Realism and Sacredness

Tennessee Williams' shocking play Suddenly Last Summer  is one of his efforts to confront, with an overwhelming amount of courage and honesty, the horror of sexual dissociation. Young Catharine, suspected of mental illness and under threat of lobotomy, is injected with a truth serum, and under its influence tells a terrible story. Her cousin Sebastian, who traveled with her abroad, exploited her to lure young men he could have sex with (as he had exploited his mother before her.) Eventually, a heated, incited mob of hungry, abused children, chases Sebastian in the streets of Spain and exacts a terrible revenge: they mutilate and murder him and even feast on his flesh. The story is too much for Sebastian's relatives to handle. It horrifies us, as well, and at the same time captivates us, as horrible things often do. There's a reason why cultural heritage is universally infused with stories of mobs and sacrifice. The classic, of course, is the Greatest Story Ever Told. The lu...

Shortly before the election, David Brooks published a fascinating piece titled Donald Trump's Sad, Lonely Life . Among other things, he writes: Imagine you are Trump. You are trying to bluff your way through a debate. You’re running for an office you’re completely unqualified for. You are chasing some glimmer of validation that recedes ever further from view.  Your only rest comes when you are insulting somebody, when you are threatening to throw your opponent in jail, when you are looming over her menacingly like a mafioso thug on the precipice of a hit, when you are bellowing that she has “tremendous hate in her heart” when it is clear to everyone you are only projecting what is in your own.  Trump’s emotional makeup means he can hit only a few notes: fury and aggression. In some ways, his debate performances look like primate dominance displays — filled with chest beating and looming growls. But at least primates have bands to connect with, whereas Trump is so alone,...

My visit to Israel went well. I got to see my cousin Shahaf as one of the witches in the Scottish play and enjoyed spending time with my parents. I had never appreciated their beautiful garden when I lived at home with them. But now, when I sat in it, its rich lushness, and the gentle symphony of noises and voices whistling through its ground and trees cheered my soul to no end. We have become softer and more sentimental, more outwardly loving, then we were in my youth. We parted in tears and hugs at the airport. I boarded the flight at midnight, took a small square of CBD chocolate, and fell asleep immediately. "They're deplaning us!" a call rang near my ear. I sprang upright in my seat and looked on the airplane screen. The time was 2am. The flight attendants announced a problem with the PA system. The plane could not take off. We were all to deplane and retrieve our luggage. It took people a few moments to adjust to the new reality--especially the many of them wi...