mores. And you can easily join them, just join in the pile on, on any woman.

I really can’t remember whether I read the book first or saw the film first, but I know I cackled like a witch at the end. I do remember thinking “but this would never have happened!” pretty much all the way through, however, and I’m no expert, I just read a lot of books.

I then read many of the critical articles and agreed with them, and wish it wasn’t the book used to teach children with, however readable it is. The post above that says schoolkids believed it was a true story and that the death of the non-Jewish child put an end to the Holocaust is truly shocking to read!

I read A History of Loneliness recently. I thought it was very good, but became quite harrowing as it progressed. Agree the The Hearts Invisible Furies is excellent. Haven't read any of the stuff aimed at children.

I would very much doubt that John Boyne is going to receive backlash and be cancelled like JKR or Roisin or KS or the many many other women who have dared to speak out, often in intelligent, thoughtful and balanced terms.

I was unaware of the Roisin Murphy issue (in fact I'd never even heard of her), but that retraction / apology from her is chilling. A bit like the recantings that were extracted by the Spanish Inquisition - and I don't say that lightly - it really does have very close parallels.

And who the fuck do her label think they are - hanging her out to dry and moralising saying they will donate proceeds to trans charities? 😡

And fwiw, what she said on her original FB post is spot on. It is completely irresponsible to brainwash children and commit them to irreversible and psychologically damaging treatment.

Nice article in the Telegraph (archive link). Not seen any coverage of this in the Guardian or on the BBC, but I'm sure that any second.......🙄

https://archive.ph/bcbXX

I was looking at Irish news for the story as well. "Surprised" RTE haven't led with it!

And who the fuck do her label think they are - hanging her out to dry and moralising saying they will donate proceeds to trans charities?

Is this definitely true or a rumour? According to that awful Guardian review they couldn’t get any confirmation either way.

He was not joking about peaking more than the Alps! From Twitter this morning:

Just came here to post that. Brilliant.

It was a joy to wake up to. OJ is going to be absolutely losing his mind!

This is strong too. Admire him for this.

Yes.

LOL at that poem. Men's ability to take the piss out of other men without risking an aggressive response has been much needed.

Help me out, which poem is that a pastiche of, I'm thinking Lewis Carroll but I can't bring it to mind.

LOJ should feel flattered, and.....all kind of ways.

It reminds me of a Brian Bilston one

I'm going to buy one of his books just for that. Love it.