John Boyne | AUTHORS BEHAVING BADLY

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[@sad-xh3cd]

HEY! transmasc here. 'Cis' is a scientific term. It's not a label. Ever heard of transfats on nutrition labels? Did you know there are also cisfats? (In the context of fatty acids, a TRANSfat is when the hydrogen atoms are on OPPOSITE sides of the cell. a CISfat is when the atoms are on the SAME side.) This isn't a label that that trans people 'came up with', it has scientific basis and HAS been used for a variety of terms for AGES and ages, mostly implying cell configuration. If he's saying he rejects the 'cis' label as a human being, that means he falls under the 'trans' label, so congrats on being trans I guess, can't wait for the gender reveal party 🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@sad-xh3cd]

ALSO if you see this Rachel, this video was incredibly well-spoken and you were way more comprehensive than I could have been in this situation, cheers have a good one 💙

[@ReadswithRachel]

I’m pinning this comment because it is spot on. Thanks for being here ♥️

[@mischarowe]

Cis is still a label. Scientific terms can be called labels too. It's what humans do - we label things (and people, yes) so we can easily refer to and differentiate, later. It's just a classification system and it's fine. I call myself a woman, BiAce, and am an atheist. Those are all labels. Homosapien is a scientific term but it is also a label - we use it thus. Cis just literally means not trans. All these people whining about being called cis are just uneducated &/or ignorant. And transphobic. My two cents. :) Edit: obviously I'm talking cis/trans in the context of gender identity. :)

[@meimeimei49]

Just a minor correction on the trans and cis fatty acids, it’s about the double bond. When two constituent groups are on the same side of a double bond (could be hydrogens by default, could be other things), then they’re “cis” but if they’re on opposite sides from each other, they’re trans. It is not about the cell since the nomenclature is applied on a molecular level. I’m sorry if that comes across as pedantic, but I just want to head off potential misinformation that others might use to undermine your point.

[@sad-xh3cd]

@@meimeimei49 OH SWEET! Do you mind if I copy paste this? I'm actually just in Bio in uni right now, so this helps me with learning as well LMAO

[@joshuab9226]

Imagine getting into a fight with the Holocaust Memorial and not having a single moment of self-reflection.

[@animeotaku307]

You’d think that’d be the moment someone begins wonder “am I a baddie?” You’d think.

[@cameronspalding9792]

@@animeotaku307that reminds me of that scene from the ‘Are we the baddies’ sketch

[@llynxfyre]

@@animeotaku307 oh the irony lmao

[@CezzL]

I'm an English teacher and fought so hard to have The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas taken off the curriculum for Year 8s after finding out it had replaced Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl. No-one would listen to me and said that students preferred to read something "more modern that they could relate to." So glad I don't work for that school anymore.

[@missfayz4523]

Omg, good on you! That is horrible. I'm all for raising interest in students by introducing modern books, but maybe don't remove the literal voices of the harmed.

[@wa11ie]

the boy in the striped pyjamas is also a very heavy and overall not a great read, i read it in 8th grade in class and hated every second of it. i did not relate the tiniest bit to it. meanwhile we skipped anne frank‘s diary, who was an actual teenage girl. that aspect alone makes her more relateable to a bunch of 8th graders as a narrator than a 9 year old boy who only ever acts naive and stupid.

[@rubeuspotter719]

My teacher had us read Night by Ellie Wiesel(sorry for spelling it wrong) and suggest we took the time to read Anne Frank’s diary of a young girl in our own time. Both on which have been written by Jewish people, one who had survived and one who wrote about their life before being captured and dying.

[@BEAT_and_DELETE]

But isn't the diary of Anne Frank highly edited by a man?

[@rubeuspotter719]

@@BEAT_and_DELETE yes and no. She edited some of the diary herself(like went back through it before being captured and changed parts of it), but I think her dad did as well. And of course it’s going to be translated in English by somebody because I’m pretty sure she wrote her diary in German

[@Jay-mh9ej]

I’m German and one of the (many) things I hated about the boy in the striped panamas was how Bruno confuses Auschwitz with “out with” among other things. All of these things that sound similar in English do not sound similar AT ALL in German, which is the language every character would be speaking. That just again goes to show that the author never even considered the book from a perspective that wasn’t his own

[@Hungarycloud]

Also calling the Fuhrer "The Fury" like this kid has no idea who Hitler is. It was so incredibly bad and inaccurate.

[@TiffWaffles]

At first when I was reading the book, I thought that Bruno had a speech impediment, but then I realised that it was just the author being a terrible shitty mcshit. I was super young when I first read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, and didn't even realise that Germans would have pronounced certain words differently compared to the English. I lost friends over this book, lol. Every time I make the argument that Boyne is problematic and that this book is even more so, I always strike a nerve and get somebody screaming rage at me for hating on their favourite book. Got banned from a bookish community once for voicing my opinion that the book should never have been allowed to be published. Not only is the author super ignorant- he (and by extension, his work) is super offensive.

[@voguishthrone5887]

I always found that a weird part of the book. We had to read the book and watch the movie. I’ll admit, the movie hit me hard but it always seemed a bit… fake? Like one of those historical movies that teachers would throw on that are kinda historical but are really only good for bringing interest to a topic

[@MissRyukkie]

You can't have a 'both sides' argument if one side is being denied their humanity.

[@macolof362]

Don’t you want to know what motivated them? If you don’t understand how people dehumanise others, how can you ever stop it? Lazy outrage. Engaging with both sides does not mean agreeing with bot sides. It means of study. How could this possibly have happened?

[@xandergonzo4853]

@@macolof362 "engaging with both sides doesn't mean agreeing with both sides" Yes exactly, that's why it's needed to keep the "other side's" humanity in mind. It's fine if you just misread but if you're trying to be the enlightened centrist just don't.

[@Bee-es1ys]

There is a reason this isn't one of the books fascist groups go after in an attempt to ban, compared to books like Night, Maus, The Diary of Anne Frank, etc. They know this book effectively 'both-sides' the issue, even though there's absolutely zero way that should have been possible when one side was locked behind barbed wire the entire time.

[@johnathancurry6993]

Honestly, everyone needs to be exposed to Night, that book really effected me after reading it for class. I'm still haunted by its horror and the survival of those whom have to relive that terrible time. May they find happiness now, and may we never forget the terrible acts of Fascism, nor repeat its horrific past.

[@sarahouillette1357]

@@johnathancurry6993 Yeah, that book definitely did something to me after reading it * shudders * it scarred me.

[@Alskdoenfkemfnek]

^^ boom there it is

[@split776]

@@johnathancurry6993 iirc Night was *toned down* in the English version. Eli Wiezel's original drafts were written in Yiddish and called "And The World Was Silent". I hope the book gets a more accurate translation into English one day, a Jewish survivor's rage shouldn't be snuffed for the sake of the West's comfortable narrative of being "the heroes of WWII"

[@noellestradamus]

"my book is fiction so it won't have an impact" also "my book has had a worldwide impact" WHICH ONE IS IT JOHN

[@RedVanBuskirk]

I would bet money that by "I have been researching the Holocaust since 15," what he really meant was "When I was 15 my high school taught me about the holocaust"

[@ReadswithRachel]

I’m 99% sure you’re right

[@stinks7065]

That or reading really pulpy "historical" books.... The kind that might be written by actual historians but still exhibit very little actual insight from the writers to the point you start wondering if that person is even qualified to speak on the subject. And there are SO many of those about the holocaust

[@IMadeAPromise]

Honestly I am so done with the "both sides" argument. It usually comes from people whose family never experienced pain like the Holocaust. I heard horror stories of my people, my family, being slaughtered like animals, and my family STILL suffers from this event. I'm Polish/Jewish so all my family knows is horror and pain from their history. I can't explain how my blood boils when I hear things like "Oh but they were brainwashed", I don't care, they slaughtered my people without remorse.

[@sarahouillette1357]

I'm so sorry your family had to go through that. Hugs for you and your family! ❤

[@mariaaguadoball3407]

That we're still at the point where we're "both sides"-ing the Holocaust is profoundly depressing.

[@Vesperad0]

@@mariaaguadoball3407 people have enough empathy and understanding for cruelty, but never when it comes to undeniable victims. I will never understand why their apathy, despite it not being human nature, is so popular.

[@mariaaguadoball3407]

@@Vesperad0 Me, either.

[@annyphoenix2099]

I'm so sorry your family went through that. I'm Czech and my family is not jewish and still the memories that are still with us are horrible. Just recently my grandma shared still having nightmares about the time when she was a child and a Nazi soldier tried to rape her mother (my great grandma) and a jewish man who was secretly living in their house risked his life and killed the soldier. Our whole bloodline could have ended that day. Hearing stories like this makes it impossible to see the horror of WWII as abstracts stories, like many people seem to...

[@inklingofadream]

I can't help but think of Stephen King, having his school shooting book Rage implicated by proximity in a couple of actual school shootings, deciding that the most appropriate thing to do with a book that might be causing harm is pull it from publication... versus John, having multiple respected institutions tell him his book IS causing harm, no "might" or even past tense about it, doubling and tripling down. It's not like there's no roadmap for how to deal with things like this, John just isn't interested.

[@ReadswithRachel]

THIS!!!!! This comment right here.

[@IlkaWaffy]

i immediately thought of King too! I personally love his work (i even read Rage) but he sure has his own issues (regarding how female characters are depicted/described) but at least he pulled a possibly harmful book instead of doubling down

[@WhaleManMan]

No institution worthy of respect would call for censorship. Books don't hurt people, people do. Focus on changing peoples minds rather than this wasteful virtue signaling.

[@justbrowsing9697]

​@@WhaleManMan Stopping the spread of misinformation and hate is changing the minds of people. Get out of here with these censorship complaints

[@bijoux873]

@WhaleManMan it's not censorship to stop publishing something because it it factually inaccurate, and if you think that is useless virtue signaling you have missed the point.

[@Banuna]

Imagine fighting your superior portrayal of the holocaust with a *HOLOCAUST MUSEUM*

[@abhainn35]

That's like saying the Hamiltion fandom's interprtation is a more accurate depiction of history than historians who studied the Revolutionary War.

[@QueenErrr]

This man really just fully typed "the eye of an oktorok" and "red tail of lizalfos" and did not think twice about it. Where was his editor??? Busy playing trial of the master sword? Lmao

[@ayajade6683]

Maybe breath of the wild given the timing of the book. was the editor just drinking to get this over with seriously?

[@orangejuice782]

let's hope nintendo somehow finds out and kicks his ass into debt

[@angryotter9129]

Sounds like a lawsuit to me.

[@nimuehawk]

Given that it was covered in the U.K. News I am sure they knew

[@ayajade6683]

@@nimuehawk could be waiting until he adds an extra gotcha like Zelda in the acknowledgement or so many copies sold their lawyers are almost as ruthless as the IRS

[@leightoningstrike6971]

I am so embarrassed that I thought this book was from the late 80s. I was all like "I guess it aged poorly" oh boy was I wrong! This book didn't age badly it arrived as sour milk. Excellent video!

[@ReadswithRachel]

“It arrived as sour milk” I’m deceased

[@mischarowe]

"it arrived as sour milk" Good one. :)

[@flower123wf]

it really be competing with pink sauce 😅

[@SarahAbramova]

Do you write? Because "it arrived as sour milk" is 10/10 top tier imo lol.

[@rhyleebruce4075]

At least sour milk could be used to make some banging cheese, this book can knly be used as an example of what not to do ever lmao

[@sirfurbingtonthe23rd4]

As a trans person, I'm very comforted by your no nonsense attitude towards transphobia. Not many creators are so vehemently forthcoming and straightforward about taking no shit about it. It makes me and other trans people feel very welcomed.

[@the_sky_is_blue_and_so_am_I]

Another trans person here and I agree!!

[@glitterberserker1029]

In high school we watched the boy in the striped pajamas but I got the impression from my teacher if he was allowed to show us another movie instead he would have. At the end he gleefully told us the nazis son probably would have grown up to be a nazi anyway so we shouldn't feel bad about it. A+ teaching Mr Hicks.

[@my_girl_seraphine5294]

Your teacher wasn’t wrong

[@Starlight-ue8jy]

Wow 🤩

[@Cube-xm6vt]

"Everyone deserves to have their voice heard without being instantly demonized" "I think your book was dumb" "Stop screaming like jackals!!!! You are the new dictators!!!!!"

[@masonallen3961]

I remember when that Tennessee school board was removing Maus by Art Spiegelman from it's curriculum because of some brief nudity and a few curse words, somebody responded it wasn't that bad because they were replacing it with The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I wanted to yell at my computer screen. It's already problematic enough to treat Holocaust fiction as an appropriate replacement for true stories written by survivors (or in Maus's case written by the son of two survivors based on interviews with his father). But especially one as inaccurate and sympathetic to the perpetrators of the Holocaust. It upsets me because I know this book is going to be seen as an appropriate replacement for Holocaust narratives that are frequently banned from schools like Maus, Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and, Night by Elie Wiesel. I can't believe some parents don't want their children to read Anne Frank because she briefly talks about her genitals (she was a 13 year old girl who was just curious about her body so if you think that's "sexual" that says a lot about you) but are okay with them reading a story that portrays the Nazis and the people who supported them in a much more favorable light then what they deserve.

[@ReadswithRachel]

I think that this topic in and of itself deserves a video because the fact that revisionist history is allowed but actual non-fiction about the holocaust is not allowed is very revealing of how deep antisemitism runs

[@moustik31]

TBF, having genocidal White supremacists humanised is in sync. with US history, where Confederation paraphernalia and anything "pioneer" are still portrayed in a romanticised positive way. And I do believe, that regular US parents arent ready to unpack their own history with systemic racism and genocide or have their children do so.

[@SilentSong123]

I picked up Maus because of the book ban happening I read it. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it from a review standpoint but stories like Maus are so extremely important.

[@lollyberry007]

One of the best authors in terms of owning up to past mistakes is Rick Riordan. I’ve never read his books, but he’s very transparent on his website about not being fully educated on some subjects when he first started writing, and how he’s always trying to do better moving forward. He’s also defended the cast of the new Percy Jackson series with a PASSION, and strongly champions diversity in media. He’s done collaborations with nonwhite authors who’ve written stories about their own cultures within his literary universe. Rick is a real one.

[@ArikaNrazzle]

I love Rick! His next book he has collaborated with a non binary author, I'm so excited for May!

[@nataliyanabakova7419]

I will DIE for Rick Riordan, that man's work shaped my childhood and he seems to be such a good person.

[@ettaetta439]

​@@nataliyanabakova7419sameee I'm so glad I grew up reading PJO and not Harry Potter because if HP was my fva book series growing up, I'd be heartbroken right now.

[@averysspookshowspectacular6205]

​@ettaetta439 As someone who's favorite book series was Harry Potter growing up (and, ironically, is trans), I can confirm there was a lot of heartbreak. I wish I had been born just a few years later because Percy Jackson deals with the parts of history and mythology I was into as a kid, but I was just a little too old to be in the age range when they came out.

[@ettaetta439]

@@averysspookshowspectacular6205 My condolences 🫡 we are all victim of at least one YA author acting up in our childhood. For me it was Stephanie Meyers lmao

[@frenzy2061]

Oh my god the ending with the Breath of the Wild ingredients is actually killing me. Did this man not stop for one second and think... wait what the hell is an octorok? I'm in tears.

[@JuliaN-ti9zv]

„hightail lizard“ and „silent princess plant“ had me dead💀😂

[@Acidfrog475]

Maybe he was too hungry to notice, idk /ref

[@renwhit100]

thank you for specifiying rroma and sinti people as victims of the holocaust

[@ohhmangos]

Exactly!!

[@hyasynthetic7945]

As a trans dude, I don't hate the idea of My Brother's Name is Jessica *in concept*, as being about what it's like to be a family member to a trans person. My transition period was incredibly hard on my (very supportive) family, and I do think there is some value in discussing the effects that such a thing can have on the people who love and care about you. People screw up because there's years of habit that they have to unlearn. They don't understand how you feel, and maybe haven't fully examined their own biases. It doesn't mean they're not trying, it doesn't mean they don't love you, and it doesn't mean they're transphobic. It just means that everyone involved is going through a difficult learning process and needs to find a way to understand what everyone else needs. (For clarity: I'm talking exclusively about supportive-if-confused families here; if the understanding is "you need to go back in the closet and never leave", that is an entirely different discussion.) Like, there's a very simple way to fix the protagonist of this book and present the paragraph above thematically. An arc of "I don't accept my brother's transition and I only begrudgingly call him Jessica because otherwise he gets upset with me" to "I love my sister and while I don't understand all of her struggles in life, I'm happy to support her and help educate people who thought like I used to". To drive home the above, the ending line could be "My sister's name is Jessica". Very little would even have to change about the mom's situation, except she doesn't force Jessica back into the closet and instead embraces Jessica's identity at the end because her daughter's happiness is more important than her career. In that way, it'd promote understanding, acceptance, and personal growth. It'd show a healthier, if flawed, family learning to deal with a child who doesn't conform to their expectations -- a theme which could then be extrapolated out to apply to other children and teenagers who don't fit into the 'norm'. I came up with this on the spot as I was typing this. It is not exactly a difficult theme to stumble on. You'd have to be a self-obsessed jackass who'd write and defend an anti-Semitic book to miss it -- oh, wait.

[@ReadswithRachel]

Your last sentence nails it

[@noodlepoodle3582]

My thoughts exactly! And your fixes are perfect!

[@aud7593]

yo why did the concept of the last line in a book mirror the title in that way make me tear up omg. this COULD have been good book like. in someone else's hands

[@ohhmangos]

These fixes would've made the book extremely powerful. It is upsetting how those changes are so freaking easy and yet the author decided he had to be transphobic. I could even see it becoming a series with other children who don't fit the 'norm.' Like, "My brother's partner is Jack" which focuses on a kid coming out as gay to his religious parents and the focus is perhaps on one of the parents trying to understand their kid. At the end of the book they accept their kid and his partner, Jack, and even make a wonderful speech at their wedding about how perfect they are for each other, showing the lessons they have learned.

[@emmanarotzky6565]

How is it hard on anyone? My sister is trans and I don’t know how having a trans relative could be “hard”. Like, it makes you afraid of transphobic politicians and nervous about there being bullies in their school, but a name and a pronoun and a word like brother/sister/sibling are not difficult habits to break. It doesn’t take that long to change those habits. Now my aunt is also trans and her transition was a bit hard on my mom because she transitioned during a time when doctors recommended creating an alter ego and then switching back and forth while gradually decreasing the amount of time you spent as your deadname alter ago. So my mom was told “your brother Deadname is going to be replaced by Realname, who is a different person”. So that would be traumatic. But it’s not the 80’s anymore and an individual changing their name and pronouns isn’t disruptive, it’s obviously the same person and nothing changes about your relationship.

[@Smulenify]

As a roma woman (and part sinti) I'm glad you mentioned us as well, we're often forgotten when talking about ww2.

[@milchreis9554]

When I moved to the UK from Germany as a child teachers recommended I read "the boy in the striped pyjamas", to get me into books. How incredibly tone def to ask a German kid to read that! In Germany we are still very somber and serious about the past and that book would've definitely convinced me never to read again.

[@GentlethemJoey]

Oh yikes! Some folks simply cannot read the room before they make suggestions. 🤦🏻‍♀️

[@ohhmangos]

A teacher forced me, a Jew, to read it as well claiming I'd "really relate" to it. I hated that teacher.

[@34thee9]

the face i made when i heard “jk rowling is a trans activist”... my mouth was agape for a good minute..... it felt like if suddenly all my music playlists were replaced with alvin and the chipmunks songs

[@boneyardbunny]

Can confirm as an Academic who focuses on Holocaust literature that you cannot move two steps without coming across an academic who is absolutely tearing Boyne and the book apart. If he actually cared about the Holocaust even a little bit, he would've taken the criticism into account because there's papers upon papers in our field talking about how genuinely damaging his book is on the education and memory of the Holocaust

[@ronanodonovan3673]

What I'm remembering now is a piece of text from (I think?) Tumblr, about how "respect" can mean "to treat like a person" or "to treat like an authority" John Boyne claims he wants to be treated like a person, but he acts like he wants to be treated like an authority. Oof. (The red dye anecdote is a hoot tho, and may it's spread never cease)

[@alisaurus4224]

The second part of the tumblr quote is about the implication that “unless you treat me as an authority, i won’t treat you as a person”

[@ney3878]

I’m from Germany and I read this book when I was 16 for school. To be honest, we all thought that the end was sad but it was very clearly fiction to my whole class. I mean it’s obvious but German schools go very in-depth when it comes to Hitler. So I’m very amazed that some people could think that German children didn’t know at all what was happening (Especially when the parents had a somewhat high status in the regime.)

[@ReadswithRachel]

I have people in my TikTok comments right now telling me that they think that German children would not have known. I am shocked by how widespread the misinformation is.

[@ney3878]

That’s sad because we lean from a very young age who Hitler was and what he did. Especially that we should never repeat what happened. I’m confident that the most German children that read the book thought it was pure fiction.

[@ney3878]

And especially the children then, knew what was happening. Most of our great grandparents where in the Hitler-Jugend so there is no denying that.

[@lydialuton4402]

@@ney3878 Yeah and considering the role the kids parents play in the atrocities, they would definitely be telling their kid those beliefs. They would want their child to think the "correct" way.

[@zab416]

If it's coming from U.S. readers, we get our horrible history glossed over big time. I'm not Japanese but I think they're another example of a large country that does this, maybe even worse. Also, the U.S. helped cover up Japanese war crimes from WWII a lot more than German war crimes from that war, so I kind of group the U.S. and Japan together on this revisionist history stuff. There aren't that many Japanese commenters on KZbin but if any former Japanese school kids happen to see this and weigh in, please share your history class memories if you want to. But anyway, I suspect other countries do this to their students too. So it might be that people who were U.S. school kids think "Well, Native American genocide and slavery were glossed over for us, I guess that's the norm, German school kids must grow up to have a harsh awakening too, that must be awful to learn this all this when you're 18 or 21 or whatever." Just my theory on it, anyway.

[@masonm4266]

the notion that “fiction cant have inaccuracies” is… so disingenuous that i feel like im losing my mind?

[@pory-z]

i didn't know about this book until the us banned Maus in schools, and people pointed to the boy in striped pajamas as a better book. a book about the holocaust that makes you sympathize with the nazis. and they make school children read it. jesus christ. anyway i read Maus as a child and i'm glad i did. yes it made me very sad but is there any other way to teach about the holocaust ? americans are so scared of children feeling negative emotions. children are able to understand and process complex themes. if you want to teach about the horrors of war and genocide, sanding down the edges of the topic to make it more palatable does your program a disservice.

[@ReadswithRachel]

“Americans are so scared of children feeling negative emotions” TRUE and it doesn’t do them any good, it perpetuates issues we already have with emotional intelligence

[@valerieysabel123]

The fact that if I, a non Zelda fan, would be so confused by that ingredient list and would google what an ‘oktorok’ looks like and this dude just went ‘ah yes, makes sense’ and wrote it in a PUBLISHED book?! Amazing

[@cassieisnothere]

I'm so confused by the fact this got approved by editors. How did nobody catch that lmao

[@bonesey4954]

"The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" was mandatory reading at my school and I absolutely hated it. I still remember how there was an interview with Boyne attached to the back of it and how he said the events in his book absolutely could have happened. And I just thought that is fucking ridiculous. The plot of that book is so stupid and harmful. It both misrepresented Jewish people and German people and I remember writing an exam about it where I just went on a history rant for the entirety of it. Something like this should not be mandatory to read at school.

[@GentlethemJoey]

And if you live in a district where schools have to teach it, I think it’s the teacher’s job to help the students see the historical problems with it.

[@RosesAmbience]

Got to the part where he calls JK Rowling a "supporter of trans rights" and felt physically ill. The fact that he separates "trans rights" from "women's rights" when talking about someone who is most openly bigoted towards trans women is telling as well. Trans women's rights are women's rights and trans rights are human rights. Period.

[@ruthgibbs6822]

We got the choice between Striped Pyjamas by Boyne, or Night by Ellie Wiesel. There were a lot of issues I had with that English teacher, but I commend her for this- Most of the curriculum for Striped Pyjamas was comparing it to Night, which is by an actual holocost survivor, and ripping Boyne's inaccuracies to absolute fuckin' shreds. I picked Night, on my mother's recommendation, and holy damn it has inspired a lifelong hate for Boyne. Removing the kudos of this teacher, I got in a deep bit of trouble for writing a book report on Maus at one point. Not primarily due to the subject matter, but more because she had to be convinced a graphic novel counted as literature. Fun times.

[@issyparker8038]

Thank you for pointing out how poorly researched and unempathetic the boy in the striped pyjamas was to actual Jewish people and Holocaust victims. My high school class was made to watch the film at 14 and after learning about what the holocaust was from reading Horrible Histories and being deeply affected by it (the comic strip which showed Jewish children being lied to where they're going, asking to go home and the final panel being a gas chamber still haunts me to this day as a 25 year old), I pointed out to my teacher and class how insulting and inaccurate this was to the holocaust survivors as I felt disgusted by the film and I was extremely bullied about it, being called insensitive, a holocaust denier and physically assaulted by my classmates as a result of standing up for people whose lives were lost and being disrespected by the author by not correctly portraying history and making the son of a SS commander more symapathic than the literal holocaust victim! The only good thing that came out of that was my teacher defended me and agreed but didn't have a choice as it was a part of the school curriculum, but when a children's history book is more well researched and empathic about the holocaust and those lost and still haunted because of it, you're in trouble. Also, absolutely deceased from laughing about stealing the dye recipe from Zelda!

[@Divinely_Damned]

honestly, as a transman, after all of that shit the botw Ingredients is just fucking hilarious. He really- that’s so- it’s cathartic honestly

[@TheScaredLittleScholar]

“It’s a novel, for christ’s sake! Things are supposed to happen” = “But if I can’t exploit trans trauma as a cis person in my crappy new book, how am I supposed to make money?? 😢😢😢”

[@ohhmangos]

"Its fiction!!" = "I wanted to profit off of Jewish, Roma, and Sinti people's trauma because I have a weird obsession with their mass genocide"

[@annelooney1090]

The Wikipedia page for The Boy In Striped Pajamas claims that Boyne "wrote the entire first draft in two and a half days, without sleeping much", which to me seems like a polite way of saying he was on a coke binge. Anyway, I feel like people mention being made to read this book at relatively older ages, like late middle school or even high school. Surely at that age the "it's just a book for kids so who cares how good it is" argument doesn't hold up? You can read Primo Levi at that age IMHO. Or even better-researched juvenile fiction that makes sense.

[@nataliejarosz9360]

In my senior year of high school, we read Night for English class.

[@theMyRadiowasTaken]

maybe he shouldve slept on it a bit more

[@erinlewis6901]

I actually got really attached to Holocaust non/fiction after reading Number the Stars in foster care, and really identifying with these stories because I was a foster kid who was told similar lies "you're only going somewhere for a few days" and "don't worry, you'll be able to come back and get the rest of your things." Foster Care with bad Foster Parents has a "be good and you be rewarded" vibe and it's just as uncomfortable as you think. I'm not saying Foster Care and The Holocaust are analogous, but the similarities are disturbingly shocking. It took years of therapy for me to understand why I'd grown so attached to Holocaust stories at such a young age. No one was really writing about foster care, and the stories that did exist was just nonstop p*dophelia and gross boys watching girls in showers and I was more on the financial and emotional abuse side of the foster care system. The Book Thief is quite literally my favorite novel because it really captured a lot of the feelings I had. That being said, I super lucked out on the quality of novels that I encountered during this phase, and as I grew older started feeling really weird about how suddnely there was SO many holocaust novels. The Boy Who Dared comes from a partial diary of a Hitler Youth recovered, Devil's Arithmatic is fiction but written by a jewish woman, The Diary of Anne Franke, Night, The Night Crossing, Day After Night, and many more that I'm probably forgetting. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was also in this phase, and I think it's because it was nestled in legitimate and sincere holocaust fiction, that my interpretation of it is so different that it never occured to me to interpret it as a "both-ways" kind of thinking as you mentioned in the beginning of the video. Like, to me it was one of the most horrifying novels out of all that I'd read because it reminded the reader that these nazis were treating this like a day job, and were absolutely and monsteriously casual in comitting crimes against humanity. It helped bridge an understanding to me that monsters look like people. To me, I was reading a novel from the villains perspective, and how uncomfortable it was to see them act so normal. My sympathy for Bruno ended at "this is a child" because I knew critically that if the S.S. officer didn't want his son to get accidentallly gassed, he shouldn't have been a nazi. His mother crying didn't make me feel anything, because she was complicit. That being said, I didn't know he wasn't Jewish. At that young age it never occured to me that someone would inaaccurately represent a well documented part of history. I'm horrified at his reaction to people criticising it, and I'm horrified that The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was not the "Holocaust Told from the Eyes of the Villains" was not the intention of the piece. That it wasn't the "Monsters Have Normal Faces" message I thought it to be when I read it as a 14-yaer-old. and given his stank behavior towards it, this kind of re-interpretation doesn't deserve to be given to the novel. Like, I don't want to come off as defending it because I'm most certaintly not, and I hate that what had always been a dark window into how we imagine monsters of history was just some anti-semetic garbage that could have had merit if he was a better writer.

[@unfortunateonejohnson8114]

Hey, sorry you went through that. As another person out of foster care and going through therapy. (For completely different reasons then yours.) I'm here to support you! I know you probably won't reply to this but wish ya luck on your journey ahead!

[@BlisaBLisa]

I really like Number the Stars, its cool to see it mentioned :) we were assigned to read it in elementary school and it stayed in my memory so I bought a copy a few years ago to re-read and I still like it. I also interpreted boy in the striped pajames the same way you described. Though I didnt read the book (I tried to but the writing style was too annoying so I never finished it lol) I watched the movie. It was genuinely surprising to me when I first learned the response people had was to sympathise with the nazis. The movie to me felt like it was meant to show us the villains point of view and that its meant to make us uncomfortable seeing that these evil people were also still people and had families and did normal banal stuff all while committing horrible atrocities. But I also did see this movie when I was older, which I know many people first read this book as kids. So I had pretty decent knowledge on the holocaust by then (and im also jewish) so I instinctively feel discomfort seeing the nazi characters and never really think to sympathise with them. I can imagine younger kids who havent yet learned much about the holocaust, especially if its being taught badly and info is being suppressed from them, might sympathise with the nazi characters being shown. I agree with all the criticism of the movie/book, especially with how most people who read it came away from it with more sympathy for nazis and more of a “both sides” view of the holocaust. Ive heard Conspiracy (2001) is a good movie, its about nazis at the Wannsee Conference and has a focous on that “casual mosntrousity” you talked about

[@g_n7777]

I haven't read the book, but I saw the film a while ago when somebody once uploaded it to youtube. I had a similar interpretation of it as you did: I couldn't feel bad for the parents, since they were complicit in the atrocity that ended up killing their son and I didn't buy that they would suddenly have a complete reevaluation of their views because of that. I assumed and continued to assume until this video, that that was the point of it. However, I already found it really alarming that the comment section was full of arguments about how the Nazi characters must have had at least some humanity left in them (totally like if they were talking about the redemption arc of a comic book villain or something). There was for example a particularly weird scene they kept analyzing where the mom talks with an SS officer and he is telling her the real purpose of the camp and she looks shocked and appalled and he has this apologetic look on his face.

[@theMyRadiowasTaken]

please write /that/ book, itd be better

[@hearmeout1767]

I know this is super late but I read a book called Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes Courter and it's a memoir about her experience in foster care. It was pretty good, you might like it. She also wrote a sequel about her adult life

[@morgansheehy1772]

imagine having beef with the holocaust museum and still thinking you're a good person.

[@vivs3538]

The way he smiles in the picture you put, I just know that he goes around telling people he’s a Nice Guy(T) and then does an awkward laugh

[@ScoutOlson]

Do we really have to stoop to insulting peoples' looks?

[@vivs3538]

Being a “Nice Guy” is an attitude, not based on looks at all. And when he’s smiling all innocent like that, presenting an attitude of being good and righteous and not having done anything wrong, when he has multiple people and institutions correcting him and telling him the harm he’s doing, then yes, I feel like a can comment on that attitude and hypocrisy

[@mischarowe]

It's "funny" that he says fiction can't be historically inaccurate since he literally wrote based on historical things. So no, he is definitely historically inaccurate.

[@cal6137]

sad that it takes children suffering to get people to even consider sympathizing at times. and in this case it just did more harm to their memory

[@melodye14]

I'm glad they never had us read this book in school. It was mainly focused on "Night" by Elie Wiesel, a much better work, written by an actual Holocaust survivor. I've only seen the movie for The Boy In The Stripe Pyjamas and it was uncomfortable but mainly in the heavy and visceral way the ending was shown. I definitely see how the book and film stories are inaccurate and harmful, especially with the excellent blog article you shared. One of the big movie flaws would not only be the inaccurate characterizations, but the assumption that everyone who is taking in the material knows what the Holocaust is,how horrible it is,why it's a bad thing that Schmul is there, etc. The effects of the inaccuracies are all the worst for anyone who didn't have real Holocaust education before taking in the film. It's disgusting how defensive, arrogant, pretentious, and condescending Boyne is when faced with this feedback, especially from the Holocaust museum and the trans community. You're absolutely right when you said no media exists in a vacuum and that's something a lot of unapologetically problematic figures like to pretend to be ignorant of when faced with criticism of their work. They minimize saying it's just a book, or bringing up the internet like he constantly does. So many backflips to avoid admitting any wrongdoing.

[@queenmotherhane4374]

The movie version was one of those unusual cases in which the movie far outshone the book. I interpreted the gutting finale as “See? This is what you’re making happen, you Nazi bastards.”

[@maggiedk]

As soon as he made that "death and r*pe threats" comment I KNEW he was in JK's camp. She's used that exact wording so many times that it's basically a transphobic dogwhistle at this point. It's a way to victimize violent transphobes based on the small minority of people who take criticism of them too far. I highly recommend Council of Geeks' recent video about JK Rowling and Graham Norton. They talk about a recent instance where she used this language against someone who hadn't even criticized her.

[@mglarson5936]

Second that video! It’s great!

[@angelaholmes8888]

I really enjoyed that video

[@JekyViews]

Yeah, Vera did a solid job with that video!

[@LaineMann]

Who the fuck attacks Graham Norton!?

[@the_sky_is_blue_and_so_am_I]

Have you seen this TERF by Jessie Gender is fantastic!!

[@spacecloud6979]

The points you made about the use of the word "respect" were totally spot on. It reminded me of that quote that circulated a while back about how when some people say "if you don't respect me, I won't respect you.", what they actually mean is "if you don't treat me like an authority then I won't treat you like a human being." I think that this really applies to his attitude towards and dismissal of any online criticism/critique, especially from the marginalised communities which his inaccurate and harmful representations discuss. It really goes to show what kind of person he is. He is asking for respect while being disrespectful. You really know a person has gone too far and has become way too egotistical when they try to argue with the Holocaust Memorial about historical accuracy.

[@annjay2581]

The dress dying part absolutely killed me, that cannot be real 😭😭😭

[@ReadswithRachel]

Lol it absolutely is

[@PokemonkaDub]

My great-great aunt was in Aushwitz (for beeing Polish not Jewish, so a minor crime). I find the stories of "both side" really annoying, especially since we recently had a scandal of politicians and some international organizations using a phrase "Polish concentration camps" because of the location of Aushwitz, even tho Poland had nothing to do with them, beeing under occupation and NEVER surrending till the end of the war. Everything was done there by force. Same problem I have with the stories of "that one good nazi who helps Jews" or the shit of "Tatooist of Aushwits" which is super gross. It reminds me of "I was just following orders" excuse every nazi soldier had after the war ended.

[@themanbehindthecurtains]

I'm glad I found out about the 'trans rights' book before I saw it on a shelf. I hadn't heard of it (thank goodness), and I'm pretty sure seeing it in public would have made me feel sick to my stomach. Still reeling over the dye scene. Even if you don't know LOZ, how do you read the word oktorok or lizalfos and think 'yeah, that's a real life word.'

[@user-ip9jq9zw9c]

as a trans person and a jew, i am constantly comforted by your total lack of tolerance for any antisemitism or transphobia (and your commitment to spelling antisemitism right!!). thank you for this ♥︎

[@StargazerSkyscraper]

I was raised Jewish and homeschooled (the nearest Jewish school was 45+mins away and my family were so broke we didn't have working AC for 10+ years, sooo yeah, not in the budget lol). I vaguely remember my mom getting two DVDs from Blockbuster, back when they were trying to beat Netflix with mail-in rentals: The Striped PJs and The Devil's Arithmetic. I was up late one night and peaked into the living room to see that she and my dad were watching PJs, probably screening it in advance to figure out how best to use it as a teaching tool. Needless to say, my siblings and I were never shown PJs and watched Arithmetic instead. That was for discussion material, though, like to help us speculate how events like the Holocaust could relate to religious holidays like Passover, what it could teach us about oppression and the after-effects of such atrocities, what it meant for us in the here-and-now, etc. As far as studying the actual event, we were just taught the history, taken to the Holocaust Museum to learn more, and attended a talk where a living survivor spoke about her experience of it, not given fictional reading material.

[@sleepopeepo]

Soooo weiiiird how John doesn't like to referred to as cis because he's "just a man", but is perfectly happy to refer to trans women as trans instead of "just women". What's the difference, bud? Is it maybe, possibly, just ever so theoretically, because you don't actually see trans people as being real members of of their gender? MAYBE?!?!

[@katebriggs3330]

I gave a scathing review on Goodreads about the boy in the striped pajamas, and got called a Nazi in my DMs. People also try to defend it as "well it's history fiction, it's not going to 100% accurate." Well, it definitely shouldn't be 0% accurate either

[@flameshade7601]

I'm screaming at the last sentence, spot on. XD I will be quoting that at anyone who comes at me with the "not 100% accurate" defense in the future.

[@argyle5906]

My German teacher absolutely hated the boy in the striped pyjamas. She refused to show it or even discuss it in class.

[@ductape723]

As a person who has actually studied cloth dying, his description of dye ingredients *still* cracks me up to this day, and I read about this ages ago. But what I really want to know is, what are the lightfastness properties of Hylian shrooms and what mordant is recommended? 🤣 (also technically possible he could’ve thought those were weird plant names, a lot of plants have some bizarre colloquial names, he still could’ve clicked on more than one source, or even properly read the one he did click on 🤭)

[@ghoulchan7525]

Well i guess whatever the Blue pigment used for Link's champion Tunic must be hella powerful since that garment is like 100 years old in the game when you get it from Impa. Since it hasn't faded or discolored from age. Can't judge the rest of the clothing you get in the game much since most you buy in stores. Except a few you get from quests.

[@smilyflower5438]

Thankfully the narrative on the boy in the striped pyjamas is changing, as my history teacher used it as an example of why historical fiction shouldn’t be taken at face value. She also mentioned how Bruno was centered in the novel. On an unrelated note, Boyne makes me embarrassed to be Irish.

[@kitty_catra]

As an Irish person, I did read this when I was younger and I can remember feeling bad for Bruno and I'm so glad that I got to learn more about the situation and I hope that we teach children more about the Holocaust without using the book as a gateway

[@aivilo9892]

My first issues was "Its fiction, it cant contain inaccuracies" bullshit, you wrote historical fiction on top of that. Saying Jk was pro trans rights was the most tone def thing I have ever heard. And WoooooooW, literally just skimmed the first google result and ended up exposing that you dont do research at all. you cant just, how would you not Notice???? Even if he never played Zelda before how did none of those words sound suspicious enough to warrant a double take, a brief moment of "wait, whats the source for this info" Im just, flabbergasted.

[@christopheralessandro6700]

I read 'The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas' in middle school (probably 5th or 6th grade) as it was part of the curriculum. We also read 'Number the Stars' by Lois Lowery. Obviously at the time we weren't going too in depth on the Holocaust and what had happened, but we had known enough to know that what happened to Jewish people wasn't right. Reading it then I had felt some type of way about the way John portrayed the Germans because I knew that they were the ones behind the Holocaust, but figured Bruno was the 'rare exception'. It wasn't until I reread it in high school my sophomore year that I realized the way John was obviously trying to gain sympathy for the Germans in Bruno's character. A kid during that time would've very well know what was going on and raised and taught the ideologies that 'the Jewish people were the reason Germany lost WWI, so this was their payback' not only at home, but at school as well. And with Bruno living in Berlin and his dad being a Nazi commandant there was no way he wasn't raised on these ideas.

[@myfriendmademereadit]

I was told to watch you from a friend after I reviewed a book from a tiktok author and she attacked me for it and I have to say, I am very very happy to watch. Subscribed immediately

[@ReadswithRachel]

Wait but what was the book 👀

[@mglarson5936]

@@ReadswithRachel I need to know 😂

[@myfriendmademereadit]

@@ReadswithRachel Ledge by Stacy McEwan I gave her 3 stars but then she messaged me and I changed it to 1 star

[@ReadswithRachel]

Hold on hold on are you telling me that the author messaged you because she saw that you gave her a three star review? Because I will straight up authors behaving badly her for that, that’s wildly inappropriate of her to be doing that

[@ReadswithRachel]

Dm me receipts on Instagram anytime if you want me to take care of it Kara, I got your back ❤

[@TheYasmineFlower]

I interacted with Boyne once in a Goodreads comment thread about The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. Suffice to say, he's been on my shitlist ever since. He wasn't obviously rude, I don't think, but the fact alone that he was insecure enough to come out and try to defend his book made me roll my eyes. And yes, I fell for the book's manipulations at first. Luckily, reading other reviews and takes on it, including from Jewish people, and going through the German school system allowed me to overcome that nonsense quickly.

[@nicodinisi]

24:21 cis logic drives me insane pay attention to what he said 1. he said trans women are WOMEN 2. then he says WOMEN have a right to defend their spaces and since he knows it’s really just cis women gatekeeping women’s spaces from trans women then he does not actually think trans women are women… when he says “women” he means cis women

[@TariaSagi]

German here: We never read this book in either German or history class. A majority of my education (from 8th grade up to graduation) focused on WW2 and the Nazi regime in its entirety. We went to Memorial sites of former labor and death camps and had actual survivors there as our guides. We learned how undescribably evil Nazi Germany was, as it happened in our country and our education system wants to make sure something horrible like this never happens ever again... I read the book/saw the movie a few years ago and was shocked at how out-of-touch it was. It felt like the author never did any proper research on that subject matter and wanted to create a "fairytale", which makes the whole thing even more morbid and disturbing...

[@runningcommentary2125]

On Goodreads there is an absolutely scathing review of 'Boy in Striped Pajamas' by an actual Holocaust Survivor, which I recommend checking out.

[@johnDoe-gv8si]

I'd love to see a link to it if it wouldn't be too hard on you to go back and find it, otherwise don't worry

[@runningcommentary2125]

@@johnDoe-gv8si Apparently KZbin doesn't like people posting links, but it's the review by Peter Kubicek. If you filter for one star reviews his is the third one down at the time of writing.

[@gem9535]

It's definitely a hot debate on whether it is okay to write from the perspective of minorities that you are not. This was mainly started because of people like John Boyne, who refuse to do research and listen to criticism. Writers like John just take aspects from communities they like and grossly misrepresent that community to try and be some saint for that community--and pitch a fit when said community rejects their work. It isn't enough to just talk to a few people, or even one or two from those who are huge advocates of that community. You need to have full-on, hour+ long INTERVIEWS with potentially dozens of people to even start to understand that community. Let alone understand the nuances of that community enough to write a book about them. It isn't enough to be familiar with that group of people, you have to KNOW. So very few writers are actually willing to put in the time and effort though, so people have found it easier to just say "No, you can't write from the perspective or about other groups of people that you are not one of." Readers no longer trust writers to do the necessary work. His books seriously needed sensitivity readers, not that the man would have listened to anything they had to say.

[@KitKat_293]

i think it's worth noting antisemitism and transphobia is closely related! it's pretty common to see white nationalists and traditionalists to talk about gender and sexuality diversity as part of a decline in white society, and will label it as part of the "corrupt" or "destructive" "jewish values". although ironically i would agree that themes like acceptance and progress equality and open-mindedness are indeed real values in judaism and many jewish communities. sane people just don't see that as disastrous

[@emmalespark]

4th grade we read “Number the Stars” for the “European WW2 view” half of the year and “Boy at War” for the “American WW2 view” half of the year. 5th grade was the “American view” so that was “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes” and then 6th grade was the “European view” so we read “Four Perfect Pebbles” which was the best year because the author came to our school and gave a speech and signed everyone’s book

[@RafBlutaxt]

Holocaust fiction written by non-Jews in general is a huge nogo for me. I am German and these things make me really angry. It's hard enough coming to terms with what my people did two and three generations ago without people fucking it up so badly with cheap melodrama for money. I've been doing a lot of academic reading on the history of antisemitism for an upcoming video and I'll definitely go over the thing with jewish friends before putting it out just to make sure I did the best job I could with this topic.

[@wa11ie]

i went to a anne frank school in germany and we read the boy in the striped pyjamas instead of anne frank‘s diary. in the 8th grade when we were all her age, too. i‘ve recently realized how incredibly lacking german class treated every piece of literature, probably due to time constraints, but we did not even touch on this book having problematic contents. so not only did i waste six weeks of my life on this book, which i hated, we did not even discuss how close to reality this was

[@danaslitlist1]

I literally was just re-watching some of your older videos because I needed your sass and well thought out opinions when I got the notification for this video! I'd never read the books but had seen the movie a handful of times growing up and never understood why we were supposed to sympathize with the N*zis especially at the end. Like hello?! The fact that there's so much media that tries to "there were good people" the N*zis in the year of our lady Beyonce just blows my mind. One of the few good things about living in Texas for a time was being able to visit the Holocaust Museum and listen to the stories from actual survivors in person.

[@bats550]

Boy in the Striped Pajamas wasn't part of my school curriculum, but Night by Elie Weisel was required reading. Also, I know a fair amount of schools now will recommend Maus.

[@hostofwords]

Heavy topics handled well- by you, not the dumpster fire author.

[@goodradoodles1549]

I am not a member of the Jewish faith but am ethnically Jewish and that’s apparently enough to be told some deplorable things-Such as being compared to cockroaches because they “Just won’t die”. As a trans guy I think a well written book from the perspective of a sibling of a trans person where anything else happens could be valuable and instead we got Jessica being misgendered by the title and narrative. Also Cis being a slur shouldn’t be funny to me but I’ll admit it is to me.

[@lonelyboyrat545]

The Zelda thing would be so funny if it was an intentional reference, but dear god I didn't think he could be that dense

[@FlareStorms]

HE DIDN'T EVEN READ THE NAME OF THE FUCKING ARTICLE!!!!!!!!!!! I can't this man is so incomprehensibly dumb

[@natatatm]

I really appreciate you keeping control of your comment section. I see a lot of youtubers who don't do that, and while I agree with their takes on a lot of things, that doesn't always stop the comments from becoming a cesspool. I get that not everyone has the resources to monitor every comment, but even knowing the creators I love are trying to do more than a halfhearted "please don't make rude comments guys" means a lot. Also congrats on the dental bill that's awesome and you deserve it!

[@ReadswithRachel]

Thank you! Yeah I have a lot of words that get comments automatically sent for “must be approved before it can be seen” so that carries the load for some of it thankfully. But I felt strongly like I needed to make it clear I will report, not just mute, because people who wanna be bigots need to get in trouble.

[@ScoutOlson]

I started high school in 2006 so I also didn't read the book, but my sister did. She was also required to read All the Light We Cannot See which I've heard also has problems, like making the whole thing more aesthetically pleasing which is just gross.

[@meaverly]

oh no, all the light we cannot see you can FREELY skip: “the holocaust: but make it twee!” never mind the BLIND HEROINE (get it do you get the title?) sorry i just have a forever hate-on for this novel

[@equinoxcrow]

When he started talking about 'women's spaces' and 'threats online' I knew he was @ss kissing JK Stuffing. Yes, notice me, Stuffing-senpai!

[@Tareltonlives]

I was counting down to it- the transphobia, stereotypes of victimized people, being extremely sympathetic to Nazis- It's like playing Joanne Karen Bingo

[@bruuh0_0]

Thing is, his work is fiction based on something that really happend So the characters and their story can't be innacurate but the historical context can

[@verzrc2772]

Omg watching this gave me FLASHBACKS to secondary school. When I was 11 we read the boy in the striped pyjamas for English (then also watched the movie, multiple students had panic attacks, its absolutely not appropriate for that age group) and then we looked at the Holocaust in history a year later, and when all of us had that book as our only basis my history teacher was genuinely disgusted. That's the thing, it doesn't matter whether or not it's fiction, kids and younger teenagers will trust the author, so when you're writing YA it kiiiinda has to work around that 🤦

[@alexislirette3451]

I was required to read this in High school and HATED it. I never saw it as realistic. I was a huge history buff in my teens. I'm so glad someone else has finally said something.

[@ShaleNinja]

The boy embodies "lord give me the confidence of a mediocre white man" so hard... As a trans man, I just want to thank you for using your voice for good in such a powerful and consistent manner. In every video, you're in there swinging for those that are just friggen' tired at this point. It's so exhausting having to deal with our lived realities as trans people being politicised, demeaned, monetised by people who have no skin in this. It infuriates me that there are so many cis people making so much money out of their shitty takes about us because we're nothing more than a hot-button topic right now; the fact that you come in swinging for us AND facilitate intelligent and empathetic discussion in the comments is such a big breath of fresh air. I HATE this absolute noddy of a human, and I'm so glad you're calling him out.

[@StefaniaSez]

I love that this dude didn’t even question “Octorok eyeball,” he was like yup this sounds legit

[@sharonariellalevy7114]

I was ten when Striped Pajamas came out. I was attending a Jewish school at the time and continued at it until high school. We never read it (obviously) but I still remember feeling extreme discomfort every time I heard about the plot. Something just seemed WRONG about it to me, but I never really knew why, because I didn't read it. I got better at articulating my anger when I got a little older and after the movie came out. As I learned more about the book, the angrier I became about it. I didn't actually know the Auschwitz education center spoke out about it until very recently, but I've always had a huge grudge against this novel. It was actually one of the major deciding factors that led me to refuse to read any Holocaust literature not written by a Jewish person. I've had that rule for a while now and every time slip up and read Holocaust lit by a non-Jewish author, I'm always reminded why I made the rule. In general, it's a subject I avoid pretty heavily though, because it's upsetting and just not enjoyable reading. I'm involved in quite a few book groups and I hate how "Holocaust lit" has become such a pop genre recently. I don't feel like many readers are very respectful of actual Jewish people or the families of victims and so many books just are factually incorrect or perpetuate stereotypes.

[@justbrowsing9697]

I read this book as part of a school assignment in Canada, and wow. Didn't ever realize how problematic it was. Looking back, I definitely felt more empathy towards the kid in the nazi family. So unacceptable in retrospect

[@amberfox9543]

Why is it that when someone makes something iconic, something in them goes “so I can be a bad person now”. Like dude…

[@ohhmangos]

My teacher forced me to read "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" thinking I would "relate to it." I was 11 years old, and she knew I was Jewish and that I had had family die in the Holocaust. When I finished the book she had the audacity to ask me if I "enjoyed it as much as [she] did." I was sick to my stomach thinking people could enjoy the book that so clearly depicted the Nazis as sympathetic. The book that's ending was clearly meant to be tragic because the Nazi boy died, not the real victims of the Holocaust. I was 11 and I understood that, yet so many people don't seem to. Thank you for taking the time to explain this author's antisemitism and transphobia. I appreciate how you make it known that this bigoted rhetoric is unacceptable, as so many people fail to realize Jews are a minority too. It is refreshing to see someone say "This book isn't a masterpiece, it is harmful!" I think more people should see this video, as I think it provides great examples of why historical inaccuracies depicted in Holocaust fanfiction (as I personally call it) causes extreme harm and false rhetoric.

[@HowToPnP]

"My book is not historical" DUDE! Your book is about the holocaust, an actual historical event! WTF!?

[@amakel4365]

i actually started reading 'my brother's name is jessica' bc it was in my school library (i had read boy in the striped pyjamas but didnt connect it was the same author for some reason lol), i never ended up finishing it, mostly bc i was busy that school term but also alot of the details just... gave me the ick, but i couldn't explain why since i didn't know much about trans issues at the time, and ngl my media literacy was alot worse. it kind of scary bc i was relatively fresh out of my right-wing phase and im worried what messages i wouldve taken in about trans people after reading it, since I hadn't consumed really any media with or about trans people, but thankfully i never did read it. now im just worried about who did.

[@cecilbenderman6240]

luckily, my school didnt use the boy in the striped pyjamas to teach about the Holocaust. rather, we read Night by Elie Wiesel, which is his first hand account of life in a concentration camp. i was the only Jewish student in my class at the time and i got special permission to step out of the classroom if necessary during certain parts because of historical trauma. so i spent a lot of time on my laptop playing sims during that quarter

[@naomistarlight6178]

Oh man with the "The Something of Auschwitz" books coming out like can we not, it's not a gloomy, depressing backdrop for your wacky horror novel guys.

[@monfisch]

I have to say I really hated the the book. And the movie was worse. I’m glad you brought up the ridiculousness of this horrid bit of schlock. I grew up in Europe and am old enough to have grown up with concentration camp survivors and had educators who were in resistance programs against the Nazis. I had a friend whose aunt lost half her buttock because of torture from the Nazis. They just chopped it off. The book acted like it was a trip in the park. Nazi sympathizing, trash book.

[@tealduckduckgoose]

30:30 Boyne should really learn from Ursula K Le Guin, who expressed regret at her portrayal and omission of women in her early Earthsea novels, and went on to correct it in later novels.

[@cryin.gfrog222]

I grew up in a very small Baptist community with no Jewish people that I know of, and we read this book and watched the movie in school. I'm pretty sure it was my first time learning about the Holocaust at all. I was too young and sheltered to really understand why it was bad representation, but I do remember my teacher making a point of saying that the Jewish boy would have been killed as soon as he arrived at the camp, and that this wasn't a real story. Shame on the school for requiring the book, but kudos to that teacher for trying her best. A different teacher had us read To Kill a Mockingbird out loud and required us to say the n-word while reading, if that gives you any context to the kind of school and community it was. So.

[@anniel6479]

The Breath of the Wild mistake is INSANE!!! That's not even shallow research, that's not-even-dipping-your-toes-the-water research! 😂

[@anacecilia1387]

I did read the book when I was a teen (not as curriculum, I just read a lot of fiction, and it was a VERY popular book in the first years it debuted), and thought it was a good book. Mostly, I was a bit embarrassed because so many people were saying it was incredible (because of the ending. Ask anyone who vaguely liked the book or the movie, and they'll say it's because of the ending), and I just thought it was okay. Like, I'm trying to remember more of the story besides the ending, but it's all a blank. I think the boys talked about Shumel's father, who was also supposed to be in the camp, but went missing, and that's why Bruno got inside the camp in the first place? To help him find his dad? There was this scene from the movie, where the protagonist's mom complains about this horrible burnt pig smell, and the she sees the smoke that comes out of the camp's direction, and the camera focuses on her horrified face, but by then I was already older and had learned enough in school to think it was stupid of the story to expect me to believe the parents were also not antisemitic. The wife of the nazy general is not antisemitic? Really?? Come on, now. Relatedly, the book thief was another book about the holocaust from the point of view of german white children that got REALLY popular at that time (and which I also read as a teen and liked a lot, although I'm pretty sure it's not what anyone would call an useful book about the holocaust. The jewish character, Max, has an actual personality because of the chapters on his point of view, and we like him a lot and feel very happy that he actually survives, but he also only appears in one third of the book maximum), and another holocaust fiction book must have been released, because eventually someone eventually bit the bullet and wrote about how it sure was weird and uncomfortable that so many popular holocaust books are focused on good, not racist white germans. Like we need to have a white fave to latch on to.

[@carolinavaz395]

Personally ive never read the boy in stripped pajamas but there was a time all schools in my country were obcessed with the film and its portrayal of the holocaust. At the time i was a kid so couldnt really understand what was wrong and problematic on it but reflecting on it now its very obvious a "how can nazis be bad, look at this poor young german boy befriending a jewish boy". Very disgusting and the fact that the author has yet to apologize/remove the book even tho THE holocaust museum called him out its like all levels of insane and weird.

[@fortunatecookie]

29:06 when some people say respect, they mean “treat me like a human” and some other people mean “treat me like an authority” And when some people say “I’ll treat you with respect when you treat me with respect” what they mean is “I’ll treat you like a human when you treat me like an authority”

[@mikankitsune0440]

When I research things like dye I tend to also type in the ✨️ *time period* ✨️

[@lay5395]

When I was reading The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (I was maybe 12/13 at the time?), something about it didn't feel right. I could never quite figure out what it was so I just like "Yeah it's not a very good book I guess" and just never looked at it again. Now I realise that it was because I was at that time also reading books written by ACTUAL SURVIVORS OF THE HOLOCAUST, people who had been in the camps or whose relatives had experienced them, or people who retold the stories of actual survivors, or just people who had put a ton of effort into proper research (also a book that documented the holocaust in photographs which was probably not entirely appropriate for a 13 year old but certainly helped to understand the horrors of nazi germany). The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas just did nothing to portray that horror or the stories of the victims. It just falls flat when you've just read the story of somebody who survived the camps as a young girl thanks to her mother dressing her up as an older teenager with all the other women in the camp trying to take on extra labour and sharing food to keep her alive

[@CanonSkyrissian]

I went to see the movie with my ethics class in eight grade (in finland you either take religion if you're a part of of a religious organization and ethics if you're not) and being 14 and having just started to learn about holocaust the movie bothered me a lot but I had no words why. now I do.

[@meganmakesmagic802]

I love the way you give disclaimers on keeping your comments a safe space.

[@ReadswithRachel]

My tolerance for shitty behavior is so low, I block nonstop in my comments on a daily basis