Today, I have a review of Salman Rushdie’s new novel: Victory City. That review (more like a review-essay?) is here. Wondrous book. Let’s have a little mail.
Thanks for the Rushdie review, Jay. I’ve enjoyed several of his novels and will need to pick this one up. Noting your opera parenthetical, I would add . . .
Hang on, “opera parenthetical”? I should have mentioned that. In my review, I have the following comment, between parentheses:
In 1990, Rushdie published a children’s novel, Haroun and the Sea of Stories. About 15 years later, it became an opera: music by Charles Wuorinen, libretto by James Fenton.
Okay, back to our reader’s letter:
Noting your opera parenthetical, I would add that we St. Louis operagoers witnessed an Opera Theatre of Saint Louis commission composed by Jack Perla, Shalimar the Clown. I found both the Rushdie novel and the opera insightful and moving, with themes of terrorism, religious conflict, and Kashmir. I’ve not heard of another staging, perhaps because of the unusual orchestra requirements (Indian instruments along with traditional ones) or fear, owing to the Rushdie association and the themes.
Interesting.
All right, some more mail. In an Impromptus column last week, I had some remarks on the social media, a.k.a. the anti-social media. I said that I had a “big question”:
Have the social media, with their anonymity, “liberated” people to be their true selves? Is something like “In vino veritas” at work here? Or has our new environment caused people to betray their true selves — becoming something they are really not?
When someone, under a handle, behaves like a jerk on Twitter or in a comments section or what have you — is he being his genuine self? Or has some impostor taken over?
One thing I know, one thing I have seen: Mr. Hyde will come out to play. And Dr. Jekyll must reassert himself . . .
A reader writes,
I submit John 3:19.
This passage reads (in the King James Version), “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
Our reader continues,
And as Rose says in The African Queen, “Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above.”
Damn skippy, as we used to say. (“Damn skippy” = “You’re darn tootin’”)
Another reader writes,
Hi, Mr. Nordlinger (I feel like I know you from reading your columns for so long, but I can’t bring myself to call you “Jay” because of my “fetchin’ up,” as my college roommate used to put it),
. . . I am reminded of the words of Jeremiah: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” I believe the anonymity of the Internet lets people evade many of the social boundaries and expectations that exist to civilize our interactions.
What has made it worse in recent years is the decreased presence of an internal motivation that comes from valuing societal institutions. Think of patriotism, family, and faith.
Patriotism recognizes a common bond and cause, improving our interactions. A connection to family reminds us that our actions don’t affect only us, but also the people we love.
The biggest motivator, I believe, is faith. When a person doesn’t believe in a God whom he desires to please, or by whom he believes he will be held accountable, the heart is freed to be its more natural, “wicked” self, as Jeremiah would say. As a pastor, I find this heartbreaking.
My faith motivates me to fight my natural instincts and try to act the way God would want me to, whether or not anyone sees me; to try, with His help, to be better than I was yesterday, even though I often fail. And thankfully, I have a God of grace who loves me just as I am, but loves me too much to leave me that way.
I hope somehow our culture will come to embrace these things again, though it’s hard to be optimistic.
Something else from that Impromptus column last week: I spoke of Matt Laubhan, the weatherman in Mississippi who, when reporting on a coming tornado recently, said, “Oh, man. Dear Jesus, please help them. Amen.”
A reader writes,
You have put me in mind of a phrase — a phrase imprinted on the memories of many, many Kansans. In 1966, as a tornado was coming, the Topeka broadcaster Bill Kurtis [later a big national figure for CBS News] said, “For God’s sake, take cover.”
How about one more? Maybe just a quick one. A reader writes,
Please add me to the mailing list for your columns. They are very informative. Also, I grew up in Toledo, Ohio, many years ago. You still have Midwest sensibilities.
Well, you can take the boy out of Washtenaw County, but . . .
Speaking of Toledo, let me say — particularly as baseball season is now under way — Go Mud Hens.