Tag Archives: literature

Get Out! (Constricted Space) (Kafka Complete Stories)

Posted on November 28, 2012 by zjb

There’s no reason to “like” Franz Kafka. He didn’t like himself either. It took me forever to get through The Compete Stories by Franz Kafka, and I’m now of the opinion that Kafka was right. Max Brod should have burnt … Continue reading →

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Finding the Right Genre: Politics as Fable (Doris Lessing)

Posted on November 26, 2012 by zjb

I’ve been thinking about “the political” a lot these days and reading a lot of online journalism following the news, and I keep bumping into  the question of genre, namely trying to figure out a way to wrap my mind … Continue reading →

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Kafka Days of Awe (Yom Kippur)

Posted on September 24, 2012 by zjb

According to Mishnah Yoma, the High Priest at the Temple would read, among other things, the Book of Job on the evening before Yom Kippur. It’s an odd choice, if only at first glance. In years previous I’ve read more … Continue reading →

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Alien Abduction (What is “The Star of Redemption”?) (An Open Letter to An Old Friend) (Habonim, Park School, and Academic Life)

Posted on September 9, 2012 by zjb

Dear Mark [Hershkowitz]: Thanks so much for the FB comment earlier this week about my post(s) about “Franz Rosenzweig” at JPP. You were right to call attention to the gibberish about I seem so often to write. Now that I … Continue reading →

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Hymns to the Night (New York State Fair)

Posted on September 2, 2012 by zjb

Before all the wondrous shows of the widespread space around him, what living, sentient thing loves not the all-joyous light — with its colors, its rays and undulations, its gentle omnipresence in the form of the wakening Day? The giant-world … Continue reading →

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Animal Politics (Fox Fables) (Berechiah ha-Nakdan)

Posted on August 30, 2012 by zjb

Sovereignty means that the strong eat the weak, who survive only by their wits, all and each out for their own against the other. This is what we learn about animal life, the unvarnished truth in Fox Fables, the English translation of Mishlei … Continue reading →

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Islam and Enlightenment (Gender, Jokes, and the Difference that Makes no Difference) (Nathan the Wise)

Posted on August 29, 2012 by zjb

One of the caricatures of the Enlightenment is that the entire system is predicated upon a universalism that precludes cultural difference and particularism. It’s a lazy caricature typically used by conservatives and crypto conservatives to beat up liberalism. It does … Continue reading →

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Reason, Religion, Style (Lessing in Jerusalem)

Posted on August 28, 2012 by zjb

2012 was an extraordinarily busy year for me regarding publications, mainly by accident. There was a huge backlog of old material prepared and/or submitted years ago that have finally seen the light of day. This one was not in the … Continue reading →

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Angels in America (Jewish)

Posted on May 4, 2012 by zjb

  [[Ignaty Nivinsky The Red Lightning (1919)]]   What’s so Jewish about Angels in America, part II, Perestroika? Let’s start with Louis. When I saw part I, Millennium  workshoped (in very gentile) San Francisco, this bothered me a lot, this … Continue reading →

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Angels in America (Comic & Serious Modes in Secular “Religion”)

Posted on May 2, 2012 by zjb

Just finished reading Angels in America, part II Perestroika for the first time. It was the capstone text to my class on American Judaism, which I think is just perfect. It has grand historical arc. It’s queer and it’s Jewish … Continue reading →

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