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Missing Saul Bellow’s Legacy: On Gary Shteyngart’s Tepid Reading of Bellow...
One of the main tasks of the introduction is to make the work of an author relevant for contemporary readers. But sometimes book publishers choose the wrong people to write introductions for books of...
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“He’s a schlemiel…And proud of it: Upstate New York native overwhelmed by...
Last Sunday (May 3), I spoke at Knesseth Israel Synagogue which is located in my hometown: Gloversville, New York. I talked about the Schlemiel, being an American and a Jew, and my family’s path to...
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Saul Bellow’s Herzog on “Downward Transcendence” and the “Humiliating Comedy...
What does a modern Jewish heart yearn for? And how is it torn? These are questions that were of great interest to Saul Bellow when he wrote his novel, Herzog. His main character’s last name, Herzog,...
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A Schlemiel With a Russian Revolver: On the Un-Heroic Conduct of Saul...
Ruth Wisse calls the schlemiel a “modern hero.” But the term is ironic. The schlemiel cannot be a typical modern hero who, like many a western hero, does something courageous and saves the day. The...
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A Schlemiel With a Russian Revolver: On the Un-Heroic Conduct of Saul...
What happens when a schlemiel has been offended and made into a fool? When they are duped, I.B. Singer’s Gimpel doesn’t get heated up and neither does Aleichem’s Menachem Mendel or Motl. Mendel Mocher...
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A Schlemiel With a Russian Revolver: On the Unheroic Conduct of Saul Bellow’s...
On November 18, 1917 Franz Kafka wrote in one of his Octavio Notebooks the following meditation on good and evil: “Evil knows the Good, but Good does not know of Evil.” What Kafka was getting at is...
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Saul Bellow’s Literary Question: What Happens When a Schlemiel Nearly Dies...
The experience of injustice can send one into deep reflection over the meaning and purpose of one’s life. And, depending on how meaningful the self-reflection is, such introspection may spur a will to...
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The Memory of Death, Comedy & Humanity: Herzog’s Encounter with Suffering &...
Religion, philosophy, literature, and the arts have, since time immemorial, been concerned with the meaning of death and suffering. All religions, books, or artworks do not, by any means, have the...
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How Awkward! On Adam Kotsko’s Pauline Reading of Larry David
As we move more and more into the fluid world of social networking, we see more people inside of academia make claims that are daring and attention-grabbing. One such claim is made at the end of Adam...
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Failure, Theft, Schlemiels, and Millennials: On Noah Baumbach’s “Mistress...
Noah Baumbach has a penchant for contrasting the young and the old, the naïve and the shrewd, the ethical person and the thief. Many of his characters are immature and, at an older age, seem caught...
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On Innocence, Forgetfulness, and Reading in Kafka’s “Amerika: The Man Who...
Kafka was fascinated with the meaning of innocence and guilt. His characters are often portrayed as both innocent and guilty. But the confluence of the two appeals not so much to a theological...
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Verbing in Yinglish: If One Can Now Be Schlonged, Can One Also Be Schlemieled?
Last week, Donald Trump’s use of the Yiddish word “schlong” prompted countless articles and news pieces on the meaning of the word. The Washington Post put out several interesting and even comical...
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Profiting off of American Losers: Leslie Fiedler On Power, Guilt & Failure in...
Near the end of his life, Leslie Fiedler, the celebrated (or is it notorious – Irving Howe – one of the greatest voices in post-WWII literary criticism – thought of Fiedler as a charlatan)...
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Happy Birthday Saul Bellow!
Today is Saul Bellow’s birthday. In honor of his birthday, I have decided to hyperlink several essays I have written on his wonderful work. Enjoy! Saul Bellow on Shalom Aleichem’s Motl. Saul...
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Americans, Slow Learners, Schlemiels: On Thomas Pynchon’s Comical Figurations...
In his book 24/7, Jonathan Crary suggests that our “24/7” society of endless social networking is taking over our lives. We are endlessly checking and updating our Facebook pages and, as things speed...
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Leaving the Sect: Reflections on Irving Howe’s Portrayal of His Intellectual...
One of the most interesting stories of Jewish-American intellectual life in the 20th century is that of Irving Howe who, for years, was an iconic thinker, a storied American literary critic, and a...
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A Note on Seth Rogen and His Stoner-Schlemiel Character
Ten years after Seth Rogen appeared in Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up (2007) as a stoner schlemiel, Seth Rogen has made this character into his biggest selling point. Here is a list of movies where we see...
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Hearing Comics: Audio Renditions of Ben Katchor’s “Julius Knipl: Real Estate...
The comic strips, graphic novels, and story-images of Ben Katchor are one of a kind. Many of his strips manages to touch on something particular to being Jewish and American. Michael Chabon – the...
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Bodies that Matter: The Schlemiel as Cuckold, the Jewish Philosopher’s Body &...
One of my favorite scenes in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall (1976) is near the end, when Alvy Singer flies out to Los Angeles from New York City to see Annie Hall. The plot twists when Alvy Singer meets...
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Happy Birthday to Schlemiel Theory!
Dear Schlemiel Lovers, On February 18th, Schlemiel Theory turned four years old! I am happy to report that Schlemiel Theory is – today – the most popular blog not only on the Schlemiel but also in the...
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