I need to buy the new release of his letters. In one, he says something like "it's easy to get lost in the jungle of Jewish history; you need a machete."
His quote inspired me to think of this: but how do we deal with it? Do we rejoice? Or wallow in misery? Can we balance the two? To use a cliché: our history is an emotional roller-coaster.
I think this needs to be dealt with more directly in Jewish fiction: the theme that our history hones in on individuals, as if they're on the receiving end of a funnel, who must then reconcile the past--"weight of ancestry"-- with the immediate present. I think this is a job for the Rosenzweig/Lewisohn combo.
--To take another discrete example: Felix Mendelssohn. Is it sad that his grandfather was nearly an apostate and brought his family up as Christian? Sad as it is that Felix was baptized, he was still one of the greatest composers and instilled fear in Wagner. Felix Mendelssohn singularly represents this dichotomy, as do many Jews throughout history.
Perhaps the only character of Bellow's that grapples directly with this history is Sammler (unless you count Bellow himself, being Sammler's creator).
I still need to read Herzog. Humboldt was so good though.
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