Eric Mendelsohn, Daniel Mendelsohn, and Jennifer Mendelsohn
The Finger-Pointing Instinct
By Jennifer Mendelsohn
Posted Tuesday, March 14, 2000, at 12:37 PM ETHey.
So glad we've steered away from controversial topics like religion and landed on something so much easier, like the state of gay life in America. Why couldn't we have gotten the week that dreadful man threw the bichon frisé out the window? (The reward for the dog killer is now up to $100,000, according to today's Washington Post.)
Dan, I think you dismissed the New York Times just a little too quickly, though: You skipped right over the "Vital Signs" item citing a new report in the journal Neurology about patients who get a certain type of benign brain lesion that makes them feel as though they have to laugh. Now, if you're going to get a brain lesion, I'd say that's the way to go.
Here's my challenge to both of you, despite the fact that you ignored all the ones I issued yesterday: What would the Oliver Sacks chapter about such patients be called?
And in the interest of full disclosure, I couldn't help but notice the half-page Times ad placed by a group of Orthodox synagogues distancing themselves from both the claims against Swiss and German banks on behalf of Holocaust victims and from the condemnation of the new Austrian government. "Our only desire," says the ad, "is to live peacefully among the nations in the Diaspora ... until the coming of the Moshiach (the redeemer.)"
I skimmed the Newsweek stuff and will say more about that later today when I read it more carefully, but what really strikes me is how odd it is that everything we talked about yesterday, the response to it in "The Fray" (yes, yes, I had to read it; don't yell at me), the whole debate over gay rights, and even the popularity of Dr. Laura, seem to me to have a common underlying theme: It goes back to what Daniel was saying about some primeval need we have to point fingers and assign blame. Why do people so enjoy telling other people they're wrong, or inferior? Why, as reported in Newsweek, did an Arizona legislator have to introduce an anti-gay bill by saying gays live "at the lower end of the behavioral spectrum"? Why did one Fray poster in defending against what he construed as our anti-Catholic bias, feel compelled to bolster his argument by saying that our race--I guess he means the Jews--"has had more gangsters, thugs, and killers than the Catholics ever will." Should we have a contest? I mean, really. Can't we all just get along?
For the record: I did a quick search for info on Dr. Laura. Her PhD. is in physiology, apparently, but she does have some sort of post-doc certification in marriage and family therapy and was in private practice for many years. Can you imagine having a woman like that as your therapist? And in assessing her comments about homosexuality, let's not forget that she also once attacked the American Library Association. 'Nuff said.
Love,
Jennifer, who only wants to live peacefully among the nations in the Diaspora
P.S.: Today's installment in the Sports 101 primer: Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino announced his retirement, after 17 stellar seasons in the NFL. (That's football.)
The Finger-Pointing Instinct
By Jennifer Mendelsohn
Posted Tuesday, March 14, 2000, at 12:37 PM ETEric Mendelsohn is the writer/director of the film Judy Berlin, currently in theaters and starring Madeline Kahn, Edie Falco, Barbara Barrie, and Julie Kavner. Daniel Mendelsohn is a regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review, and the New York Observer, a lecturer in classics at Princeton University, and the author of The Elusive Embrace: Desire and the Riddle of Identity (click here to buy it). Jennifer Mendelsohn is Slate's Washington, D.C.-based "Keeping Tabs" columnist. Highlights from The Fray:
Don't the Mendelsohns remind you of J.D.Salinger's Glass family of precocious children?
--Patti
(To reply, click
here.)
[Eagle80 was of the opinion that the Mendelsohns were in fact The Sopranos of the literati. Stacy Grover
asked How did so much cleverness end up in one family? and this brought the Missing Mendelsohn brothers to The Fray: Andrew
said I often wonder that myself. And you haven't even heard from the rest of us yet!
And
Matthew
responded:]
I have to agree with my brother Andrew. I've been feeling like Zeppo Marx all week. I think Slate should host a Breakfast Table with the forgotten Mendelsohn brothers. Jennifer, Eric and Daniel can host a discussion about gay culture while Andrew and myself discuss biotech stocks. You'll learn more with them but you'll make more with us.
(To reply--or to follow the thread in more detail--click
here.)
Thursday's entry: As for Jennifer and marriage, I believe she is the star of an upcoming Fox special called, Who wants to Marry A Mendelsohn? Should be good.
--Bill Watrous
(To reply, click
here.)
[If you want to read the marriage proposal for Jennifer (and her response) click
here. Yet another member of the Mendelsohn family, Jay, entered The Fray
here.
Marriage proposal for Dan is
here. Sorry, Eric, no proposal, but lots of Fraygrants did like your film and one of them liked your photo.
But there were also Fray readers who wanted to discuss serious issues, or at least give a short, thrilling history of religion down the ages:]
Typical drivel from the pseudo-intellectual phenoms. Here's some of my drivel. Let's see: there were 12 tribes waiting for the Messiah, He comes, they kill kill him because he wanted to give Caesar what was Caesar's, they wanted power, all he wanted was your faith and devotion to a Greater Good. The various churches spring up, (no-one mentions the Orthodox Churches and the atrocities they committed), Popes are killed, moved to France, etc., they offer forgiveness of sins for money, and kill, all for power using the popular religion of the time. Then we have Protestantism, (no one mentions the 2.5 million Catholics Cromwell killed and the killing that has gone on since then in Ireland) Let's leave for the New World, Puritan brothers, so that we the church leaders can have the power over every bit of your life (Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Al Sharpton, Pat Buchanan, et al) Oh yeah, you're a witch, die! (You also had a piece of land I wanted...)I am going to skip a century or two now... lets see Joseph Smith, ex-con, sees an angel called Baloney, no Maloney, no, Moroni... yeah that's the one. Yeah, Yeah, that's my wife...Morgan Fairchild...all 11 of them...God told me I could, I swear!
Well enough of this. People are the problem, not God, not Jesus, no matter what religion, faith, creed.
--St Pat
(To reply, click
here.)
Is it possible that the pope's "doctrinal rigidity" and "gestures of expansive humanity" [Monday's entry] are of a piece? As I understand John Paul II's thinking, the humanity Mendelsohn admires arises almost entirely from the pope's dogmatic beliefs about God, man's nature, and the consequent requirements for living a good life. Liberals (and I don't intend that as a lazy epithet) should consider the possibility that the "humanity" they praise must rest either on certain irreducible truths or on a collection of insubstantial, albeit attractive, sentiments.
--Michael Pollard
(To reply, click
here.)
Many have decried the pope's apology as a political ploy. I doubt it, if only for the reason that if it were, he would have vaguely referred to the Crusades and Inquisition as "youthful indiscretions" of a church that is now much more mature and therefore knows better as a result of the important lessons it has learned.
G Wiz
(To reply, click
here.)
1. Gays (yawn). How over. How '90s.
2. Catholics. "Anti-Catholicism is the anti-Semitism of the intellectual."
--P.J.O'Connell
(To reply, click
here.)
To P.J.O'Connell: Let's jump back in time to 1960...
Negros (yawn). How over. How 50's.
2. Jews. "Just ignore them and they'll go away."
It ain't over by a long shot!
--Dave
(To reply, click
here.)
I'm glad Eric Mendelsohn cleared up the confusion over Beauty and the Beast. But I'm still not sure which Psycho he had in mind. Perkins or Vaughn? Or Christian Bale? I hope he clears this up before the Breakfast Table is wiped clear of bagel crumbs, the dishes go in the dishwasher, and he goes off to film The Magnificent Mendelsohns.
And, by the way, the poet Catullus [see Wednesday's entry] was really the Matt Drudge --or maybe Fray contributor--of his times. How low can you get?
--Eagle80
(To reply, click
here.)
[The Catulluses of the modern age also discussed dogs, names, the Oscars, The Sopranos and many other Breakfast Table topics in The Fray this week.]
(3/17)
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Highlights from The Fray:
Don't the Mendelsohns remind you of J.D.Salinger's Glass family of precocious children?
--Patti
(To reply, click here.)
[Eagle80 was of the opinion that the Mendelsohns were in fact The Sopranos of the literati. Stacy Grover asked How did so much cleverness end up in one family? and this brought the Missing Mendelsohn brothers to The Fray: Andrew said I often wonder that myself. And you haven't even heard from the rest of us yet!
And Matthew responded:]
I have to agree with my brother Andrew. I've been feeling like Zeppo Marx all week. I think Slate should host a Breakfast Table with the forgotten Mendelsohn brothers. Jennifer, Eric and Daniel can host a discussion about gay culture while Andrew and myself discuss biotech stocks. You'll learn more with them but you'll make more with us.
(To reply--or to follow the thread in more detail--click here.)
Thursday's entry: As for Jennifer and marriage, I believe she is the star of an upcoming Fox special called, Who wants to Marry A Mendelsohn? Should be good.
--Bill Watrous
(To reply, click here.)
[If you want to read the marriage proposal for Jennifer (and her response) click here. Yet another member of the Mendelsohn family, Jay, entered The Fray here. Marriage proposal for Dan is here. Sorry, Eric, no proposal, but lots of Fraygrants did like your film and one of them liked your photo.
But there were also Fray readers who wanted to discuss serious issues, or at least give a short, thrilling history of religion down the ages:]
Typical drivel from the pseudo-intellectual phenoms. Here's some of my drivel. Let's see: there were 12 tribes waiting for the Messiah, He comes, they kill kill him because he wanted to give Caesar what was Caesar's, they wanted power, all he wanted was your faith and devotion to a Greater Good. The various churches spring up, (no-one mentions the Orthodox Churches and the atrocities they committed), Popes are killed, moved to France, etc., they offer forgiveness of sins for money, and kill, all for power using the popular religion of the time. Then we have Protestantism, (no one mentions the 2.5 million Catholics Cromwell killed and the killing that has gone on since then in Ireland) Let's leave for the New World, Puritan brothers, so that we the church leaders can have the power over every bit of your life (Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Al Sharpton, Pat Buchanan, et al) Oh yeah, you're a witch, die! (You also had a piece of land I wanted...)I am going to skip a century or two now... lets see Joseph Smith, ex-con, sees an angel called Baloney, no Maloney, no, Moroni... yeah that's the one. Yeah, Yeah, that's my wife...Morgan Fairchild...all 11 of them...God told me I could, I swear!
Well enough of this. People are the problem, not God, not Jesus, no matter what religion, faith, creed.
--St Pat
(To reply, click here.)
Is it possible that the pope's "doctrinal rigidity" and "gestures of expansive humanity" [Monday's entry] are of a piece? As I understand John Paul II's thinking, the humanity Mendelsohn admires arises almost entirely from the pope's dogmatic beliefs about God, man's nature, and the consequent requirements for living a good life. Liberals (and I don't intend that as a lazy epithet) should consider the possibility that the "humanity" they praise must rest either on certain irreducible truths or on a collection of insubstantial, albeit attractive, sentiments.
--Michael Pollard
(To reply, click here.)
Many have decried the pope's apology as a political ploy. I doubt it, if only for the reason that if it were, he would have vaguely referred to the Crusades and Inquisition as "youthful indiscretions" of a church that is now much more mature and therefore knows better as a result of the important lessons it has learned.
G Wiz
(To reply, click here.)
1. Gays (yawn). How over. How '90s.
2. Catholics. "Anti-Catholicism is the anti-Semitism of the intellectual."
--P.J.O'Connell
(To reply, click here.)
To P.J.O'Connell: Let's jump back in time to 1960...
Negros (yawn). How over. How 50's.
2. Jews. "Just ignore them and they'll go away."
It ain't over by a long shot!
--Dave
(To reply, click here.)
I'm glad Eric Mendelsohn cleared up the confusion over Beauty and the Beast. But I'm still not sure which Psycho he had in mind. Perkins or Vaughn? Or Christian Bale? I hope he clears this up before the Breakfast Table is wiped clear of bagel crumbs, the dishes go in the dishwasher, and he goes off to film The Magnificent Mendelsohns.
And, by the way, the poet Catullus [see Wednesday's entry] was really the Matt Drudge --or maybe Fray contributor--of his times. How low can you get?
--Eagle80
(To reply, click here.)
[The Catulluses of the modern age also discussed dogs, names, the Oscars, The Sopranos and many other Breakfast Table topics in The Fray this week.]
(3/17)