Award-winning author Joyce Carol Oates came under intense fire from social media users on Sunday after tweeting that she has only heard “puritanical & punitive” things about the Islamic State and wonders whether there is anything “celebratory & joyous” about the terrorist group.
All we hear of ISIS is puritanical & punitive; is there nothing celebratory & joyous? Or is query naive?
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) November 22, 2015
The National Book Award-winning author followed up that tweet with several more in the same vein:
Cultures seem to swing between extremes of Puritanism & permissiveness; rigid order & disorder; control & "freedom."
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) November 22, 2015
Tragic that "meaning" can be virtually anything–someone will believe it & die for it.
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) November 22, 2015
Oates was roundly mocked for the comments on Twitter:
this is that awkward part of dinner where the family turns to one another and asks, "Shall we do something about Mother?" @JoyceCarolOates
— Ursus, Director of Weather and Banana Programming (@AceofSpadesHQ) November 23, 2015
https://twitter.com/jd87/status/668520559907618816
@JoyceCarolOates The crowd always seems upbeat at those stonings they host.
— Winston Aldworth (@WinstonAldworth) November 22, 2015
Even left-wing Salon couldn’t protect its own, calling Oates’ tweet “beautifully bonkers.”
Oates isn’t a stranger to Twitter dust-ups. In June, the author expressed her outrage at big-game hunting by retweeting a photo of a man posing next to a large dead animal, writing: “So barbaric that this should still be allowed… No conservation laws in effect wherever this is?”
The man in the photo was director Steven Spielberg posing in front of a “dead” triceratops on the set of Jurassic Park.
So barbaric that this should still be allowed… No conservation laws in effect wherever this is? https://t.co/hgavm9IBaM
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) June 9, 2015
This guy thinks it's cool to kill defenceless animals then take a selfie. Jerk. pic.twitter.com/WbgMklrd9u
— Chris Tilly (@TillyTweets) June 9, 2015
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