Friday, June 22, 2012

Alice "Jellaby" and the Color of Zionhass

Barbara Kay writes re Alice Walker's refusal to allow her snoozeroo of a novel to be translated into Hebrew:
Walker's passion for the underdog reminds me of Charles Dickens' ineffable creation, Mrs. Jellyby, in his novel, Bleak House. Mrs. Jellyby's sentimental thoughts are always half a world away with the poor children in Africa, while her own dirty, neglected children must shift for themselves in her chaotic household.

The comparison is particularly apt because Walker has herself boasted that her anti-Zionist motivation springs from anguish over the sufferings of poor Palestinian children. At the time of the flotilla fiasco, she told CNN that all she wanted was to see "justice and respect" for Palestinian children: "One child must never be set above another."

And so, having adduced her love of children as her motivation for her activism, Walker has, as the lawyers say, "opened the door" to evidence of her own mothering practices...
Which, as Kay goes on to recount, leave a lot to be desired. Here's my poem for the author of that Purple book (a colour that also describes much of her prose):

There once was a writer named Alice
Who harboured a great deal of Malice.
Gave thumbs down to the Hebrew
As disdain for the Jew grew.
What a blind, bitter shrew the old gal is!

No comments: