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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Spellbound in New Jersey...

The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;

But a tyrant spell has bound me

And I cannot, cannot go.



The giant trees are bending

Their bare boughs weighed with snow.

And the storm is fast descending,

And yet I cannot go.



Clouds beyond clouds above me,


Wastes beyond wastes below;

But nothing dear can move me;

I will not, cannot go.

...Spellbound by Emily Bronte (not from New Jersey, but would have been great on the Palisades)
 
 
This is a short, creepy poem about things we can't escape from.  For me, I guess, it's writing.  I have missed this blog and the opportunity it provides to get some ideas out.  God gave us this gift of a snow day -  I have enjoyed snow days since 1961 when I was in Kindergarten at St. Francis Academy in Union City - and I have promised myself to post here today. 

Nemesis looking rather aggravated...
 
Lots of reading and writing since we last met, most notably Philip Roth's Nemesis.  This "alternate history" novel is centered on a deadly outbreak of polio in Newark during WWII.  (Newark was actually beset by polio in 1916.) The disease is surely a metaphor for the Holocaust and the impact of surviving a nightmare.  The protagonist is a good-natured soul who becomes beaten-down by the disease he tries to escape and who himself becomes the "method of transport" for the physically crippling polio.  Nemesis, in Greek mythology, is the agent of punishment and balance.  A "nemesis" cannot be defeated; it is one's undoing.  This novel is the story of a guy who has gotten just one too many breaks and whose good luck catches up with him.  He has missed the chance to be a hero.  He carries his nemesis on his back by being a survivor, living in a world of shame and darkness of his own making.
 
It  is reminiscent of Roth's earlier story Eli the Fanatic, which appears in Goodbye, Columbus.  ("What do we do with survivor European Jews who have landed here in suburban Long Island?")  It certainly is connected to Roth's The Plot Against America, the story of President Charles Lindbergh and his election's impact on the Jews of Newark and the nation generally.  Roth asks, "What if?" in these stories in which new historical heroes and villians emerge when opportunites are presented for both courage and disgrace.
 
Ever think about your own "what if"?  Consider the chess pieces on the board of your own life.  What would have happened if you made a few different moves?  More importantly, what would that difference mean?
 
Glad to be back.  Keep reading and writing,
 
Maureen