authenticity vs. accessibility

[cellio]

My synagogue had a Purim carnival for adults last night (the one for kids/families was this morning). I'd like to see more Purim activities that aren't focused on kids, so I went both to enjoy it (which I did) and to help encourage it (which I hope I did).

There was an expectation of costumes, so I went as Vashti and added a bit of modern commentary (see Esther 1, starting v. 10). The latter is where the dilemma came in.

Here's a picture:

And here's a close-up of that badge:

So, I was actually going to write גם אני on the badge, but on Shabbat afternoon it occurred to me that Vashti wasn't Jewish so would have no reason to write in Hebrew. So last night I asked Google Translate to help me out with Persian and used what it came up with. Modulo linguistic changes over the centuries (which Google Translate is not equipped to help with), this was more authentic and, I hoped, mitigated against people thinking I was Esther.

Some people wouldn't have understood גם אני either, but some would have. As it turned out, the hashtag was not sufficient clue on its own, even in a community that has talked about sexual harassment and related issues several times recently, so I ended up having to tell people that the text said "me too". Oops.

Were I to do it again, I suppose I'd add גם אני in parentheses after.

For people not familiar with the commentary: the rabbinic understanding is that when King Achashverosh commanded Queen Vashti to present herself to his buddies wearing the royal diadem, it meant and nothing else and that's why she refused. The guys have been on a drinking spree for seven days at this point, and the king is shown to be rather a dim bulb throughout the entire book.

Comments

[goljerp]

The king isn't just a dim bulb; he's fickle, does whatever the last person he hears says, impulsive, and lets himself be led by his golden scepter. Still, he's better than some rulers I could think of. :-/

[cellio]

And that golden scepter is worth a whole side commentary of its own. Ahem.

[magid]

It's implied VERY strongly in JT Waldman's version that the scepter is... anatomical. Ahem.

[cellio]

Thanks for the pointer! And yes, that's what I meant by "ahem".

[magid]

Full disclosure: I have a copy of JT Waldman's book, and I think it's awesome; he did a lot of research, and the art is lovely. It is not the easiest for following along during a megillah reading, however.

[cellio]

Oh, it wouldn't have occurred to me to follow along in an alternate rendering! You are fluent enough to do that; I'm not. (And I definitely want to follow along, not just listen, because seeing the text helps my comprehension quite a bit. I parse written Hebrew much better than I do spoken/chanted Hebrew.)

[minoanmiss]

Ooh, I. love it.

[cellio]

Vashti gets a bad rap in the story, but I personally think she's a hero for standing up and saying "no, you will not mistreat me like that".

[magid]

As a kid, I got the idea that she was an evil queen. I have no clue *why* I got that in my head (fairy tales?) because that's not how she's portrayed, really.

[minoanmiss]

I agree with you! I remember being little and thinking she was treated unfairly (and of course not daring to say so).

[kayre]

A friend and I have been invited to a Purim celebration this week- I'm looking forward to it!

[cellio]

I hope you have fun! Purim is a very festive holiday with a lot of silliness.

[moe37x3]

I see the challenge in-person. Via Twitter (how I saw it), it made for a fun puzzle with an amusing pay-off.

Another way to do it could be to use a Persian-style English font.

[cellio]

Oh, good idea about Persian-style English! That probably would have worked even better than parenthetical Hebrew.

[regencylady]

I’m a Vashti fan, also. She got a raw deal.