One reasons I haven’t been blogging so much lately is that I went back to school last year to finally start working my way towards a master’s degree. This winter, I did a course in Creative Nonfiction, and for the final project, I was supposed to write a narrative essay informed by the techniques of creative nonfiction, as a genre, as well as by graduate-level research into a subject of interest.
So I thought: “What could be more interesting than Israel?” Obviously!
I have been sharing some thoughts here all along about the idea of politics, and what it means to get political when it comes to the situation here on the ground, and I figured I’d pull it all together into a sort of story of a nice Canadian who is reluctant to deal with politics but who has been forced to due to living in Israel.
If you’ve been reading here for a while, you’ll know that politics is not what I do naturally, or best.
So much so, perhaps, that when I tried to write a serious post on Palestinian identity, one person nastily took it upon him/herself (I’m guessing HIMSELF, for some reason) to comment, “Better to stick with tips on a successful Aliyah than playing the political game.”
Like I said,
I’m guessing this is a guy, and he’s probably longing to tell me to head back to the kitchen where I belong (though with our apartment being basically all one big room, I pretty much AM in the kitchen as I write this and other posts).However, unlike him, to me, politics isn’t a game. And the fact is that it can’t be avoided – once you live in Israel, you have to talk about Israel, think about Israel, and defend Israel to the world. You can’t help formulating ideas. Or at least… I can’t.
But here’s what happened when I sat down to write that essay, pulling together a few things I’ve written here with some new research and text. It turned out that instead of the required 3,500 words, I had 11,000 words – a smallish book. It’s definitely different from my usual, but I thought I’d share it anyway, because I believe there are other people thinking about these things, too.
Here’s what it looks like:
You can buy it, and I’d be happy if you would. It’s available on Amazon in print and Kindle format. It’s not for everybody; but then, what book is?
Shabbat Shalom!
Wow, impressed!
ReplyDeleteWhat I'd love to read is any kind of book you wanted to write about the situation here on the ground. Seriously - I'd read it in a second.
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