Must-reads in the Pesach papers?

seeker

Fri, Apr 02 2021, 12:10 am

This is potentially a beautiful thread for sharing enjoyment. There is no reason to, and many reasons not to, share negative opinions.

1. Halacha forbids it.
2. These are opinions, others may enjoy that which you didn't enjoy so why turn them away.
3. Writers are real people with real feelings, and yes they can see what you post here.

Anything that ended up in print had several editors agreeing that it had potential value to their audience. If you disagree, turn the page and go on with your life.

trixx

Fri, Apr 02 2021, 12:13 am

seeker wrote:

So now we're not allowed to have literary discussions?

amother

Slateblue

Fri, Apr 02 2021, 12:44 am

In the mishpacha I was very touched by the $100 stories. $100 is not a ton of money to most people so it showed how a nice gesture can really make someone’s day.

I have a lot of reading left to do, so I can’t give too much recommendations yet. It’s hArd to read with the schedule the first days.

Unfortunately I broke my foot (waiting for mri confirmation tomorrow) over C”H so I will have lots of time to read last days even with the expected nice weather :-/

I also got living legend and am really enjoying it!

amother

Ivory

Fri, Apr 02 2021, 12:49 am

amother [ Slateblue ] wrote:

Saying something like “there’s nothing to read in x magazine” is not a literary discussion. It’s just a general criticism and an opinion. And probably very halachically problematic

I didn't see those posts on this thread. And I didn't post a single criticism on this thread, actually. However, if people want to post their opinions that is their prerogative. We don't have to pretend to like things to abide by halacha.

And I still stand by what I said. If there were no readers and interest in the magazines drummed up by discussions (especially online) the writers wouldn't be getting hired to write or be getting published. If you want to shut down these discussions, you actually end up harming the publications-- give a mafia like feel and make people feel stifled about discussing any articles lest they be accused of breaking halacha, and you can bet people won't bother checking out the next issue.

amother

Slateblue

Fri, Apr 02 2021, 12:56 am

amother [ Ivory ] wrote:

I have criticised magazines here before but we both know there’s a way to do it that’s literary discussion and potentially drumming up business and a way to do it that’s just making a particular publication look bad. I’m speaking general, not this thread specifically

If I said “there’s nothing decent to read in the Pesach edition of Xyz magazine”, that’s not discussion and it’s problematic.

I considered making a post that I don’t see as negative but after typing it up realised it might turn people off a publication so I deleted my post. It was something like (example). “I feel like Xyz primarily caters to a yeshivish crowd, which is fine, but that’s not a crowd I relate to so I feel like the magazine isn’t for me.”
(Replace yeshivish with another adjective).

I think discussion on articles are fine but imo putting down a whole publication or even saying “I hated that story” is yucky bc the author is denigrated. Just we can find ways to state our opinion that aren’t harmful to people and aren’t pretending we like the article we dislike. There’s a lot of area in between that

Just my opinion

seeker

Fri, Apr 02 2021, 1:17 am

amother [ Ivory ] wrote:

Who's asking you to pretend to like things? If you don't have anything nice to say, then you can say nothing.

Nobody's trying to shut down discussions. You're welcome to have debates and whatever somewhere else. Right now we're DISCUSSING what we liked.

These publications, styles, and authors are ongoing with new issues every week, so the fact that the Pesach magazines are sold out is not relevant.

What I'm seeing here is:
OP: Please share things you liked.
Reply: Here is something I liked.
Reply: Here is something I liked.
Reply: Here is something I disliked.
Reply: I didn't like anything.
Reply: I find this specific writer to be shallow/uncreative.
Reply: All 10 writers who worked on stories of varying content and complexity, as well as the editors who selected them and improved them, were really stupid.

I fail to see how this type of "discussion" is going to help a publication. I also fail to see how asking for recommendations is "stifling" to people who would prefer to offer critique and can do so on their own.

amother

Peach

Fri, Apr 02 2021, 1:34 am

seeker wrote:

Well said Seeker!!! For some reason its always ok to bash the magazines and even specific writers on this site. I find it totally tasteless.
I loved a lot of regular Mishpacha articles, they were so interesting and well done!

seeker

Fri, Apr 02 2021, 2:31 am

Unfortunately when there's so much to read at once, even a lot of the time when there isn't, it goes in one ear and out the other, or whatever the equivalent for reading would be. So it's hard to remember what I read the first days, but I'm looking forward to more the second days...

I remember really enjoying a story called Metukah that I think was in the Hamodia stories. It was super sweet and also thought-provoking. There were other stories I enjoyed but that is the one that stood out to me.

I had skimmed past the Miriam Haneviah article but now that it's been pointed out to me, I'm going to take a better look.

I wish I could remember what it was called, but there was an article in Binah that was basically a few stories of people who had to take the high road - I liked that it seemed down to earth about how the people struggled, while doing the right thing anyway.

amother

Ivory

Fri, Apr 02 2021, 2:35 am

seeker wrote:

You are taking this way too personally. Nobody gave any nasty critiques on this thread, anything less than positive was quite vague. And even those, others chimed in to disagree and say they liked it. And no reason to attack me either, if you read my posts I didn't say anything "not nice" about the content. All I noted was that I was glad to see a certain column being published again. No reason to write such a knee jerk reaction to my post.

And shutting down conversations abt publications sure don't help them. No such thing as bad PR. (Controversy is good, there is a reason the magazines themselves publish (even anonymous) letters to the editor that sharply criticize certain stories or articles.) The quickest way to shut down conversations on this forum is by claiming (with no sources to back up in many cases) that posters are breaking halacha with their posts. This happens on a variety of threads and can be quite sanctimonious, to say the least.

personally, when I am researching a product online and see only 5 star positive reviews, I assume they are fake and don't bother buying it. I like to see at least a variety of opinions to get a feel for it, that gives the positive ones more authenticity. Same goes with literary discussions. And yes, the opinions on this thread are just as valid as yours.

amother

Slateblue

Fri, Apr 02 2021, 12:42 pm

amother [ Ivory ] wrote:

Controversy does sell, but “joe shmo is a bad writer” or “so and so has nothing at all to read” is not controversy and doesn’t sel magazines