most overlooked/underrated novels & my newfound appreciation of Tolstoy

Here's to some of the most overlooked/underrated novels of all time (whatever comes to mind, feel free to add your own):

(In no particular order. . . )

A Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
The Lover by Marguerite Duras
An American Tragedy by Theodor Dreiser
The Defense by Vladimir Nabokov

* * * *

In the Dostoevsky-Tolstoy war I'm a die hard D fan. However, in reading Tolstoy's (novella?) The Kreutzer Sonata I've discovered a Tolstoy I enjoy a lot more than the Tolstoy of W&P or AK. I also enjoyed his Sebastopol Sketches, so perhaps it's simply a matter of length. In his longer works I find him too verbose and I have difficulty sustaining interest, but his shorter works are quite good.

purple unicorns falling from the sky

Courtesy of BWOG :

For example, evolution and the big bang theory are not falsifiable and, according to Popper, are about as scientific as, say, my personal theory that purple unicorns will descend from the sky when I die and bring me to heaven.

I'm currently doing research for an article on alternative yeshivas/educational programs for ultra-orthodox boys who lack the will/interest/capacity to devote themselves exclusively to Torah study. Any suggestions?

next post: most underrated novels (any century, any language. . .)

Israel. . Menachem Begin. . back in New York

Israel was great fun. . . ate more than I ought to have. . walked for miles and miles (ok, I'm exaggerating). . .made conversation (in Hebrew!) with random strangers. . .bought my brother a Zionist kippah sruga (he won't wear it, shrug) from an Arab Shuk. . . snapped photos with my digital camera of street signs that made me feel like I was back in Zionist class with Dan Miron (Jabotinsky, Herzl, Emile Zola, etc). . . watched Jerusalem transformed for a week into a kind of masquerade party with the secular and religious all taking advantage of an ordained opportunity to lose their inhibitions and live out their fantasies. . ad d'lo yadah. . .

Some highlights:
Mercaz Moreshet Begin--Menachem Begin Heritage Foundation in Jerusalem. The museum walks visitors through the life of one of Israel's most cherished leaders, a man who is remembered most notably for his love of the nation and the land of Israel. The museum is beautifully done and begins with Begin's childhood as a cheder boy in Brisk, his involvement with HaShomer HaTzair (socialist-Zionist youth movement) and later the revisionist, Jabotinsky-led Betar movement. Eventually Begin fled Warsaw with his wife Alicia Arnold, for Vilna, where he learned of the deaths of both his parents at the hands of the Nazis, and where he was soon imprisoned by Soviet authorities. In April 1942, Begin arrived to Palestine and became leader of the Irgun and with the establishment of the State spent more than two decades as leader of the opposition party in Israel until he was elected prime minister of Israel. The museum is poignant testament to the life and times of a leader who, when asked how intended to lead Israel as prime minister, responded: "as a good Jew."

Enough said on Yad Vashem but will just add again that the new addition is extremely well done.

I was stationed in Rechavya and walked from there to various places, not very far but nice, long walks, mostly very scenic. Hitched one ride, (very safe, not to worry), took lots of cabs and a couple of bus rides. Of course the old city of Jerusalem remains among my favorite spots to walk through. . although I'm always terrified I'll lose my way and wind up someplace unsafe, but hasn't happened yet. . . also spent lots of time on Emek Refaim, just a really nice street with lots of good food. . . walked to Katamon for lunch with friends on Shabbat, visited a really nice cafe named after S.Y. Agnon's novel, T'mol Shilshom (The Day Before Yesterday).

And now I'm back in the lovely city of New York, which I still adore. . .I wonder if I'm just too complacent or if I'm just too much in love with this city, but as much as I enjoyed my trip to Israel being back in New York City is always exciting. . .
Arrived back early in the morning, early enough to watch the sun rise over the Atlantic ocean . . . forgive my lack of poetic flair but it was really beautiful, the colors, the water, the clouds, and the little girl in the seat in front of me telling her mother "mommy, we're going down." Miraculous.

Petr Ginz, Yad Vashem. . .

last post was inspired by my visit(s) to Yad Vashem. I wound up visiting twice because when I showed up at the Herzl museum two days after I'd been at YV I found out that the museum was by appt only, and that the next tour was two hours later. What to do? I returned to YV, a ten minute walk away, to go through the parts of the Holocaust History museum I hadn't managed to cover. Holocaust History Museum is the recent addition to Yad Vashem. In the final room, just before the exit, visitors are given a chance to reflect as various quotes attributed to Holocaust victims and survivors appear on the screen. Among these quotes was the one by Korczak in my last post. There's quite a bit on him in the museum, hence the post. There's also a lot on Petr Ginz, whose drawing, the "Moon Landscape," journeyed to space with Israeli astronaut Col. Ilan Ramon on the doomed U.S. Columbia Space Shuttle. In general, all the tesimony from children Holocaust victims was especially poignant. But onto happier things--next post.

Janusz Korczak

"Whoever flees from history, history will catch up with him! Extraordinary circumstances demand extraordinary effort of the mind, the senses, willpower and action." ~Janusz Korczak, a children's doctor-turned-children's writer-turned-children's guardian. Korczak, born Henryk Goldzmit, was a Polish Jew who ran orphanges in pre-War Warsaw. He was known throughout Europe as a beloved writer and also as a defender of juvenile rights who taught adults to treat children with love and respect and acted on their behalf in juvenile courts. When Korczak's Jewish orphanage was ordered liquidated by the Germans, this "King of Children" joined his orphans in the Ghetto, protecting them against hunger and disease. In his final act of devotion and love, Korczak joined the children in their death march to Treblinka. Although he was offered refuge, Korczak refused to abandon his orphans to the end. More info on Korczak at www.korczak.com.

apolitical

ok no more posts on politics. politics bore me silly.
spring break is almost here = lots of books and movies = food for thought and blogposts

follow-up conversation

a friend was having difficulty understanding why i'd found the girl's statement offensive (see previous post) . . . but eventually came around and said: "ooooh. i understand. i feel the same way.i find stupid people offensive."

on Politics and Norman Finkelstein

for the record, i like to consider myself politically 'moderate'
i suppose it's because i'm torn about a lot of the core issues--possibly because i'm just generally 'torn' but also because i think the issues --the key issues, anyway--are such that they have no easy answers, but rather they can be interpreted on multiple levels and that there is very rarely a single 'right' or 'wrong' answer.

today's incident: a girl was chatting with a mutual friend about politics, and made some references to fascism and its parallels in the current administration. I'm hardly a fan of Bush, but comparing him to Hitler seems stupid to me. The girl trusted that I had, in fact, ccepted her logic, saying: "we all know this [about Bush], assuming present company [referring here to me] follows the line of rational thinking."

in other disturbing news, norman finkelstein is being given a platform on campus to spew his hateful theories. the lecture title: "Israel & Palestine: Misuse of anti-Semitism, Abuse of History."
He seems to think that as the son of Holocaust survivors he has a "right" to anti-Semitism, even Holocaust denial. Finkelstein on the Holocaust: "If all those who say they are survivors are telling the truth, then who did Hitler kill?"

on dual loyalties

So I need to write a short (1-2 page) response paper on the book I chose (Zionist Culture and West European Jewry Before the First World War by Michael Berkowitz). The paper's due in exactly 2 1/2 hours and I figured getting my thoughts out here might help me articulate my response. The assignment was: "What is one question you are left with after reading this book?"

The book, as its title suggests, explores the relevance of early Zionism to a key audience: the (mostly assimilated) Jews of Western and Central Europe. While settlement of Palestine was expected to be taken up mostly by the poor, persecuted Jews of Eastern Europe, it was on their western, "enlightened" brethren that the movement depended both for financial and intellectual support. Berkowitz asks how the early Zionists in fact succeeded in formulating a unified Zionist vision that, while addressing the immediate concerns of the suffering Jews of the East, also spoke to the relatively comfortable Jews west of the Pale of Settlement. In his preface to the book, Berkowitz answers the question briefly: "the movement created a form of nationalist thought and participation that drew on aspects of the European nationalisms acceptable to Jews; it was a product of a specific subculture of assimilated Jewry; and it incorporated aspects and symbols of traditional Judaism providing a common core of mythology for the movement."

Much of the book is devoted, then, to examining the role of western influences in early Zionism as it manifested itself in Zionist philosophy, art, popular culture and the question of a national language.

Early on in the book, Berkowitz informs us that one of the key concerns of Western Jews was that allegiance to the Zionist cause would compromise, or at least be perceived as compromising allegiance to one's "host country" (ie: Austria, Germany, etc). While Berkowitz states that Zionism sought to allay such fairs by insisting that the dual loyalties could coexist, he doesn't explain how the early Zionists in fact addressed the issue.

Certainly one could feel a certain degree of loyalty to more than one country, but for the Jew--whose chief concern was to be accepted as a full citizen as valuable and loyal as his gentile neighbor, the implications of such dual allegiance would seem cause for concern. How, then, did Zionism manage to assuage fears that such dual loyalties would sow seeds of mistrust among the gentiles, and perhaps even fears of antisemitic retribution for divided loyalties?

That Zionism incorporated much of Western European culture--its emphasis on intellectual enlightenment and physical prowess, on "tolerance" and liberalism, might have indeed gone a long way in drawing the "enlightened" Jew to the Zionist phenomenon. But how did Zionism address the question of dual loyalties and possible backlash?

So, that's my question. Now to write my paper . .