Friday, May 25, 2007 at 1:01am
David Mamet's 'The Wicked Son'
Column: Interesting Times
"See also, the bachelor who manages to find in every potential mate something just a little bit wrong. This person may be accused of, and may in fact grudgingly admit to, that malady called fear of commitment, but that may be more truthfully characterized as greed.
"The perennial bachelor is afraid not of commitment but of passing up any opportunity for unlicensed sex — he is afraid not of commitment but of restraint."
There you have David Mamet in "The Wicked Son."
The book's title refers to the character in the Passover Seder who distances himself from his people by asking, "What does this ritual mean to you?" The subtitle lays bare Mamet's meditation: "Anti-Semitism, Self-hatred, and the Jews."
Some reviews say the book is "bombastic"; a few online reviews have said that one needs a dictionary to read the book. The New York Times review says, "Like everything he does, it is blunt and bracing, honest and provocative, original and gutsy." I say it is a must read. The book may make you angry, may disturb you, or may cause rejoicing that someone has said what needs to be said.
Mamet: "In substituting conveniently elected totems and ceremonies for their more ancient counterparts, we have become neither more rational nor more humane, merely more confused — we have replaced awe by superstition. The ceremony of circumcision is derided as savage self-mutilation, that of breast augmentation as logical fulfillment of individual prerogative. Plastic surgery performed in the aid of self- or community propitiation is simple cosmetic alternative; that performed in the aid of religion, is viewed, by the enlightened, as monstrous.
"But every obeisance, performance, or sacrifice the apostate finds irrational or ludicrous in religion will be found, under another name, in his daily life. The apostate might balk at consulting a rabbi as he might a soothsayer but finds it logical to consult with a 'life coach.' ... The enlightened might find ludicrous the notion of a Magic Balm of Youth, yet pay outrageous sums for an inert white cream that has been suggested to reverse the aging process. One might identify as primitive the caste differences between Cohen, Levi and Israel yet pay exorbitantly to 'move up' from one model car to the next — models operationally identical, and differing only in the placement and shape of their fenders and badging."
Writing is thinking — or should be — and Mamet thinks: "Man is a constantly, irremediably, deeply superstitious creature — no man more than he who is assured of his absolute rationality. The apostate is not an agnostic but an unconscious polytheist."
He says: "The constant battle against personification and rationalization, against our all-too-human desire to cast ourselves as God, is not a perquisite for the practice of religion; it is the practice of religion."
And he chides his brethren: "Surrender is frightening, and surrender to one's own tradition, race and heritage is, demonstrably, the most frightening of all. Why do some Jews reject their religion and their race? For two reasons: because it is 'too Jewish' and because it is not Jewish enough."
In one of those six degrees of separation, I once was engaged to the brother of David Mamet's first wife, but that thought only crossed my mind as I was stunned by the text and nearly through reading. Remembering is one thing Mamet wants from his readers, from his fellow Jews. Remembering who you are and where you came from.
"The Wicked Son" is a slim volume, but the contents take time to digest. And all is not criticism. His volume ends: "We are the children of kings and queens, a holy nation and a kingdom of priests. We are the children of a mystery that has not abandoned us and that has come for us; it is both described and contained in the Torah."
— — —
Lynne Bundesen is the author of five books on religion and was adjunct professor at the Boston Theological Institute under a Templeton Science and Religion Grant. She is currently the spiritual expert for the physical and spiritual health website of Dr. Andrew Weil. Her book "The Feminine Spirit: Recapturing the Heart of Scripture" was just published. Her email address is {email lynnebundesen@hotmail.com}lynnebundesen@hotmail.com{/email}. © copyright 2007 by Lynne Bundesen
"The perennial bachelor is afraid not of commitment but of passing up any opportunity for unlicensed sex — he is afraid not of commitment but of restraint."
There you have David Mamet in "The Wicked Son."
The book's title refers to the character in the Passover Seder who distances himself from his people by asking, "What does this ritual mean to you?" The subtitle lays bare Mamet's meditation: "Anti-Semitism, Self-hatred, and the Jews."
Some reviews say the book is "bombastic"; a few online reviews have said that one needs a dictionary to read the book. The New York Times review says, "Like everything he does, it is blunt and bracing, honest and provocative, original and gutsy." I say it is a must read. The book may make you angry, may disturb you, or may cause rejoicing that someone has said what needs to be said.
Mamet: "In substituting conveniently elected totems and ceremonies for their more ancient counterparts, we have become neither more rational nor more humane, merely more confused — we have replaced awe by superstition. The ceremony of circumcision is derided as savage self-mutilation, that of breast augmentation as logical fulfillment of individual prerogative. Plastic surgery performed in the aid of self- or community propitiation is simple cosmetic alternative; that performed in the aid of religion, is viewed, by the enlightened, as monstrous.
"But every obeisance, performance, or sacrifice the apostate finds irrational or ludicrous in religion will be found, under another name, in his daily life. The apostate might balk at consulting a rabbi as he might a soothsayer but finds it logical to consult with a 'life coach.' ... The enlightened might find ludicrous the notion of a Magic Balm of Youth, yet pay outrageous sums for an inert white cream that has been suggested to reverse the aging process. One might identify as primitive the caste differences between Cohen, Levi and Israel yet pay exorbitantly to 'move up' from one model car to the next — models operationally identical, and differing only in the placement and shape of their fenders and badging."
Writing is thinking — or should be — and Mamet thinks: "Man is a constantly, irremediably, deeply superstitious creature — no man more than he who is assured of his absolute rationality. The apostate is not an agnostic but an unconscious polytheist."
He says: "The constant battle against personification and rationalization, against our all-too-human desire to cast ourselves as God, is not a perquisite for the practice of religion; it is the practice of religion."
And he chides his brethren: "Surrender is frightening, and surrender to one's own tradition, race and heritage is, demonstrably, the most frightening of all. Why do some Jews reject their religion and their race? For two reasons: because it is 'too Jewish' and because it is not Jewish enough."
In one of those six degrees of separation, I once was engaged to the brother of David Mamet's first wife, but that thought only crossed my mind as I was stunned by the text and nearly through reading. Remembering is one thing Mamet wants from his readers, from his fellow Jews. Remembering who you are and where you came from.
"The Wicked Son" is a slim volume, but the contents take time to digest. And all is not criticism. His volume ends: "We are the children of kings and queens, a holy nation and a kingdom of priests. We are the children of a mystery that has not abandoned us and that has come for us; it is both described and contained in the Torah."
— — —
Lynne Bundesen is the author of five books on religion and was adjunct professor at the Boston Theological Institute under a Templeton Science and Religion Grant. She is currently the spiritual expert for the physical and spiritual health website of Dr. Andrew Weil. Her book "The Feminine Spirit: Recapturing the Heart of Scripture" was just published. Her email address is {email lynnebundesen@hotmail.com}lynnebundesen@hotmail.com{/email}. © copyright 2007 by Lynne Bundesen