One of America’s best-known liberal writers lamented on Twitter hearing only negative things about the Islamic State.

In a tweet Sunday afternoon, Joyce Carol Oates asked why “All we hear of ISIS is puritanical & punitive; is there nothing celebratory & joyous? Or is query naive?”

It was part of a series of tweets, in which Ms. Oates, who has won a National Book Award and two O. Henry Awards for short stories, expressed incredulity about how a life without pleasure was possible.

“Portrayal of non-combative life under ISIS so grim & narrow, why would anyone wish to live in such a way? Mass delusion?” she later reiterated.

The tweets drew instant and hours-long mockery on social media. Conservative satirist David Burge told Ms. Oates, one of America’s most decorated writers, that “you were great in ‘The Shining.’ “

Ms. Oates received the Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2011.

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