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I am having some feelings!!!
I am reading my way through Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others and wow, I do admire the heck out of this man's brain. I already knew I did, because I'd read and heard interviews with him and I think he's an impressive person. Clearly a genius. I like how he takes an idea and pushes it to its logical conclusion and then builds an entire world around that. I don't feel like it's an approach I often see in speculative fiction, and frankly, it should be. I don't particularly connect to his writing emotionally, but as a kind of brain teaser exercise, I am finding it quite stimulating.
But! I am having very mixed feelings about how he takes Jewish texts and literalizes them! On one level: it's very cool! "The Tower of Babylon" takes the cosmology of the book of Genesis, asks, "What if the literal reading of this were in fact the way the world works?" and combines it with the question of, "What if it was really possible for the Tower of Babel to reach the heavens?" Genius idea! And I think it's really well-executed, actually. I was truly impressed with that first story.
But then in "Seventy-Two Letters," he's exploring both Kabbalistic names and the concept of the golem. In this world, Kabbalistic learning has been appropriated--no, straight-up stolen--from Jewish communities and turned into an Enlightenmentesque, Cartesian kind of science, which is being exploited capitalistically because of course it is.
And, like, I get the choice to write about this from the pov of the privileged white Englishmen who are doing the sciencing. I 100% buy that in that world, they would be doing this exact thing. But I am now SCREAMING about what else is going on in this world, particularly with Jewish and trans people.
So I am absolutely going to request "Seventy-Two Letters" for Yuletide and this is what I'm going to say:
I know essentially nothing about Kabbalah and a medium amount but not enough about 19th century Ashkenazi culture, so I couldn't possibly write this fic, but omg I need someone to do it!!! Take back this world for the Jews!!!!
Also, I want to know what is going on with Ted Chiang. I can understand, living in a Christianity-infused society, why he would take the supernatural elements of that dominate faith and literalize them. But thus far, he's two for two doing it about specifically Jewish ideas, not Christian ones, and that is making me go ????? Not...necessarily in a bad way, just a very curious one.
Essentially, I am just not sure how I feel about this and I am very interested in knowing a) if he does this in more stories and b) how other people feel about it.
But! I am having very mixed feelings about how he takes Jewish texts and literalizes them! On one level: it's very cool! "The Tower of Babylon" takes the cosmology of the book of Genesis, asks, "What if the literal reading of this were in fact the way the world works?" and combines it with the question of, "What if it was really possible for the Tower of Babel to reach the heavens?" Genius idea! And I think it's really well-executed, actually. I was truly impressed with that first story.
But then in "Seventy-Two Letters," he's exploring both Kabbalistic names and the concept of the golem. In this world, Kabbalistic learning has been appropriated--no, straight-up stolen--from Jewish communities and turned into an Enlightenmentesque, Cartesian kind of science, which is being exploited capitalistically because of course it is.
And, like, I get the choice to write about this from the pov of the privileged white Englishmen who are doing the sciencing. I 100% buy that in that world, they would be doing this exact thing. But I am now SCREAMING about what else is going on in this world, particularly with Jewish and trans people.
So I am absolutely going to request "Seventy-Two Letters" for Yuletide and this is what I'm going to say:
For HaShem’s sake, someone tell me what’s going on in the margins of this world! Either turn it Jewish or turn it queer, I’m not picky!
So the rich white dudes are busy turning Kabbalistic ideas about naming into a science for ends in capitalism or eugenics. Horrifying! But I do not believe that Jews are just sitting around pouting about how their holy exercise in mysticism is being misused. Is there a Marx figure who’s writing manifestos about how an intrinsically Jewish practice has been stolen by the worst of the goyim? Is there a Herzl figure searching for a political solution? Are there women demanding more egalitarian access to Kabbalah as a way of preserving it? Is there an overlap between Bund activism and the need to take back Kabbalah? Is anarchist rhetoric marrying the exploitation of the proletariat and the exploitation of intrinsically Jewish spirituality and getting really, really pissed off about it?
And what about the past? This has clearly been going on for some centuries (probably since the Renaissance?) so how has it affected the standing of Jewish communities in various parts of the world? Are they treated worse or better?
Alternately: I am not wild about this enforcement of the sexual binary! What is going on with trans people in this world????
I know essentially nothing about Kabbalah and a medium amount but not enough about 19th century Ashkenazi culture, so I couldn't possibly write this fic, but omg I need someone to do it!!! Take back this world for the Jews!!!!
Also, I want to know what is going on with Ted Chiang. I can understand, living in a Christianity-infused society, why he would take the supernatural elements of that dominate faith and literalize them. But thus far, he's two for two doing it about specifically Jewish ideas, not Christian ones, and that is making me go ????? Not...necessarily in a bad way, just a very curious one.
Essentially, I am just not sure how I feel about this and I am very interested in knowing a) if he does this in more stories and b) how other people feel about it.
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