Start the projector so nobody can go home

[sovay]

Okay, that last post kind of signed off like Wittgenstein and I am trying not to do that anymore. Especially when I spent the later portions of the day at the MFA with derspatchel, looking at everything from Rembrandt etchings to hippie-inspired haute couture (seriously, it's not a condescending exhibit, it's great) to Dutch Art Nouveau. I insist on doing things despite being dead tired, which is why I'm going grocery shopping this afternoon and then meeting Rob and rushthatspeaks and gaudior for a first-day showing of The World's End (2013) at the Somerville Theatre. Have some links in the meanwhile.

Rob has been reading a lot of Silver Age, mostly Canadian comics that have fallen out of copyright and landed on the internet. I don't have another explanation for where this Tumblr came from. "Next time I must bring an axe and see what is behind that partition."

We weren't disagreeing, but while discussing representation and stereotyping, I found myself saying, "And not all Jews are from New York!" (And most of the ones who are still aren't Woody Allen, thank God.) Therefore I really appreciated finding, later on in the day, this photo sequence of different kinds of Jews. Historical and contemporary. And then I recommend reading Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road (2007) and strange_selkie's A Verse from Babylon (2005) and probably other books I don't know about, so people should tell me.

It's from last week, but I am not on the twenty-four-second news cycle of the internet and so I just discovered this comparison of the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the present situation in Sochi by an actual historian: "Why We Participated in the 1936 Nazi Games: Lessons for Sochi." I like anyone who starts their argument by admitting that history cannot in fact repeat itself, which is not the same thing as all parallels being false.

Oh, Joss Whedon. And a gratuitous slam at the French New Wave, too.

Something about the light must have shifted this morning: I was reminded strongly of late summer in New Haven as I got up and made a rice-cake sandwich for lunch, which of course I never ate when I was at Yale. I wonder if that will be with me forever. Probably as long as I'm in New England. Oh, well. I like it here.

Comments

[phi]

That last post sounded no more like Wittgenstein to me than the one with the snippet about the bruise-eyed muse (that image has stayed with me, even though I can't find the post in question now). But then I have my own contentious relationship with sleep to inform my reading.

[sovay]

That last post sounded no more like Wittgenstein to me than the one with the snippet about the bruise-eyed muse

Well, the bit where I was apologizing unnecessarily was Wittgensteinian. The bit about Twelfth Night, I admit wasn't so much his style. At least not that I know about. I have no idea how he felt about Shakespeare. He liked detective novels a lot.

(that image has stayed with me, even though I can't find the post in question now).

Here, I think. Thank you.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

And here's a link for you:
A Captain America diary in comic form, that I thought you might enjoy. I stayed up way too late last night reading it.

[sovay]

A Captain America diary in comic form, that I thought you might enjoy. I stayed up way too late last night reading it.

Dude; I've never heard of this! Thank you. Shall try not to stay up all night with it myself.

[edit] Oh, well.

Having to go back to the last page and read scrolling up because that's how Tumblr organizes was slightly annoying, meaning I wish it had a regular webcomic format, but content-wise, absolutely worth it. Thank you again!

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the link to the photo essay. The but Jews are white! stereotype bothers me on a visceral level.

[sovay]

The but Jews are white! stereotype bothers me on a visceral level.

Agreed. [edit] See elaboration to nineweaving below for further thought, subject admittedly to being extremely tired.

(Aside from the complicated issue of whether Jews are considered white in American culture. My mother has never checked "White" on any form that asks for race or ethnicity. She checks "Other" and writes in "Jewish." She was born in 1946 and when she was three and her father was the first Jewish professor on campus at the University of Mississippi at Oxford, they were very definitely not.)

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Ooh! The World's End! Was it good?

Love the all-shades-of-bread Jews essay.

Nine

[sovay]

Ooh! The World's End! Was it good?

I think it's the best film Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright have made together. I don't know if I can promise a writeup tonight due to exhaustion, but I'll try to get some notes down. I'm hoping it shows again at the 'Thon next year.

Love the all-shades-of-bread Jews essay.

It matters to me, not categorizing people so simply. There's a personal edge to it: I've had my Jewishness called into question even though matrilineal descent is something not even Haredim are going to disagree with, because my father isn't Jewish (isn't any other religion, either, but that doesn't seem to matter to the argument) and I don't like being told that I exemplify the problem of assimilation in American Judaism. But also, I was explaining to derspatchel—diaspora, people. A population is suddenly and vehemently decentralized, exile and the far-flung nature of their different branches becomes a strangely basic component of the culture, why on earth are you surprised when its members turn up everywhere? I think it's wonderful that they do. I really want to learn to read Yevanic.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Love the photos of Jews all over the world--weirdly, we were just talking about stereotypes of how people look, and those photos came in handy as an example of how reality is so much better than stereotype.

It is autumnal now. Early autumn, anyway. Cusp weather.

[sovay]

Love the photos of Jews all over the world--weirdly, we were just talking about stereotypes of how people look, and those photos came in handy as an example of how reality is so much better than stereotype.

Reality is always better than stereotype—I can't think of many uses for stereotype, frankly, except in comedy and then you should still be careful which way the joke is going. It's weirder and more interesting. I realize as I type this that it's sort of my argument about the Greek gods, generalized to people. Nobody thinks about Athene as a strategist and I know nothing about the Jews of China. People should read Homeric epic more closely and I should learn more about the religion I was born to. I like knowing the variation is out there.

Early autumn, anyway. Cusp weather.

Well, and I'm moving. That at least is bizarrely familiar.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Therefore I really appreciated finding, later on in the day, this photo sequence of different kinds of Jews. Historical and contemporary.

Thank you so much for sharing this. There are some amazing images and fascinating stories in it. My mother was delighted with it.

And your reference to Yevanic in a comment above has led me to the discovery that Mycenaean Greek has (had?) no articles. For some reason I can't articulate I am intrigued.

I hope you can find the time and access to learn to read Yevanic, in any case. It sounds worthwhile.

[sovay]

And your reference to Yevanic in a comment above has led me to the discovery that Mycenaean Greek has (had?) no articles.

Huh. They're still demonstrative pronouns?

I hope you can find the time and access to learn to read Yevanic, in any case. It sounds worthwhile.

I would need texts and time. Thank you.