Affirmative Action
Posted: 08 Jul 2022, 14:55
So, it's Friday. A good day to laugh in a bad world to be (in many places).
I made reference to Cynthia Giles' account of Jess Karlin a few weeks ago. Her version of history is, let us say, a little biased. And incomplete certainly. My point of discussing this in this essay, "Bullies", is in part to raise an issue being now much discussed in our cultures. What constitutes bullying? Many people claim it is simply being made fun of. Or even having someone just ask you a question for clarification of what seems to be a dubious claim on your part.
Let's face it, almost everybody feels bullied by anyone who does not embrace as pure genius them and every booger their brain has ever produced. That's just how people are.
But a more relevant issue (for Tarot history) has to do with the title of this article, something Giles said to Jess Karlin long ago, something that informed Karlin about where ideologically the "cartofeminists" were coming from. Basically, a point of grievance, and an assumption concerning that grievance which colored the way cartofeminists interpreted events and how much (or how little) they felt an accurate reporting of them was necessitated.
The interest for myself anyway in trying to figure out what was going on was rooted in that first interaction Karlin had with Mary K. Greer back in 1995 on alt.tarot. But also in a review jk did on the Haindl Tarot in that year. He had gone into detail on the concept of the Goddess promoted by Rachel Pollack (who did the English language Haindl books), and the weird effort of Haindl to make up for the bad things the Germans had done (back in that war probably most of you no longer recall), by Haindl's trying to marry runes and Hebrew letters in his Tarot.
There were just lots of weird, politically-tinged, choices and explanations going on and it seemed to be coordinated. And, referring to Greer's comments, the effort to cut Aleister Crowley (particularly) out of the action and cast him aside so Frieda Harris was anointed the true creator of the Thoth Tarot really seemed like a dishonest carny trick.
But then Giles explained it to Karlin during a trip she made to Austin in 1996. The cartofeminists lying about the facts was, she said, just an act of "affirmative action" to get even for what Crowley and Waite primarily, had allegedly done to push the women artists aside. Again, grievance and vengeance. Or "ressentment".
And that clarified for jk what he was really dealing with.
You have to be careful out there when you are doing history. And you cannot or your should not care whether or not you will be loved for doing history correctly.
I made reference to Cynthia Giles' account of Jess Karlin a few weeks ago. Her version of history is, let us say, a little biased. And incomplete certainly. My point of discussing this in this essay, "Bullies", is in part to raise an issue being now much discussed in our cultures. What constitutes bullying? Many people claim it is simply being made fun of. Or even having someone just ask you a question for clarification of what seems to be a dubious claim on your part.
Let's face it, almost everybody feels bullied by anyone who does not embrace as pure genius them and every booger their brain has ever produced. That's just how people are.
But a more relevant issue (for Tarot history) has to do with the title of this article, something Giles said to Jess Karlin long ago, something that informed Karlin about where ideologically the "cartofeminists" were coming from. Basically, a point of grievance, and an assumption concerning that grievance which colored the way cartofeminists interpreted events and how much (or how little) they felt an accurate reporting of them was necessitated.
The interest for myself anyway in trying to figure out what was going on was rooted in that first interaction Karlin had with Mary K. Greer back in 1995 on alt.tarot. But also in a review jk did on the Haindl Tarot in that year. He had gone into detail on the concept of the Goddess promoted by Rachel Pollack (who did the English language Haindl books), and the weird effort of Haindl to make up for the bad things the Germans had done (back in that war probably most of you no longer recall), by Haindl's trying to marry runes and Hebrew letters in his Tarot.
There were just lots of weird, politically-tinged, choices and explanations going on and it seemed to be coordinated. And, referring to Greer's comments, the effort to cut Aleister Crowley (particularly) out of the action and cast him aside so Frieda Harris was anointed the true creator of the Thoth Tarot really seemed like a dishonest carny trick.
But then Giles explained it to Karlin during a trip she made to Austin in 1996. The cartofeminists lying about the facts was, she said, just an act of "affirmative action" to get even for what Crowley and Waite primarily, had allegedly done to push the women artists aside. Again, grievance and vengeance. Or "ressentment".
And that clarified for jk what he was really dealing with.
You have to be careful out there when you are doing history. And you cannot or your should not care whether or not you will be loved for doing history correctly.