michal k-c > Recent Status Updates

Robert Alter used the term “gold digger” in the commentary for Proverbs 5:5 lol

the apocalyptic images of bombed out post-war Germany have reminded me that we jews do not traditionally believe in a Hell. typically the punishments endured on earth will suffice

the Book of Job rules because it starts with a guy saying he wishes he was never born and ends with him living another 140 years. sometimes God makes mistakes just ask Abraham

the term “biblical dialectics” flashed across my brain for a brief instant and i smelled burnt toast

if i was Job i probably wouldn’t have challenged God’s prudence and infinite wisdom. just not the kind of guy i am

when you hate something enough (in this case the USSR) you can rationalize all sorts of boneheaded takes, such as “war and peace is poorer than the sources it was based on”

i could easily be persuaded to believe that Kiš was a spook for hire when he was writing these essays

“should anyone tell you Kolyma was different from Auschwitz, tell him to go to Hell.” lovely sentiment but doesn’t really make any sense. Kiš, like a lot of eastern european writers that had appeal in the west, hated the Soviet Union so much he stopped caring about poor analogies. Deleuze would call this a “bad idea”

love that one of the most detailed conversations in this book is Knausgaard’s friend comparing him to a catholic saint lol

for a guy who hates all nationalisms so much he sure does like the idea of a central European continuity

wouldn’t have pegged Kiš as being this defensive. any amount of namedropping will always just read as insecurity, rather than foreknowledge

re: Sontag’s intro: sometimes you read something by someone who is practically universally revered and it makes you feel insane because it is so bad

someone needs to put me in contact with Karl Ove’s friend Geir so i can show him Barthes’ essay on wrestling