Related somewhat to Saul Bellow

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.

Dumbass white folk

Person 1:
November 9 at 7:53am

Hey y'all,

I know someone who is a totally insane Hare Krsna conspiracy theorist and she has this really anti-semitic sounding (I don't know much about it) belief about elitist Jews ruling the world? And apparently secretly running the war in Iraq? Particularly hilarious is that she once said to me, very enthusiastically, "It was the Jews who invaded Troy!" (apropos of nothing) and I was just wondering what you guys made of all that shit.

Here is a documentary which I haven't even clicked on, which she told me to watch, which I will probably never watch.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/ring-of-power/

Best regards,
Alex

Ring of Power | Watch Free Documentary Online

"Although geographically separate, the city-states of London, the Vatican, and the District of Colombia are one interlocking empire called Empire of The City. The flag of Washington’s District of Colombia has three red..."

Person 2:

November 9 at 8:17am

oh man. i have to get ready for work so i can't check out this documentary (and don't know if i can bring myself to do it anyway), but what i will say is that the belief that elitist jews secretly run the world, control global finance, are behind the war in iraq, etc etc is one of the more popular anti-semitic beliefs, especially amongst people who would otherwise purport not to "have anything against" jewish people. i can find better sources later, but for quick reference:

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a forged antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan to achieve global domination. The text was fabricated in the Russian Empire, and was first published in 1903. The text was translated into several languages and widely disseminated in the early part."

Person 3:

November 10 at 3:10pm

I feel bad for admitting this, but it needs to be said: this is strike two against hare krishnas. I have now been twice personally offended by them. A couple months ago, one guy nearly accosted me in new york, and wouldn't let go of my hand while he tried to tell me how great the bhagavad gita was, how my life was off kilter, etc.

whatever, white folk. to be clear: what these two events represent have nothing to do with hare krishna-ism, but with dumbass white american kids' penchant for being duped into stupid, annoying shit.

and people wonder why jews are paranoid! in a parallel example, i loved all the stupid fucking white folk who flipped their shit during the 2008 election season upon hearing Rev. Wright. "What?! black people are suspicious of the oppressive white government?!"

So A., I guess I'm unsurprised, because Americans are idiots.

Person 1:

November 10 at 3:13pm

No, dude, you seriously don't need to feel bad for admitting this. There is something seriously wrong with Hare Krishnas. I went with them to a festival in Atlanta over the summer and had a long conversation with the priest in which he eventually said that his beliefs about karmic retribution suggested to him that the Holocaust wouldn't have happened unless the Jews owed some cosmic karmic debt to the world. This priest is, I suspect, where Hannah gets most of her conspiracy theories.

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.

German-Philia

While I would agree that Deutsches Kultur ist über alles, and therefore have no problem with Jews championing it*, but not over everything to the extent that everything else is garbage. Or, for that matter (and to an extreme), that it results in internalized anti-Semitism. Gilad Atzmon and his novel are merely a contemporary example of this pattern which was set by Moses Mendelssohn, whose antagonism towards Yiddish was mimed by none other than Richard Wagner. Not everyone can be as level-headed as Heine or Lewisohn?

I have not considered an equivalency in Jewish English-language literature. Mark Twain, the Judeo-phile, criticized Bret Harte for it, I guess. Englander, among others, claims to not be a Jewish writer, lulz.


*There was that weird moment in German class where my professor said I had a "great German name." Like, yeah, I know. Too bad bitches had to escape, right? Some other kid's last name was "Jaeger." No joke.

History in my Literature?

On page 229 of the NYRB edition of Der Nister's Di Misphoke Mashber, history intercedes, and readers are introduced to concrete, historic signifiers. We are left wondering: did history invade a magical world, or was the magical inserting itself into history? That is what literature is.

Oh, David Malouf! I would your parenthesis were wholly, incontrovertibly Truth!

So is "N" actually Berdichev, as your punctuation emphatically suggests? Is it? Really? We don't know. And that is what literature is.