“All we hear of ISIS is puritanical & punitive; is there nothing celebratory & joyous?” Joyce Carol Oates asks on Twitter.
The immediate reaction on Twitter and in the traditional media was ironic indeed, though unsurprising: a massive stream of insults and threats. One could describe it as puritanical & punitive—in a joyous, celebratory kind of way. (Ross Douthat was an exception with his thoughtful response on his New York Times blog.)
Ironic, too, that a parallel twitter conversation was happening on the topic of public shaming and free speech.
JCO has never been afraid to ask questions that shouldn’t be asked; to try to understand, at a very human level, why the most despised people do what they do.
Joyce Carol Oates Retweeted Felix Gilman
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I'm a Reference Librarian at the University of San Francisco's Gleeson Library, and I run the Joyce Carol Oates web site, Celestial Timepiece.