2008/03/22 New York
[ Previous ]   [ Next ]

Bum

It's not the religion, stupid

The (late) launch of “The Jewish Messiah” took place in the spacious penthouse of the former Forward-building; rumor has it that the penthouse is for sale for $ 3.3 million. I didn’t see a kitchen, but who needs a kitchen these days? The klezmer music was loud but good and the vodka terrific.
A small group of people ended up in a club in the West Village. To my surprise plenty of people were smoking there.
While I was talking to another writer a young man, clearly drunk and looking eerily like the young Bob Dylan, came to our table. He asked the other writer: “Can I have a sip of your drink?” She answered: “Why?” And the young Bob Dylan declared: “Because I’m a bum.” Who could refuse a bum a sip of his drink? When the other writer went up to go to the wardrobe the young Bob declared – who happened to write poetry, although I’m afraid the difference between getting drunk and writing poetry was not that big for him: “She is cute. Do you think I can sleep with her?” “You have to ask her yourself,” I responded.
Also I got informed that there is no such thing as dating in the UK. You get drunk, you get laid; there is the shameful walk home in your old clothes. And that’s it. If you are out of luck you are pregnant.
I don’t know why but when I heard this I was reminded of a conversation I had a week ago with one of my Israeli publishers. He said: “The biggest problem in the Arab world for young men is sex. No sex can drive young men crazy.” Keep this in mind: it’s not religion; it’s sex.
And also: the UK-system might not be perfect, but it’s better than nothing.


[ Add comment ]
7 comments Last_comment
As a kid I quickly learned from the adults that there is something more lustful than sex: the prohibition of sex. To see young men going crazy by their command, gives them the ultimate satisfaction. As John Gray somewhere states: sheer morality is the utter decadence.
said Jan Thys 22/03/2008 16:52 • x
And that's why arab women prefer to stay inside there homes or wear a veil in the streets.
said Mieke Dutoit 22/03/2008 18:29 • x
this young man looks like the Drunk Dens as well
said Dens Powells 22/03/2008 22:09 • x
Mieke
Some would argue that in certain countries women are forced to wear a veil.
said Arnon Grunberg 23/03/2008 14:30 • x
That women are forced to wearing a veil, I think , is a generalisation. I have met Maroccan and Algerian women who emphasized to me that they did it out of free will, others admitted that there was some social pressure. They all agreed that wearing a veil gave them more respect and it was easier to cope with the sexual harassement they encountered on the streets if not veiled. Having been in Marocco , I can understand there point.
said Mieke Dutoit 24/03/2008 10:25 • x
Mieke
I said: in certain countries.
To give two examples: in Lebanon Hezbollah paid women to wear a veil -- I'm not sure if this is still the case.
But I could easily refer to Saudi Arabia, a much more oppressive country than Iran. I'm not sure what point you were trying to make.
said Arnon Grunberg 24/03/2008 14:35 • x
In my experience Arab society (man) have such a twisted relationship with sex that it is almost impossible for man and woman to have normal encounters in public life. That's why I think so many woman prefer to abstain from the public life. And maybe that's why in some countries this fenomenon was turned into law, wich makes that we have now an itself intensifying process: Woman are restrained from the public., the normal interchange between woman and man has almost become impossible, man become more and more sexual frustrated, so when they see a woman in the street they have aberrant behaviour and as a result woman prefer their hidden lives.
All of the above is just my opinion, maybe I missed something.
said Mieke Dutoit 24/03/2008 18:12 • x
[ Add comment ]