Blog Blitzkrieg!

Affirming, yet again, that we cannot divine authorial intent, is the similarity in Charles Reznikoff's "Te Deum" and Psalm 131. The bind of Jewish inheritance is clear; it overrides whatever Reznikoff was thinking.

" O Lord, my heart is not proud
nor my look haughty;
I do not aspire to great things
or to what is beyond me;
but I have taught myself to be contented
like a weaned child with its mother..."

and

"Not because of victories
I sing,
having none,
but for the common sunshine,
the breeze,
the largess of the spring.

Not for victory,
but for the day's work done
as well as I was able;
not for a seat upon the dais
but at the common table."

Another post regarding History within Literature

I have noticed that an intricate intertextual web has emerged surrounding several key and peripheral players.

• Nathan Englander's story "The 27th Man" represents one extreme, with a lack definite signifiers, but a clear allegory.
• Ozick's story "Yiddish in America" has clearer signifiers and parallels than Englander's.
• Dara Horn's complete recreation's of Der Nister and Marc Chagall.

All of these need to be worked into my "fiction versus history" inquiry.

Is Edelshtein Glatstein? Yes and no. Certainly we can conceive of this as true; but did the events chronicled in Ozick's story happen to the real Jacob Glatstein? No, they did not.

But if we turn back to Englander's story, and the 27 Yiddish writers who are and are not the ten murdered by Stalin, we see that the story-within-a-story is quite similar to "The Man Who Slept Through the End of the World" by Moyshe Nadir. This real author, however, did not die in Stalin's purges, but from a heart attack in New York.

Tired of the First Amendment

Person A:"...Unfortunately, the media has many Helen Thomases who do not express their hatred of Israel, or of Jews, so directly but use it as the basis (and bias) for their work"

B: So what? This is America. Haven't you heard? Its your god given right as a goddammed gun-toting american sh*t-kicker to despise and blame other people for your short comings. That being said, in what way does this real or imagined closet anti-semitism effect YOU? And please when answering, try to keep it real. Spare us that "defender of the faith, protector of the realm" stuff, where you annoint yourself spokesman for the collective. Because believe me, no ones buying into this concept that this supposed selflessness and altrusim (yours or anybody elses) is trumping self-interest.

Me:

Paranoia of goyim, or fear of "closet anti-Semitism", definitely falls under the umbrella self-interest. I love Valley's comics, and agree that Helen Thomas is used for fear-mongering, but does she not represent (at least somewhat) legitimate racist sentiments held by many Americans against the Jews?

I am torn on this issue. While I don't think a pogrom would ever happen in America, I wouldn't be surprised if it did. One nearly happened against Muslims in this country; a country whose citizens ARE all too free to "blame other people for their short-comings." How many nimrods watch Glenn Beck and think he has the right to ask a Muslim congressman, "are you trying to destroy America?" Those who think Helen Thomas has a right to tell Jews where to live are complicit in racism just like Tea Baggers who think there is only one type of American are racist.

B:

"...Those who think Helen Thomas has a right to tell Jews where to live are complicit in racism"

Lane, you seem like a sharp guy. Sharp enough to know that in fact she does have the right. Just as you have the right to tell Helen to go fu*k herself 9 ways from sunday, Wow, all this talk about pogroms makes me want to drink a six-pack and caress my 12-gauge. :-D

Me: While I agree with you (how can I not? First Amendment, etc) I am sick of the Bill of Rights being used to defend bigots and morons.