Shawn Harris: Judaism Unbound Episode 338 - More Chutzpah, Less Reverence
Shawn Harris, author of The Red Door: A Dark Fairy Tale Told In Poems, thinks that Jews would benefit from having a little less reverence for Judaism -- and a lot more chutzpah. Harris, who is also the creative mind behind Project Tzimtzum: Play, Learn, Make, joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about the Jewish present and future. They hop from, and to, a wide variety of topics, including literature, fandom, Dungeons & Dragons, and darkness.
[1] Pre-order The Red Door by clicking here! Follow Shawn Harris on twitter via @ProjectTzimtzum, and check out the Project Tzimtzum website at ProjectTzimtzum.com.
[2] Dan kicks off the episode by asking Harris about a recent blog-post she wrote, entitled “Jewish community and the artistic impulse from a Jewish artist’s point of view.” Check it out by clicking here.
[3] For the Judaism Unbound episode that Harris’s blog-post is reflecting on, see Episode 332: Is Judaism Mosaic or mosaic? - Dan and Lex.
[4] Harris references “femslash,” a form of fan-fiction that envisions women characters in works of fiction as romantically linked to one another. Learn more about the history of femslash here.
[5] Lex says that folks should “buy stock in The Silmarilion,” because — of all of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books — it seems to be experiencing a boom in interest right now. For a take on why there should be a “Silmarilion Talmud,” see this blog post by Brenton Dickieson.
[6] Harris mentions two different forms of fandom, “curative” and “transformative.” For an article exploring the two in greater detail, see Julia Dubel’s piece, in The Mary Sue, called “What Really Divides the Two Sides of Fandom?”
[7] For the full video series of “Imagining The 10th Dimension,” which Harris cites as particularly influential for her, click here.