Sunlit Water

Every Generation Loses The Messiah It Has Failed To Deserve

teofilo — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:02:08 +0000

My mom read The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon a few years ago and liked it a lot. When I moved to Alaska she bought me a copy of it, and I finally got around to reading it a couple weeks ago. I can definitely see why she liked it; she once told me that one of the things that she found really amazing about going to Israel was that everyone was Jewish, even the bus drivers and stuff, which I think was a big contrast from her experience of growing up Jewish in a big, diverse American city where there were a lot of Jews but they filled a handful of specific societal niches. The idea of a totally Jewish society seems to have a strong pull on her imagination, and YPU presents just such a society in the incongruous setting of Alaska. The fact that it adhered quite closely to the canons of the gritty detective novel probably just heightens the sense of intriguing incongruity when viewed from that perspective.

I was not really as entranced with the book as my mom was, although I did enjoy it overall and I’m glad I read it. Partly this is because I found the political subtext to the thing, while subtle and nuanced, sufficiently clear and different from my own perspective to grate. Obviously this is alternate history, and it’s well done as such, so it’s not like there’s a direct relationship to real-world politics, but the underlying idea Chabon seems to have about the Jewish presence in Sitka is that this is in some sense a grim picture of a world without Israel, and I’m pretty resistant to the idea that such a world would necessarily be so grim. On the one hand, of course, the grittiness is just part of the noir genre conventions, but on the other hand Chabon ties that feeling very effectively to the sense of gloom haunting Sitka on the eve of “Reversion” of the District of Sitka to the State of Alaska, which is portrayed as involving most or all of the Jews being kicked out with nowhere to go. In this worldview, it’s always 1948, and everywhere in the world that Jews are present tolerates them only grudgingly and is quite happy to kick them out whenever given a chance. That’s certainly a plausible picture of what would have happened in Chabon’s alternate timeline, but I’m not willing to go along with it as the inevitable outcome of having given the Jews Sitka instead of Palestine. I don’t feel like I’m under any threat of being kicked out of the US, and I doubt Chabon feels that way either. I’m unwilling to chalk the huge changes in worldwide attitudes toward Jews over the past sixty years exclusively to the existence of the State of Israel.

That gets me to another of the issues I have with the book, which is that it’s really a book about Israel rather than a book about Alaska. By this I don’t mean the way there is a Zionist movement of a sort in the world of the book, which ends up playing a somewhat important role in the plot, but that the shadow of Israel hangs over everything about Chabon’s Sitka. In this timeline, the Zionists lost the war in 1948 and the survivors were relocated to Sitka, which (maybe for this reason but maybe not) has developed into a big city that is suspiciously like real-world contemporary Israel in a number of ways, with the Tlingit filling in for the Palestinians. Chabon gets his few references to the real history and geography of Alaska right as far as I can tell, but this is very much not a book about Alaska. It’s a book about Jews, and especially about how no one loves them and whatever shall they do?

It’s not that Chabon’s Sitka is implausible; instead, it’s that it is in fact depressingly plausible given his background assumptions. I had some trouble getting through the book on account of this, although part of that was probably that I’m just not that into hard-boiled detective stories. Still, everything about the picture of Sitka Chabon paints here is pretty grim. I haven’t yet been to the real Sitka, but from what I understand it’s actually nothing like this totally fictional city Chabon puts in its place.

Less plausible than the setting is the plot, and here again I think my problems are with the genre conventions rather than with Chabon’s use of them. It just gets pretty hard to suspend my disbelief when he has his detective protagonist doing all kinds of crazy stuff that real policemen don’t actually do. Chabon’s a skilled writer, so it’s an entertaining read, especially once the plot really kicks into high gear, but I found it best not to dwell too much on the plausibility of any of the plot.

I read the book partly because my mom kept bugging me about it, but also because as a Jew living in Alaska I figured it was important for me to read the only major literary work touching on the subject of Jews in Alaska probably ever, and certainly in my lifetime. I’m glad I did, even though I found it a pretty frustrating read at some points. I’m not a big fan of novels, and this might actually be the first one I’ve read since Tristram Shandy (which I liked a lot more). For people who are, and who like gritty detective stories in particular, and who are not inclined to overanalyze the political undertones of everything they read, this book would probably be pretty fun.

My New Year’s Eve

teofilo — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 07:03:54 +0000

I figured there was likely to be a lot going on downtown, so I set out in that direction around 8 pm. As I was walking over I saw fireworks, which turned out to be the tail end of a family-friendly show sponsored by the IBEW in Town Square Park. It was over when I got there, but there were still a bunch of families with small kids playing in the snow and on the ice sculptures they had set up. Town Square Park is also where Occupy Anchorage is, and they were there too. They’re down to a single tent and a small card table, with only three or four people there at a time, but they were mingling with the crowd. Nobody seems to mind them much, which is probably reflective of the relatively good economy in Alaska limiting their appeal and hence any perception that they might be a serious threat to the powers that be.

There were a bunch of food trucks and booths around the perimeter of the park, but they already being taken down by the time I got there. I stopped by one that was still open and got a reindeer hot dog, which seemed seasonally appropriate. It was okay; it basically just tasted like a regular hot dog, but a high-quality one. Reindeer sausage is a big thing here, especially in more touristy contexts, and I take it there are many types of which this was just one.

After the hot dog I headed over to a nearby bar, paid the $10 cover, and sat down at the only unoccupied table. I suspect it was unoccupied because it was right next to the window, which was not particularly well insulated, so sitting there was pretty cold. The low ended up being around zero, and while it was a few degrees warmer when I first got to the bar, that’s still not very warm. It was fine, though.

After I’d been there a few minutes and had ordered a beer, three people showed up and asked if I was reserving the table for anyone. I said I wasn’t, and they asked if they could sit with me. I said yes, and they settled in. They had a bunch of friends coming, so as nearby tables came available they would snag them too. It was a nice group. Most of them were from the Interior, and many were Native. That’s a demographic I haven’t had much interaction with so far, so it was interesting hanging out with them. They were about my age, too, which was nice. I don’t really have much in common with them otherwise, but they were fun to spend New Year’s with.

They decided I looked like Blake Shelton and proceeded to call me that for the rest of the night. I hadn’t even heard of him before, but once they showed me pictures of him (they basically all had smartphones) I had to agree that there was a certain resemblance. At one point he even appeared on TV, performing at some New Year’s event in LA, and this caused much hilarity among our group.

At midnight there was a champagne toast, and I left and went home shortly afterward. All in all it was one of the more successful New Year’s Eves I’ve had in recent years, so that was nice.

The Year Of Many Cities

teofilo — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 04:50:55 +0000

Continuing my ongoing tradition, here are the cities I visited this year:

Highland Park, NJ
Netanya, Israel
Tel Aviv, Israel
Jerusalem, Israel
Albuquerque, NM
Lubbock, TX
Shamrock, TX
Clayton, NM
Philadelphia, PA
New York, NY
Miami Beach, FL
Pittsburgh, PA
Newark, OH
Chillicothe, OH
Florence, KY
St. Louis, MO
Cape Girardeau, MO
Jackson, TN
Memphis, TN
Little Rock, AR
Ft. Smith, AR
Erick, OK
Price, UT
Ontario, OR
Huntington, OR
Bellingham, WA
Haines Junction, YT
Glennallen, AK
Anchorage, AK

Once again, in keeping with the ground rules, this list only includes places I spent the night, and it includes small towns but doesn’t include truly rural areas or ferries. Each city is only listed once, and the cities are in the order I first visited them.

That’s a lot of travel. I’m pretty sure I traveled more in 2011 than I have in any other year. It was a blast.

In general, 2011 was a good year for me. After spending so long without much idea of where my life was going, I’ve finally figured it out and ended up in a place I like where I may end up staying for a while. Even if I don’t, I do have a good idea of what I would be doing if I end up moving elsewhere. Things are definitely looking up for me at this point, and here’s hoping 2012 will be just as good.

Mine Is Purple

teofilo — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 08:32:34 +0000

When I moved up here my mom gave me my dad’s old copy of What Color Is Your Parachute? I just finished reading it, and it’s quite good. It was an interesting read in that my dad’s copy is the 2001 edition, and there was some stuff in it that was clearly written in response to an idea at the time that the internet had totally transformed the job search such that books like it had become obsolete. There was something of a defensive tone to some of the discussion of the internet. As it turns out, however, the internet didn’t transform the job search that much, and what Bolles says about it in this edition has stood the test of time fairly well, which is more than can be said for the more extreme online triumphalism from that period.

In any case, I found the book quite helpful. I have already more or less stumbled into what seems to be the ideal career for me, in part by independently arriving at some of the conclusions Bolles advocates, so I haven’t actually done any of the exercises or anything, but I may in the future, especially if my current path doesn’t end up leading me anywhere. For people who are still flailing about trying to find a path in life, as I was until quite recently, I’d say this is a very helpful read. I’m sure there are other equally helpful career guidebooks out there, but this one has attained its iconic status in the popular discourse for a reason.

Seriously

teofilo — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 02:59:03 +0000

What the hell kind of Canadian schedules a t-shirt-based event in the middle of December?

(Yes, I realize he sells sweatshirts too, but it’s still mostly t-shirts.)

Eleven

teofilo — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:33:01 +0000

As a quasi-employee of the federal government I of course have Veterans’ Day off. This year it’s particularly noteworthy because of the numerological coincidence, but as I’ve mentioned before I think remembering the actual origin of the holiday as Armistice Day is important and unfortunately often overlooked in this country. It’s interesting to note in this connection that Obama’s proclamation of the holiday this year explicitly mentions the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

Alaska Is Great

teofilo — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:02:24 +0000

I keep meaning to write some more substantial posts here, and I have some ideas for things I want to talk about, but I have not yet been able to find the time or initiative to do so. I did make it to Anchorage fine, though not without a bit of car trouble on the way (one of the things I’ve been meaning to do a longer post on), and I’m liking my internship a lot. It’s really interesting work in a pleasant setting. It does take up a lot of my time, obviously, which is partly why I haven’t been blogging much lately. Anyway, things are going well, and I’ll get around to posting more at some point.

Ten Years

teofilo — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 06:45:58 +0000

I don’t have anything particularly important to say about the tenth anniversary of 9/11, but I felt I should probably mark the occasion. I knew I had written up an account of my experience of the event, and I thought it was in a post here but it turned out to be in a comment at Unfogged. In looking for it here, though, I came across the post I did on the fifth anniversary. It’s interesting to see how my perspective has changed in five years. The post is mainly about foreign policy and why it’s best not just to trust politicians’ judgment on it, which I think holds up, but the more interesting thing to me is how I talk about being more interested personally in foreign than in domestic policy. That has definitely changed, and these days I’m much more knowledgeable about and engaged with domestic issues, which actually involve much more than just “moving large sums of money around” (as I said then). Indeed, I’ve gone into a policy-related career field that is almost exclusively domestic in nature, at least the way I’m likely to do it. The way I got there is actually pretty consistent with what I was saying in the earlier post, though, in that I realized at some point that really gaining the sort of knowledge about foreign policy issues that would let me go in that direction professionally was a very tall order, and that I didn’t really feel up to it. For one thing, there’s no particular region of the world or substantive policy field that I was ever able to narrow in on, which is what you really have to do to gain that sort of expertise. I’m much more of a generalist than a specialist by inclination, and to the extent that any profession would require some amount of specialization, I decided to stick with a geographical area, at least, that I already had detailed knowledge of: the US. I’m happy with this decision, and haven’t looked back. I still find foreign policy interesting, but I have little interest in making it my life anymore.

Big News

teofilo — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 20:13:29 +0000

So obviously I didn’t end up chronicling my cross-country road trip either here or on any other blog. I did make it to Albuquerque, though, and saw a lot of stuff along the way. Being in Albuquerque again is interesting in some ways, and I’m glad I have the ability to stay here with my mom for a while, but it’s not really a place I would want to stay permanently.

Luckily, however, I don’t have to. Soon after I arrived here, I finally heard back from an SCA internship I had applied to back at the beginning of July. They interviewed me and then offered me the position, and I took it. It’s with the Alaska Regional Office of the National Park Service in Anchorage, and specifically with their planning division, so it’s actually a planning position (a rare thing among SCA internships). This is exactly the kind of work I want to do, and this position will give me some great experience to use as a stepping-stone to a permanent position afterward. The position itself is for a year, starting in mid-September. It pays a stipend and provides housing and health insurance, so it’s really ideal for my purposes. I’m very excited about this opportunity.

I’ll be in Albuquerque until September 13, when I leave to drive up to Anchorage. I figured I should have a car up there, especially since I do in fact have a car and would have to figure out what to do with it if I didn’t bring it. I hear Anchorage is the sort of city where it’s really best to have a car, and it would also mean I could take all my stuff with me instead of having to ship it, which I’m sure would be extremely expensive. The easiest (though probably not the cheapest) way to go is on the ferry, so my plan is to drive from Albuquerque to Bellingham, Washington (where we happen to have some good family friends I could stay with), then take the ferry from Bellingham to Haines and drive up through Canada from Haines to Anchorage. There is a ferry that goes across the Gulf of Alaska almost to Anchorage, but it’s all booked up for vehicles through at least the end of September, so only going as far as Haines and then driving seems like the best way to go. It should be quite the adventure.

So anyway, things are going great for me right now.

On The Road Again

teofilo — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 04:07:38 +0000

I haven’t had any luck finding a job so far, and my lease here in NJ ends at the end of July, so the new plan is to drive back to NM and stay with my mom for a while and look for jobs out there. I’ve come to the realization that I’d rather work in the West anyway, and the NY/NJ area seems to be particularly bad for planning jobs right now (which is really saying something), so this isn’t that bad a solution for me. I’m sure I’ll find something eventually, but it may take a while. The job market is really, really bad right now, and while I realize everyone knows that, I really don’t think people who aren’t unemployed right now realize the magnitude of it.

I’ve decided that rather than trying to just drive straight through, which would probably take about four days, I’d prefer to take a leisurely road trip and see some stuff along the way. There’s a lot of stuff in the Midwest and South that I haven’t seen but would like to, mostly but not exclusively archaeological sites, plus I’ve always wanted to do this kind of road trip but never had the opportunity before. When I’ve done previous road trips there has always been a time constraint, although its nature and strictness has varied. This time, though, it really doesn’t matter when I get to my mom’s house, so I’m thinking I’ll take a week to ten days to make my way across the country and just get there when I get there. It should be fun, and I’ll probably chronicle it here (and/or on the other blog) as I go.