Tuesday News: Remembering Elie Wiesel, The Toast is now toast, everyone’s an author, and CSI poetry
Publishing Newsbook packaging / Elie Wiesel / obituary / poetry / The Toast7 Comments
POSTSCRIPT: ELIE WIESEL, 1928-2016 – There have been a lot of beautiful and moving tributes to Elie Wiesel, whose death at 87 has provided an opportunity to reflect on his invaluable work on the Holocaust and on unjust human suffering. This essay, from Hebrew University’s Bernard Avishai, contemplates the source of Wiesel’s “moral authority” and the power of his words. Awhile it is not uncritical of some of Wiesel’s political views, it is a powerful reminder of Wiesel’s irreplaceability as a witness to the “absolute evil” of the Holocaust – through 57 books, a Nobel Peace Prize, and countless speeches, readings, and other testimonies on behalf of universal justice and human dignity.
Most of our families were immigrants from Eastern Europe and his past was ours, only worse, and more perfectly articulated. “Night” had not yet become iconic, but it was passed around among my hip Jewish friends at McGill with unusual sincerity. The young hero’s anguish—also his scorn, cultural love, and filial piety—fit our Zionist mood, opening us to a new kind of Judaism, more evangelical than observant. Auschwitz had become a kind of Calvary for us, and Wiesel became the author of our passion play: unspeakable cruelty, common indifference, God’s forsaking, the sacrifice of his innocent chosen. Israel, which had broken the siege of 1967, seemed the resurrection. – The New Yorker
A note on The Toast – In case you missed it, last week was the final week for The Toast, basically the victim of not enough revenue and too much work. I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with The Toast, but when they were good, they were very, very good. Hilary Clinton wrote the (sort of) closing post, and whether or not you like her or The Toast, Clinton’s advice to women is worth repeating (it’s only sad that it needs to be said):
As we look back at what this site has meant to so many of you, I hope you’ll also look forward and consider how you might make your voice heard in whatever arenas matter most to you. Speak your opinion more fervently in your classes if you’re a student, or at meetings in your workplace. Proudly take credit for your ideas. Have confidence in the value of your contributions. And if the space you’re in doesn’t have room for your voice, don’t be afraid to carve out a space of your own. – The Toast
New ‘Book In A Box’ Method Helps Executives To Become Authors – So according to this guy Kevin Kruse, everyone should write a book, even though it’s a hard thing to do. As Kruse puts it, “I don’t like writing books; I like having them written.” Because, of course. Who doesn’t like having a book written for them? I realize that Kruse is basically talking about business-focused non-fiction here, but it also seems like books have become the ultimate act of self-affirmation. Forget about keeping a diary – write a book! Don’t waste your time telling creative bedtime stories to your kids – write a book! Have a computer and a power source – write a book! Anyway, I think I’ve covered this “Book in a Box” service before, but Kruse’s profile of Zach Obront and Tucker Max’s service reveals a lot about how the role of authorship is changing and expanding, becoming simultaneously more and less individualized and unique.
Max and Obront developed a process that allows you to get your ideas into a book—in your words and even your voice—and it just takes you talking to them on the phone for about 15-20 hours, spread over 6 months. The process is centered on conversational interviewing, and they’ve already helped more than two hundred entrepreneurs, C-level executives, and other professionals write their books using this process.
They charge a flat fee of $20,000 for their writing and publishing services (which includes cover design, interior layout, distribution through all major channels and even limited marketing support). While this fee may seem like a lot, professional business ghost writers routinely quote $50,000 to $80,000 for writing services alone. – Forbes
CSI: Poetry. The life and death -ok just death- of poets – An infographic post-mortem on poets. Morbidly engaging, I’m not sure how rigorously informative it really is, given the fact that “unknown” and “other” claim the highest percentages among causes of death. And including Bonnie Parker seems a stretch. Still, I forgot that Phyllis Wheatley died so young (31), at around the same age as Sylvia Plath. – My Poetic Side
$50,000 to $80,000? Either I’ve been ghostwriting for the wrong class of blowhards or those are fabricated numbers to make $20K seem like a bargain. I’m leaning toward the latter because “we’ll provide this whole complement of services for a quarter the price of writing alone” doesn’t make a whole lot of sense as a sustainable business model.
I read Night way back in 6th grade. I still remember it.
As someone who’s been participating in NaNoWriMo for a few years, I don’t disagree with the whole concept of random people trying to write a book, but paying someone, just so you have a book, seems to miss the point for me. I guess business publishing serves a different purpose, but it still feels like you should have more invested than wanting your name on the cover of something.
Everyone CAN write a book. It is writing a good book that readers enjoy and are willing to pay for that is challenging.
In a webinar I attended recently, the host stated that over 4,500 books a DAY are added to Amazon. That’s the market right now.
I read that Elie Wiesel piece in The New Yorker yesterday, with mixed feelings. I’m 100% in agreement with Avishai that Wiesel, who spoke out against human rights violations in many other places, should have been more critical of many of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians, and more supportive of the Israeli peace movement. But I also wonder if now, so soon after his death, is the appropriate time to point out Wiesel’s hypocrisy.
Maybe there is no better or more appropriate time for it than now; maybe Wiesel will quickly fade from conversation now that he is gone. And this type of hypocrisy, sadly all too common, is an important issue and it deserves discussion.
But for me, Wiesel’s passing is symbolic, too, of the loss of an entire generation of Holocaust survivors, more and more of whom are gone every day. In losing them, we also lose their testimonies and their memories of what they have endured. So it feels a little like rubbing salt into the wounds of my grief for that generation, to come out with this valid criticism so very soon after his death.
Like most people Wiesel was a complicated person with some contradictory views. His Holocaust writings though have been so important now to many generations. I’ve taught _Night_ and have witnessed first-hand its relevance to a new generation of readers and students and hope that his powerful language continues to resonate.
@Janine:
I understand where you’re coming from, Janine. I did like the New Yorker piece and I don’t know when there is ever a “right time” to talk about his more problematic stances. I think some of it should be brought up, because apparently he was quite involved with a settler group.
In some ways I feel like Wiesel was very much of his generation in that way. My older relatives would never say anything negative about a Jewish person, or Israel, in public. They also kept money aside for fleeing again if we had to, just in case.
For me the biggest issue with all of this is the idea, which is sometimes explicit and sometimes not, is that the Holocaust is a “teaching moment” or people such as Wiesel should have learnt something from it and had more compassion for others, etc. I find this offensive on many levels. Discussing his life and views in full, encompassing both bad and good, is one thing. The “learning” aspect is just garbage.
@Sydneysider: I didn’t know about his involvement with the settler group. That’s even more disappointing.
I don’t entirely agree with the generational aspect. Yes, there were a lot of people of his generation who felt that way, but there were also others who didn’t. My paternal grandparents are of the same generation and had no difficulty whatsoever criticizing the Israeli government. They were incredibly frustrated with it many times, and active in the peace movement in Israel. I would say the same for my grandfather’s siblings. And while my maternal grandparents were a lot less activist, they still sided with the Israeli left, and not the Israeli right.
In Israel right now the left is shrinking. Civil liberties, protections for non-Jews, dissent and debate are all being eroded more and more. I find it very alarming.
I think what you are getting at, though (correct me if I am wrong), is that some of Wiesel’s generation feared that if they criticized Israel or Jews, it would add fuel to anti-Semitism and end up hurting them or their children. That’s a very understandable fear, especially in the wake of a trauma like the Holocaust.
Your story about how your older relatives kept money aside for fleeing again reminds me of the poem by Yehuda Amichai “What Did I Learn in the Wars,” in which he writes about always renting a hotel near the airport or train station when visiting foreign countries, and even in wedding halls, always looking for the door marked “Exit.” In a similar way to your relatives, my grandmother kept her cupboard full of too much food. She was afraid of having to go hungry again.
At the same time, there are also people who seem to staunchly believe that Israel can do no wrong. It is hard to know which group Wiesel belonged to, or maybe he had some of both in him. Regardless, it is disappointing.
The idea (explicit or otherwise) that survivors should have learned the lessons of the Holocaust better than the rest of us is offensive to me too. History in general is something we should all strive to learn from, but the reality is that human beings frequently don’t.
As to whether or not there is a “right time,” to discuss Wiesel’s failings, I don’t know either. I think that if this piece had run even two weeks from now, it wouldn’t have felt so painful to read. But I agree that this is a conversation that needs to be had.