Tag: ChildrensBooks

famous ∧ children’s author ∧ British ⇒ antisemite

From Lewis Carroll’s Symbolic Logic (1896):

A picture of the “examples” (presumably of syllogisms) on page 109 of Lewis Carroll’s “Symbolic Logic” (1896). The examples read as follows: #19 A prudent man shuns hyaenas; No banker is imprudent. No banker fails to shun hyaenas. #20 All wasps are unfriendly; No puppies are unfriendly. Puppies are not wasps. #21 No Jews are honest; Some Gentiles are rich. Some rich people are dishonest.

POSIT: IF you are a famous children’s author AND you are British THEN you are an antisemite.

(cf. Roald Dahl, J.K. Rowling, this asshat, probably Rudyard Kipling, etc.)

As an aside, the fact that Carroll (who came from a family of high-church Anglicans and took holy orders) wrote #21 tends to give credence to #20: All W.A.S.Ps are unfriendly.

“Who’s Coming to Hurt Us?”✡︎

I first came across this image 20 (!!!) years ago in a Something Awful “Photoshop Phriday” thread (it’s evidently a riff on Who is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate and illustrator Ashley Wolff). It’s served as my shorthand for what it feels like being a Jew in America ever since.

(Brought to mind by this—which happened at my parent’s synagogue last week; that’s only about 40 minutes from where I live with my wife and kids today—but it really could have been basically anything from the last two weeks, right?)