why a little research is better than looking like a moron....

[lagilman]

Under the heading of "I see fucking stupid people," I give you this review-essay in the Jewish Review of books:

"Why there is no Jewish Narnia"

featuring, among other bon mots, the lovely line: "I cannot think of a single major fantasy writer who is Jewish, and there are only a handful of minor ones of any note."

He then goes on to talk about how Jews don't bring their faith into fantasy, etc etc. and how only Lev Grossman is doing anything, etc. No offense to Mr. Grossman, but when at no point does this reviewer reference, oh, Michael Chabon, or Jane Yolen, or Robert Silverberg, or Peter Beagle.... [or, I am reminded, Neil frickin' Gaiman]

This Michael Weingrad needs a remedial course in research, stat, to go with his foot-and-tongue sandwich he's chewing on right now...


EtA: Classic response to this from my (non-Jewish) neighbor: "oh, what his poor mother must be thinking right now..." *dies*

EtA2: letters@jewishreviewofbooks.com 'm just saying...

Comments

[rosefox]

Wait, Peter Beagle and Michael Chabon are Jewish? I mean, you totally can't tell from their writing!

*facepalm*

[ckd]

What, you didn't like The Episcopal Policemen's Union?

[rosefox]

It wasn't as good as "Uncle Chris and Aunt Mary and the Angel".

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

the title of the essay *alone* makes me want to cry. then he goes on to try to explain that really, Christians lend themselves to writing fantasy because they are just so darn mystical -- and he quotes Phillip Pullman as being a fantasy writer.

Who would probably have his head popped off as being grouped in this essay.

(By the way, finally read Flesh and Fire and loved it. I picked it up when you were at Waldenbooks in JC for out Last Great BookSigning. Then we fangirled J. Butcher when I rang you out. How did you like the rest of Codex Alera? *g*)

[illian.livejournal.com]

. . . he quotes Phillip Pullman as being a fantasy writer.

*undignified snorting sound* Oh, oh, repressed laughter HURTS!

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

ok, so I was actually referring to the Christian part.....but ok you can giggle at that too.

[lagilman]

alas, I haven't had TIME to read the Codex!

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

I read "Codex". Don't waste your time. Seriously. Read my post about it here. I can't believe that I read the same book as the readers who've heaped praise upon this novel. It will make you--meticulous plotter that you are--absolutely crazy.

[lagilman]

errr, except that we were talking about Jim Butcher's Codex Alera...

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Oops. And ths you see how traumatized I was by Lev Grossman's "Codex." I can't see the word anymore without going a little mad.... :-)

[nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com]

The author of the essay might be surprised to learn about this book, or any of the numerous others just like it.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

It's a two-fer... not only did Weingrad write the essay, but someone else thought it worth publishing.

Morons.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

There's somebody else I can think of that should be on your list, but she's being very humble right now.

[greatsword.livejournal.com]

"...cannot think of a single major fantasy writer who is Jewish..."

Am I alone in thinking "Dude... New Testament"?

[blitheringpooks.livejournal.com]

Has anybody pointed this out to the idiot? I hope?

I wasn't a fan of Pullman's trilogy, or of his ego.

[havocthecat]

I saw that! [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] posted some links to other people taking exception to this essay as well.

[anghara.livejournal.com]

...um, the GOLEM?!?

And as far as Jewish fantasy writers are concerned...er, Ellen Kushner, Esther Friesner...many MANY others... has this dude read ANYTHING in this genre? Narnia was a little heavy-handed in terms of religious theme and message anyway...

And frankly the Christian faith does NOT have the monopoly on things mystic, thank you very much, and I would appreciate it very much indeed if they would stop strutting and posturing about it. Fantasy doesn't get written - or NOT written - because of the religious affiliation of its creator. And personally I find it astonishing that anybody could even conceive that it SHOULD be....

[lagilman]

Yeah, on the next level down (about an inch down) from Jane Yolen is Ellen Kushner in terms of using Jewish history and culture. But I get the feeling, reading between the lines (perhaps unfairly), that he wasn't considering grrrrl writers as legit, despite quoting Ursula LeGuin

[blitheringpooks.livejournal.com]

There's another issue here. Most Protestants pretty much took the mysticism out of Christianity when they decided that sacraments were Catholic hocus pocus.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

And Lisa Goldstein, I would assume. Possibly she's not considered a major author, whatever that means.

One could make a case that there's comparatively little explicitly Jewish content in genre fantasy compared to the number of Jewish authors.

[lagilman]

Unless you consider the whole "underdog surviving odds and oppression by holding true to his/her beliefs and learning to kick ass [despite being told s/he can't] while doing so" an explicitly Jewish thematic statement of faith...?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Maybe an inexplicitly Jewish statement. I was thinking more of Jewish or fantasy!Jewish characters.

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

EtA: Classic response to this from my (non-Jewish) neighbor: "oh, what his poor mother must be thinking right now..." *dies*

*dies along with suri*

[(Anonymous)]

His problem is that of many non-genre critics: In order to make his thesis work, he creates his own definition of fantasy. As in:

"Some readers may have already expressed surprise at my assertion that Jews do not write fantasy literature. Haven’t modern Jewish writers, from Kafka and Bruno Schulz to Isaac Bashevis Singer and Cynthia Ozick, written about ghosts, demons, magic, and metamorphoses? But the supernatural does not itself define fantasy literature, which is a more specific genre."

So, ya see, fantasy means dragons and medieval settings and stuff like that -- so obviously Jews don't write fantasy.

sigh

[lagilman]

Except of course, that there are Jewish writers who use medieval (or anywhere from 9th century to 16th century) settings, and have dragons and other mythical beasts. Including yr hostess.

(I don't claim to be Notable or even Known, but I do exist, last I checked my tax returns)

So even that excuse fails.

[barb-krasnoff.livejournal.com]

{Sorry, I posted this anonymously accidentally -- here it is with my name properly appended...)

His problem is that of many non-genre critics: In order to make his thesis work, he creates his own definition of fantasy. As in:

"Some readers may have already expressed surprise at my assertion that Jews do not write fantasy literature. Haven’t modern Jewish writers, from Kafka and Bruno Schulz to Isaac Bashevis Singer and Cynthia Ozick, written about ghosts, demons, magic, and metamorphoses? But the supernatural does not itself define fantasy literature, which is a more specific genre."

So, ya see, fantasy means dragons and medieval settings and stuff like that -- so obviously Jews don't write fantasy.

sigh

[lagilman]

and I replied to anon, below. :-)

[katatomic.livejournal.com]

That was kind of what I was thinking... have axe, will grind (on a wheel of prejudice and assumption.)

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

Yet another fantasy hater loving Grossman and Pullman. And to think I'll never get the hours back I spent reading The Magicians - a more enervated piece of intellectual and literary fatuousness I have never read.

In a word,

oy.

[cepetit.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

I'm afraid that I have. The Grossman novel isn't truly bad, but it's nowhere near what it could/should have been. It might have been compared to, say, early drafts of Tamsin or A Fine and Private Place, but those are fantasies published as fantasies by a Jewish writer, which sort of destroys Weingard's thesis. (That points out the major problem with Grossman's works: He desperately needs an editor like Suri to prune the worst aspects of his ego out of his books, at which point he might find that his reputation begins to rise to match his ego.)

But then, I'm a refugee from a never-completed PhD in English focusing on the intersection between political and utopian writing; believe me, I know ennervated writing. Flee! Flee while you can!

I did notice one other amusing thing about that review:

It's in the very first issue of the publication... and looks very much to me like that classic of the professoriate, the pseudoreview essay written to be published just in time so that one can preorder said professor's next book. Gee, looking at the bottom of the page, maybe I'm onto something...

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

I thought The Magicians turned interesting in the middle, when it looked like the story might turn to the ennui of the all powerful. It was the wretched travesty of an adventure story that concluded the book (I think it might have been intended as satire, but it was so badly done it was impossible to tell) that shoveled the book into the dustbin of history for me.

[infiniteviking]

*dies laughing* Oy, I didn't know Peter Beagle was Jewish. Awesome!

[xmurphyjacobsx.livejournal.com]

Oh, now there will be a follow up about Neo-Pagens not writing science fiction or literary non-fiction, and Buddhists not writing cookbooks, or maybe how rarely Islamic authors write romance or....

You know, that could be a party game -- what religious identity does not write which literary genre?

[klingonguy.livejournal.com]

what a putz!

[lizbetann]

I honestly don't know the religious beliefs of author Sharon Shinn, but I would classify her Samaria series as more Jewish than Christian. There are some things that are more from the Christian tradition (the imagery of white-winged angels in particular, if I recall correctly), but the overall feel of the books is "What if Israel was a planet rather than a country?"

[aringler.livejournal.com]

You guys are all so eloquent. I wish I could add something in the same manner, but I'm gonna file this one away with a comment that my orthodox Jewish cousin (a million times removed) told me after I returned home from a ski trip. "You went skiing? Jews don't Ski!" I pretty much had the same reaction.


OY!

medievalism = fantasy?

[auroramama]

I thought he was trying to say something like: [Ashkenazi] Jews don't romanticize medieval times; we'd rather talk about the future. And indeed I didn't find the city of York terribly romantic after walking up the steps to read the history of the Tower, after which Jews were officially barred from England.

I also like to think of Judaism, or at least the version I'm most familiar with, as unafraid to ask questions and try to answer them. That might mean asking God, "Shall not the Judge of all the world do justly?" Or it might mean asking Nature what oak leaves use progesterone for. Or possibly just asking yourself one of the infinite number of questions that begin, "What if...?"

[douglascohen.livejournal.com]

Might I add the name Fritz Leiber to the mix? Good grief!

[douglascohen.livejournal.com]

Oh, and while Leiber may be dead for some years and the author uses "is" to illustrate his "point," you can't raise a point like this when you start off yakking about Tolkien & Lewis, both dead far longer than Leiber.

How Jewish is Jewish?

[misofuhni.livejournal.com]

Very interesting annoyances voiced here. Personally, I don't see why the religion of the author should come into question when there is something called RESEARCH. But, I digress.

Now, I'm not a very knowledgeable person when it comes to many things, and I'm not in the mood to do the research on this, so there. I wonder which branch of Jeudaism this paper serves? Obviously, they editors will say that it serves '...serious readers with Jewish interests...' (I think I have the quote wrong, but again, not in the mood to do the research properly. Hey, at least I'm being honest!) but those of us 'in the know' know that not all Jews are created equal. Could it be that the author of this article was referring to Chasidic Jewish fantasy writers?

Just a thought.

Re: How Jewish is Jewish?

[lagilman]

but those of us 'in the know' know that not all Jews are created equal

I do hope that your tongue was firmly in cheek, there. Especially since you misspelled Judaism rather horribly.

Personally, I don't see why the religion of the author should come into question when there is something called RESEARCH.

I'm not quite sure what your point is, here. The review/essay was not about handling the Other in fantasy, but in influences of an author's own (minority) culture versus the dominant trope. Similar arguments, but not at all the same. As an academic exercise, it's of interest, and I would have been fascinated to see what someone willing to do their homework came up with, in response.