Phil Connors? Ned Reyerson.

Good to hear you made it back in one piece. Enjoy the massage you promised yourself.

Arnon

Why did you stay in Baghdad so briefly?

This trip sounds as if the road was more important than the destination. Eh, why not.

Jewish Messiah (vervolg)

Arnon,
next time you want to write about authentic jews why not be first embedded with them ? Plenty of places to choose : Jerusalem, Brooklyn NY , Antwerp, London ...
In the meanwhile, good luck in Istanbul. Back already ?
Plans about Passover ?

Jewish Messiah

To Dens (and others)
Why are you so much fascinated by the fantasized jew of the jewish novel writers and film makers while so little interested in knowing what jews and judaism really are?

Francette

Most of my life I’ve been embedded with Jews. One should not overdo it.

Mike L

Why would you say I know little about what jews and judaism really are? Where do you get your information?
My knowledge concerning jews or judaism isn't limited to entertainment. I'm quite puzzled by your presumption.

Francette

Wouldn't it be fair to reason that if Arnon wants to write about (ex)nazi's he should be embedded with one - me for example-, but I find his descriptions of an SS-family rather plausible.

Mike

"The fantasized Jew"?

Philip

This was a road trip, which lasted three weeks, exactly as I planned it. See: http://www.arnongrunberg.com/blog/1347-road-trip

In none of the cities and villages I visited I stayed more than three days.

But don’t worry I’ll be back in Baghdad soon. The city is addictive.

Chag Molad Christmas Sameach

We WASPs know enough about the Jews after i read the Jewish Messiah by mister Grunberg, and i only had to read the title of the book. We didnt know that you had One too and these two words suddenly open a whole new world concerning Judaism and Protestantism: now we both can have a happy kosher Christmas! You and me, we dont invite the Catholics and their child issues this year, that wouldnt be appropriate now would it?

Answer to Dens

A logical deduction from your own words, how can a fictional and furthermore fanciful description of jew make you "appreciate Jews all the more", does an John Ford western make you appreciate more or less american indians? Jews are what they are not what Arnon with all his talent (which is indeniable) make from them, which is objectively a fantasm, so if his book make you "appreciate (the fictional) Jews all the more" , it may also alienate you from the real perception of the jews.

Mieke , Arnon(?)

Hé là, don't fantasize ... Ik bedoelde "embedded " as in "embedded with a unit in the army"

Arnon

Of course, you went on a road trip to see if Baghdad could be reached by car without getting murdered. My question seems ignorant, but somehow stuck in the back of my mind I had this idea that you would spend some quality time with aid workers, just like you did with the soldiers.

Maybe it's better to do that in Africa, or another part of the world. A while ago in a restaurant, there were a handful of friends or ex-colleagues at a table who were in the aid business. I could not help but overhearing parts of their conversation, and what struck me was how similar it was to people who are pursuing a career in regular business. They could easily have worked at a big multinational. The talk was all about career moves, new jobs, the nice countries they had stayed in, the bad ones, managers who were either competent or incomptetent, and so forth. Perhaps none of this should be surprising, or wrong, but I found it interesting nonetheless. Perhaps because I've noticed that as soon as somebody says 'I work for NGO X, we provide aid to Z' people seem to assume they do this kind of work out of a filantropic inclination, while putting their personal interests second. I do admire people who do that and work in difficult circumstances to help others, but I suspect that many are just as motivated by a sense of adventure and to escape the drudge of office life, if not for building an interesting CV.

It must be interesting to spend time undercover in that setting to get an idea about what life is like working in the aid industry. I'm sure you have considered this, have you?

Francette

You don’t get it. Most of my life I was embedded with Jews like I was embedded with the US and Dutch army.

Philip

I didn’t travel to Baghdad by car and train(!) to see if it could be done. I knew it could be done.
My curiosity in the mentality of the aid worker is not that big.
I’m an aid worker myself.

Mike L.

If you buy a basket of plums and you've eaten -let's say- 4 out of 10.
The 5th tastes very different. It could be more ripe, it could be less. For all I care it could be from another tree. This 5th plum may taste delicious! Does this make you appreciate plums in general any less? Does it alter your vision on plums?

I think it it quite scary that your "real perception" can be alienated by one individual occasion. Are you one of those gullible, naive people, Mike? Are you? I guess your answer will be "no". If so, why would you think I am?

azijnbode wtf

Arnon

Did you get to taste some pistachios?

The fantasized jew

Dear Arnon,
Was "Jewish Messiah" a documentary? Sorry my mistake!
More seriously, I don't believe that jewishness can be grasped by the mean of litterature or even sociology or ethnology. It's also not some kind of ethnic peculiarity; on the contrary an authentic african convert to judaism may grow a greater expert in jewishness through a consistent study of talmud than any jewish born neglecting it, even has he been eating "gefilte fish" and "kishkes" his whole life. So are the jews in B Singer, CH Potok a.s.o, fantasized jews and their books don't tell anything about jewishness, they are only obliging mirrors of the (often complex and conflicting) relation between the writer and his own jewishness.

Mike

There is no need to point out that fiction is still fiction.
Whether we can learn something from novels is a question open for discussion.
But the idea that the Jewish characters in this particular novel or in any other novel stand pars pro toto for all Jews is a tasteless and groundless thought.
Based on your last comment I’m very much afraid we are discussing religion here and that is as we all know a rather pointless discussion.
If you like to study the Talmud I wish you well.
It may be a healthy intellectual exercise for you.

Frida

Yes, around the city of Gaziantep it is all about pistachio nuts.

Volkskrant

Hi Arnon, Is it true you will be writing for de Volkskrant as steady columnist from next week?

Looking forward to your columns!

By the way Mike, are you jewish? And tell me about your criteria please, then we know it all, isnt that right? Do you practise jewishness the Walter Sobchak way, or is your mother's father a rabbi, or and this is shocking to say are it other criteria for example the ones the germans used to discribe jewishness, although i think i know they would describe it out of being not one of them aryans i still wonder because i dont know.
Now that i have mentioned the war i continue, what also bothers me is that the information about ww2 is turning more and more military and im sorry to say more political and that you cant find that much on the internet on a more personal scale (its all very generally speaking, and i dont mean i want to find out about good or bad). I mean that this non information happens out of a sort of spin, dont mention our city's (people) role in the war. A recent example: where did people in Deventer get deported from, i couldnt find it on the internet. I know there was a prison De Adelaarshorst which is now a footballstadium, i know this from my mother. Why i wanted to find out because Ajax is playing there tonight, right now (SPOILER: they are leading 2-0 at halftime) and i got this war information - this sounds so spy-ish - a long time ago. And i wondered, is it true? Was it De Adelaarshorst in Deventer or De Vijverberg in Doetinchem (its called ponthill because warprioners made a pont and the ground they put up to make it made ponthill ) i know i can find out if i want to, but sometimes i want to find out things i dont want to, and that there is a task for cities to inform everybody who wants to know. I hope that in a few years there is a Iraqi guy complaining about this on your Iraqi blog, Arnon. For that you can put a Iraqi-English translator in your team, and when you do i think they are laughing their pants off in Baghdad, and the rest of the world theirs out of their comments, and of course the other way around (being serious with you pants off). (S)He then will be the first Iraqi to play table football in Sils Maria i think.

Volkskrant

hi Arnon,
congratulations with your column in the Volkskrant!

I always felt a bit sorry for myself since I wasn't reading your columns in the NRC, since I'm subscribed to the Volkskrant. But now I get the chance to make up for that, every day!

Francette

I meant embedded as in your definition.

Arnon, check www.azady.nl.

"Then put your little hand in mine..."

Nice movie, Groundhog days.
Easy to consume, but an interesting underlying thought.
I like the quote of Don Delillo. I think it's the opposite of Bill Muray's experience in the movie.

I like Francette. She seems to be an entirely blank page.