Tag Archives: isaac babel

empathy notwithstanding: doomed, but to what?

… after the UN had sanctioned, seemingly miraculously,  the state of Israel with its original two-state solution, Hannah Arendt , with some justification, foresaw that if Jews were to survive its War of Independence, they would realize the achievements of … Continue reading

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if he was a carpenter

Bob Dylan and how to integrate jewish humor within a Western and heavily Christianized context.It takes a certain genius and chutzpah to place himself as a Hasid, somehow lost, but at home in what could be wild party in Odessa … Continue reading

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job qualifications

Apparently there is what appears to be a joke, but is actually part of the questionnaire one fills out for employment in Russia. One of the series of questions turns on past history of relationship with the legal institutions of … Continue reading

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Leo and the stick man

Its about storytelling.Its about old wild men. But not the kind of tales told by the old beaks over a coffee at the mall, dangling worry beads like imaginary large fish they never caught. Old men and the sea who … Continue reading

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above the law: shadows of angels

Germany using Israeli lawyers to help “repatriate” Kafka manuscripts and literary legacy back to Germany. Keeping the works under lock and key, like incarcerated hostages out of Jozef Fritzl. It should burnish the national brand, used as export propaganda for … Continue reading

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circumstantial angels

It was the art of circumstantial speech. Mixed with the art of underestimation, with some irritating asides thrown in for good measure. Well, Peter Falk did act funny. This uncanny ability to start talking in one direction and going off … Continue reading

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telling stories about the book of j

The recent death of Brazilian writer Moacyr Scliar provides a point of departure for examining writing that is outside the ken of the north American context and is deeply inflected with Scliar’s central influences such as Kafka, Isaac Babel, Schlem … Continue reading

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from russia with blood: soul on ice

A Russian soul on ice somewhere freezing somewhere in a clearly unromantic wasteland of the north?Valery Popov: “he killed six people, but his soul was pure.”  Russian history, its tragedies, sufferings and near fatalistic natures can lead one to conclude … Continue reading

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