Hey! I just stumbled on your Stubstack and these articles so perhaps I’m going to be a little redundant with regard to explorations you’ve already undertaken. You’ve somewhat touched on it but I would add I think one more essential component to Jewish storytelling is the language used — the attention to the self-contradictory and self-alienating nature of how words are strung together by Jewish writers reflecting their very own psychologies that surpasses the structure of the plot or character choices. Think about not only the stories in Aggadah but the manner in which Talmud collectively is full of argumentation and contradiction. Or how Kabbalah breaks down singular letters into greater spiritual conceptions. Gershom Scholem in particular did an extensive study of the language of Kabbalah, that was then even further expanded on by Harold Bloom in his “Kabbalah and Criticism”. Just some thoughts.
Thank you for this comment. My thinking has evolved a bit since this post but you are correct that I have tended to not highlight Jewish language as its own category. It’s something I am considering for the future in upcoming posts - and so I appreciate the mentions of further sources to look into. The only place so far that I have addressed language is my post where I tried to the approach of PaRDeS into the writing and outlining process (and then in a case study of the novel Next Stop when I used PaRDeS to organize my analysis. The P - peshat - would be where I discuss language choice. Edit: maybe actually R- Remez re poetic use of language 🤔 something to ponder). So - yeah- I do agree language choice is an important part of the discussion and it will be mentioned more going forward. Thank you again for calling me out on that here and for giving me another angle for further research!!
I am not really a novel writer myself either. I am always happy to hear and ask questions about other people’s ideas though. I had started writing a post about the idea and history and meaning of the golem but it still needs a lot of work so…🤷♀️ we’ll see if I ever finish it.
Haven’t read this post carefully enough, but I see that you reference Dara Horn. Have you read any of her novels? I think she’s the best living Jewish novelist…
Thanks!! This was the first time I really tried to outline this in a semi formal way so I am open to feedback if you think there is anything I missed. Lol. But I enjoy attempting to create frameworks and labels and structures for concepts regardless of whether they really need structure so…I enjoyed writing it.
Hey! I just stumbled on your Stubstack and these articles so perhaps I’m going to be a little redundant with regard to explorations you’ve already undertaken. You’ve somewhat touched on it but I would add I think one more essential component to Jewish storytelling is the language used — the attention to the self-contradictory and self-alienating nature of how words are strung together by Jewish writers reflecting their very own psychologies that surpasses the structure of the plot or character choices. Think about not only the stories in Aggadah but the manner in which Talmud collectively is full of argumentation and contradiction. Or how Kabbalah breaks down singular letters into greater spiritual conceptions. Gershom Scholem in particular did an extensive study of the language of Kabbalah, that was then even further expanded on by Harold Bloom in his “Kabbalah and Criticism”. Just some thoughts.
Thank you for this comment. My thinking has evolved a bit since this post but you are correct that I have tended to not highlight Jewish language as its own category. It’s something I am considering for the future in upcoming posts - and so I appreciate the mentions of further sources to look into. The only place so far that I have addressed language is my post where I tried to the approach of PaRDeS into the writing and outlining process (and then in a case study of the novel Next Stop when I used PaRDeS to organize my analysis. The P - peshat - would be where I discuss language choice. Edit: maybe actually R- Remez re poetic use of language 🤔 something to ponder). So - yeah- I do agree language choice is an important part of the discussion and it will be mentioned more going forward. Thank you again for calling me out on that here and for giving me another angle for further research!!
Also I have an excellent idea for a modern-day Golem themed novel that I probably won’t have time to write, hmu if you wanna hear about it
I am not really a novel writer myself either. I am always happy to hear and ask questions about other people’s ideas though. I had started writing a post about the idea and history and meaning of the golem but it still needs a lot of work so…🤷♀️ we’ll see if I ever finish it.
Haven’t read this post carefully enough, but I see that you reference Dara Horn. Have you read any of her novels? I think she’s the best living Jewish novelist…
I have read her book of essays but none of her fiction yet. It’s on my list! I do plan for get to it. I hear good things.
I enjoyed reading this! It’s a topic I think of fairly often, especially as a convert as that changes the paradigm in some ways.
Thanks!! This was the first time I really tried to outline this in a semi formal way so I am open to feedback if you think there is anything I missed. Lol. But I enjoy attempting to create frameworks and labels and structures for concepts regardless of whether they really need structure so…I enjoyed writing it.