Joyce Carol Oates, an author of some note, has in her golden years turned to being a frequent poster and commenter on Twitter to fill her time. Oates is an award-winning author and five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction (always the brides' maid but never the bride), so one would think that her contributions on the platform would be interesting or enlightening... but one would be sorely mistaken. Time and time again Joyce Carol Oates falls flat on her face in her Twitter discourses, to the point that she's become something of a punchline in many circles of Twitter. A notable example of this was the timer that the 'celebrated author' seemed to think that Stephen Spielberg had killed a triceratops because of a still photo of him in front of one from during the filming of Jurassic Park... a tweet that she later insisted she'd meant as a joke because, according to Oates, 'My Tweets are meant to be funny'.
So maybe Oates was trying to 'be funny' when she tweeted this message demeaning the Bible as being 'an anthology of fictions':
the bible, as you call it, is a work of fiction; or rather, an anthology of fictions. it is not "the" bible for much of the world's population & those who claim it as their own select those verses that appeal to them while ignoring other verses. fertile ground for hypocrisy. https://t.co/fWT8lC4ipM
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) January 12, 2024
Uhuh. It's always wonderful when these enlightened intellectual types get up on to their high horse and preach to us about the foolishness of our simple ways, isn't it?
I couldn’t care less about your opinion as expressed here. But I’ll pray for you.
— JGinWV (@JGinWV) January 12, 2024
“Joyce Carol Oates,” as you call her, is not a serious thinker, but a pastiche of currently popular prejudices.
— The unspeakable self (@DrGeneCallahan) January 12, 2024
I don't understand.
— Steven Hutson (@wordwiselit) January 12, 2024
People who read the Bible are by nature hypocrites?
Now now, Joyce didn't say that. She implied it, or at least implied that people who follow the bible and believe in its teachings are somehow more likely to be hypocrites, but she didn't come right out and say it. It's meant to be funny, you see!
Some people took a more intellectual and historical tack in response:
Steinbeck, Melville, Baldwin, O’Connor, McCarthy, Morrison, Joyce, Faulkner…The Bible is a religious text but don’t dismiss it bc you reject its spiritual claims. It’s an extremely powerful/profound/influential source for some of the greatest literary figures in recent history
— ABTejana (@MbProfesora) January 12, 2024
Recommended
Even the most unschooled person knows, or should know, that the Bible discusses historical figures.
— Petrillo (@csd9byptmr) January 12, 2024
Jesus, Pontius Pilate, the various Herods-these were not fictional figures as in a Joyce Carol Oates novel.
I do have your “We Were the Mulvaneys” cued up to read soon…
Fair questions. Yes, only about 32.4% of people in the world in 2024 consider themselves a Christian. For them, the Bible is special. Yes, one of the main purposes of church meetings is to try to learn how to live in a way not hypocritical or contradictory with the whole Bible.
— Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) January 12, 2024
While others preferred a more direct appraoch.
Joyce, 1996 wants its edgy atheist undergrad hot-take back.
— mark (@markr360) January 12, 2024
reddit moment
— borebrush (@borebrush) January 12, 2024
Oh Joyce, Joyce, Joyce. The 18th century called and wants its dated biblical criticism back.
— Jeffrey Wilcox (@JeffreyWil60280) January 12, 2024
Ew Joyce Oates
— ᵞⁱᵏᵉˢ (@TrueBeefSupreme) January 12, 2024
A common response when the well known author appears in ones Twitter timeline.
Imagine being a famous author, one of the most prolific of your generation, 85 years old, American Philosophical Society member, National Book Award winner, and these are the things you occupy yourself with tweeting. All because you decided to dunk on widows and orphans today. https://t.co/BIbd9bUD43
— Philip Bunn (@PhilipDBunn) January 12, 2024
The city of New York, as you call it, is a collection of boroughs and neighborhoods, it is not “the” city of new york for the rest of the world…. https://t.co/uVe8HZlMMs
— Ben. (@burnt_tweet) January 12, 2024
“The three saddest words in the English language are ‘Joyce Carol Oates'”
— Alan Cornett (@alancornett) January 12, 2024
Gore Vidal https://t.co/BGXSCQGu3E
Say what you want about Gore Vidal, a very complicated man, he had a way with the biting insult that few possess.
This is all especially bizarre when you say what kicked off this interaction...
In case you were wondering, Oates' reaction here stemmed from a Bible verse about caring for widows, orphans, and prisoners. https://t.co/DqyOuir5GO pic.twitter.com/sj5uVJiNeX
— Gravantus (@Gravantus) January 12, 2024
Again, apparently Oates thinks this is funny somehow... and it is funny but it's more in a laughing at her way than a laughing with her one.
It's often been noted that cuts to the skin can have serious effects on the elderly. As we age our skin simply loses its ability to heal as well as it did when we were younger due to the 'inflammatory response (being) decreased or delayed, as is the proliferative response. Remodeling occurs, but to a lesser degree, and the collagen formed is qualitatively different.' As an 85 year old woman Joyce Carol Oates would be well suited to keep this frequent truth of the human life cycle in mind, because if she keeps tweeting this type of stuff out she's in extreme danger of accidentally cutting herself on all that edge.
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