Letters to the Editor
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A degenerate literary device
GK's most notable literary device is the projection of his personal feelings and preferences into the universal milieu where the rest of us live. To wit:
"You need candles. You need cookies. You need Silent Night. You can go from bliss to remorse. You walk to church. You go to France." And so on and on, spoken in a tone of wistfully hypnotic reverie intended to impress with pseudo truths.
And while he's actually talking about himself only, he takes no responsibility for the irrationality of his fantasies, preferring to activate some collectively unconscious, unwitting accord that, yes, it is indeed so or would be better if it were.
His technique is cousin to the bureaucratic use of passive voice -- "mistakes were made, war was precipitated, lives were lost" -- designed to befog the minds of those who might otherwise hold a speaker to personal account of the matter.
And so the serious topics broached, even to the "art and necessity" of burdening children with a foolish and useless mythology, and an ignorant expectation of events that will never happen, and an insatiable demand for immediate and material gratification that are the prominent and inescapable effects of so-called "Christian culture," may never be given the thorough hearing and examination that, for the life of us, they truly deserve.
And more's the pity that in this respect, Mr. Keillor maintains his place among the Britneys and Bruckheimers of the world, "For Entertainment Purposes Only."
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Tony baby
You're simply too simple for me. I can't stand Fox or their hero Bush. You have no no clue. Now don't let those Christmas ornaments make you cry while you spend a miserable Dec. 25th in your trailer. LOL.
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Please read more carefully
The letters from the haters all echo the same mistaken paraphrase. Nearly everyone gets mad and quotes Keillor as saying "It's a Christian Nation, get over it." I can see where that would offend. However, what he said was, ours is a "Christian culture"--a truth that presently, is undeniable, for better or worse. He also said "work with it" not "get over it" Keillor suggests cooperation as the ideal, not oppression--which is implied in the misused "get over it." I find the vitriol on these boards very off-putting. Furthermore, when someone posts an obvious misquote as a basis for an argument, they lose credibility immediately. Isn't that sort of rhetorical bait-and-switch a tactic we accuse the Right Wing of using? You haters should have a show on Fox News.
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What a firestorm!
Keillor is clever; still, no one really should take Keillor seriously. Yet many do. It's because there is no one else doing radio, alas. He has a monopoly on the radio nostalgia schtick. Maybe that can change.
How I miss you, Bob and Ray.
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Dreidels on the Christmas tree boughs, menorah lighting the nativity
I read the brouhaha over this article and I just have to laugh. I'm a rare one: a Minnesota Jew, and furthermore, I can see just what GK is saying.
Over the years my mishpoche (family in its broadest sense) grew to include many, Jew and goy. Those who grew up celebrating Christmas integrated that into our family rituals in addition to the Jewish traditions we already had. We were never much on Hannukah, which is really a minor holiday, and not worthy of the Hallmark treatment it gets nowadays. Instead we celebrate a holiday amalgamation of winter cheer, family togetherness, and parts of many different traditions (including those I mentioned in the subject line).
I don't see how latkes are mutually exclusive with fruitcake or how either of those would have conflicted with the Eid ul Fitr feast we celebrated at the same time a few years ago. In the end, I think the salient point is that we have freedom to celebrate whatever holidays we like in this country. That's why my great grandparents escaped the Czarists, Bolsheviks, and later the Facists to come to America! How could I be offended if my own minority tradition is not recognized by the majority--why would it be? When my co-workers gave me a card in the shape of a big piece of matzoh (a Passover tradition) for Hannukah, I wasn't offended at its incongruity--I was charmed by the amount of thoughtfulness that took. I certainly wouldn't have minded if it had been a Christmas card instead. In the end, it doesn't matter WHAT holiday you're wishing is happy for someone, but the fact that you want them to be happy and enjoy the season--and if saying "Merry Christmas" gets that across, then so be it.
I think what's MOST offensive is when people from a cultural minority ask for misguided, politically correct, half-assed 'recognition' from the mainstream...it smacks to me of political posturing and whiney entitlement. We don't all need our own section in the Hallmark store--what we need is the freedom to celebrate our own traditions--and that, my friends, we already have. Let's be thankful for that and damn the specifics.
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Keep Christmas optional
Wow. My beloved Garrison Keillor really touched a nerve. I truly don't think he intended for his essay to be intrepreted as it has been. But religious questions aside, there appears to be something about the over-the-top way Christmas is celebrated in America that grates on some people. (Somehow, I doubt that we see a rash of suicides or domestic violence around the Fourth of July, for example.)
Christmas is a delight for many, probably most. But when people are forced or coerced or pressured into celebrating -- by government, society, employers or (most likely, I'm guessing) overbearing relatives -- then it loses some of its charm. The Merry-Christmas-dammit! crowd reminds me a little bit of those minders of yesteryear who used to make sure that Iraqi citizens went into a frenzy of celebration every time Saddam Hussein's birthday rolled around, or else. And when you think about it, the ACLU probably does more to preserve the integrity of Christmas than does the Merry-Christmas-dammit! crowd.
We're in America, as Garrison has pointed out. People have the right to celebrate or not celebrate Christmas or any other holiday as they see fit, and they have no obligation to explain themselves.