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At first, it looks like The Autograph Man is a
betrayal. It is not White Teeth. It seems
overly concerned with the popular film, to the detriment of the (not as)
popular novel. Throughout the novel, there are distant echoes of White
Teeth (a hoover as a means of suicide is mentioned, The Wizard of
Oz is sought after more than once, there are motor vehicular collisions with
buses, or the symbols of buses on bus stops, and faith, both religious and
secular, is an important theme). Yet, this is the (not as) popular novel
as written by Zadie Smith, that I've already read four or five times now.
I've bookmarked what seem to be the best or most important bits. I was
mesmerised when I saw the first copies of The Autograph Man in the bookshops, a
few weeks before the official publication date (doesn't such a book
deserve an embargo? - a carefully timed release date to catch bragging kids
from school or bragging kids from offices?). I was sucked away from the
air tight glass case displaying the implements and masks of death of a
space opera from my childhood, and deigned not to visit the Autograph Fair that
it was advertising, even although the revelatory Holy Fool of my own youth was
signed up to be there. The Autograph Man was my film event of the annum,
the gig that I had bought tickets to months ago, and the best album of the
year, all rolled into one. So, has Zadie Smith rewarded my faith?
On first appearances, The Autograph Man is not as
complex as White Teeth. We are only
concerned with the story of one man, Alex-Li Tandem, rather than following the
lives of various families. Alex would appear to be nothing special.
A tall, mixed race youth, who has an obsession with movie stars pre-1969
(pre-Method): Alex seems to be shirking from realism here, preferring
entertainment to enlightenment. His love life is rather complex. He
has a long-standing relationship with the sister of his best friend, a
relationship that Alex seems determined to stretch beyond its
elastic. When we first meet Alex, he has just involved his girlfriend,
Esther, in a car crash with an errant bus stop, whilst embroiled in a chemical
high. Esther only fractures her finger, so it is not an auto-erotic J G
Ballard kind of car crash (although Esther does encourage Alex to
fetishize her pace maker, but she had that prior to the
accident). Despite Alex being a mess, his friends and
family seem to have an almost masochistic love for him. Alex's
favourite word is the personal pronoun. However, there would
appear to be a reason why Alex is indulged in this way, for his father,
Li-Jin, succumbed to a fatal brain tumour when Alex was only a child,
while they were attending a wrestling bout between Big Daddy and Giant
Haystacks (which Big Daddy won, despite having his own head stamped
upon). Alex's surname is appropriate, for he always seems to be in
tandem with someone, whether it be his dad, Esther, or his childhood friends.
When we first meet Alex, he is presented as the
only kid in the world looking forward to his bar mitzvah. At the
wrestling match, accompanied by a couple of Jewish friends from heder, Alex
encounters the repressed Joseph Klein, a worshipper of all things famous and an
autograph collector. When his father dies, so too does Alex's faith in
God. It's left to the unruly teenager Rubinfine to improbably follow the
path of God by becoming a rabbi. Alex adopts a new faith, like many
other people at this time: Fame. Only Alex takes it to extremes and
even makes a career out of it. For he is an Autograph Man. However,
it is not his trade that most worries his loved ones, for Alex has also
embarked on a long running project, a book contrasting the essences of
Jewishness and Goyishness. The novel is constructed on guidelines
laid down by two faiths: by the ten step Kabbalah that Adam seeks
communion with, and by the ten Zen Buddhist bulls that drive Honey Smith
forward in an ever prurient world. These are steps leading to God knows
where. All Alex knows is that he's in a hurry to get there, and that
groups of rabbis have a tendency to get in his way (and if you know the
collective noun for rabbis, please insert it here ______). Alex avoids
religion like the plague, and messes up all his commitments along the way, for
in his mind, faith, religion, and ceremony are irretrievably linked Alex
wants to be up there with the big boys, to be able to afford the highest bids,
but fame is a dangerous game.
Zadie Smith, like Honey Smith (and several
Joneses), has had her taste of fame. If fame were any dish, then sweet
and sour would spring to mind (not that Alex can eat pork - he is Jewish
through his mother, Sarah). Lucia the dog likes it in a Wedgwood dish.
Honey Smith, the call girl, seems to want to spend the rest of her life
enclosed within rubber, to experience everything through rubber,
after her brief suck with Fame (it's not all youthful things
leaping out of school and dancing on yellow cabs). Zadie Smith, like
the popular film director George Lucas, seems intent on filling out her new
book with cuteness, especially with regard to the etchings by Roderick Mills
(although, as we discover in our close reading of the text below, there is a
definite purpose to these drawings). Via Mills, Alex falters through
his journey like a mongrel breed of Wally (you know - of "Where's
.....?" fame) and Harry Potter. Not quite as good as a Shepherd, but
on the iconic way there. I just wonder how that dustjacket will translate
into the paperback? Perhaps the origami skills of an Archibald Jones can be
called upon?
Although the Autograph men concerned have been
well researched, I believe that this novel is also informed by the observation
of literary men (and women). I, like Alex, have a Brian Duchamp, a smelly
holy fool, that I am frightened of turning into, the bumbling fool behind the
curtain who has delusions of being the AuthorGod. Alex struggles to
become the author of his own life. Like Pi in Yann Martel's Man
Booker Prize winning novel Life of Pi, Alex is
given to employing God's unsayable name. However, unlike Pi, who answers
his identity in merely the same way that God did to Moses, Alex is given to
blasphemously signing himself as God. So Alex sets off on his yellow
brick road by following the star in the West (the forties musical film star
Kitty Alexander - although he calls his cat 'Grace', not wanting to be so
obvious), in his best jimjams, pausing only to vomit along the way, yearned for
by a girl with a mechanical heart (he does not appreciate what he has got back
home), and accompanied by a transcendental scarecrow with an itchy head and a
cowardly lion with a Joseph Heller of a roar. He is set
upon and delayed by flying rabbinical monkeys, but the Good Witch Glinda is
there to help along the way. Alex, the Autograph man, is determined
to spray his mark upon the world. However, Alex, and Esther in
particular, do seem to have the most amazing constitutions, that do stretch
credulity somewhat, just like a certain Archibald Jones (what do they eat for
breakfast in Mountjoy?). Just how many times does Esther have to visit
hospital? How many toxins are puking through Alex's
blood? If Baguely is such a big shark in the autograph world, then
how does such a minor sting affect him so badly? Like a favourite movie
though, The Autograph Man does improve with every viewing, and you can forgive
these slight lapses. No doubt Zadie Smith has been presented, like
Salome, with much material on a plate, such has been the fascination about
her away from her writing. It's a truism to say that she knows
much about fame. The Autograph Man feels like it has more than
a little of the essence of Zadie Smith within it. Just as we read books,
so we read people. Like Alex-Li Tandem, we categorise them (although
perhaps not on the grounds of Jewishness and Goyishness). But there is
more than enough material here, in The Autograph Man, that we need not look
beyond the printed page for satisfaction and fulfillment. Let us judge
Zadie Smith solely on her works. The Autograph Man is good and rich, and
I gladly give my compliments to the chef. Even the left over pamphlets
taste good to Boot! The one major criticism of fame today that it
does not have substance, weight: that the songs sung by Shylar are composed by
shysters who repeat the "Oh baby, baby" from the first song till you
puke, and that the whole thing is manufactured pap. But The Autograph Man
does have weight, does have a soul (even if it's not too sure of its
faith). The Autograph Man, and the work of Zadie Smith, would have found
an audience even without the hype - of that, we can be sure, based on the
evidence of The Autograph Man.
Authortrek Rating: 9/10
Kevin Patrick Mahoney
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Here is a page by page reading
guide to the novel, written by Kevin Patrick Mahoney (taken from the
hardcover edition ISBN 0241139988):
Lenny
Bruce - find out more about this Jewish comedian
Goy - Yiddish term for Gentile
"Naturally
things cannot in reality fit together the way the evidence does in my letter;
life is more than a Chinese puzzle" - read the whole of Kafka's
letter to his father. This phrase seems to be rather a neat way of
summing up The Autograph Man. The 'Chinese puzzle' is no doubt Alex-Li
himself, and one must remember that Kafka himself was Jewish
"I would always make believe that Clark Gable was my
father" - proving that stars like Marilyn Monroe wanted their bit of
glamour and fame even when young - she also used to say that Jean Harlow was
her mother
Zohar - Prologue Zohar The Wrestling Match p. 1 - The
Zohar is a book of Jewish mysticism. It's full title was "Sefer
ha-zohar" ("The Book of Splendour"). It was written by
Moses ben Shem Tov de León, who believed that philosophy was a threat to the
Jewish religion. He wrote a lot about Rabbi Simeon ben YoRai, a Jewish
doctor from the 2nd century, who has had lots of stories told about him.
The Zohar features a long speech from Simeon ben YoRai on the day he dies, in
which he reveals the essence of Jewish mysticism. The Encyclopaedia
Britannica refers to The Zohar as a "literary hoax", and this was
recognised by many of the time, and it was only ever reluctantly accepted as an
"authorative ancient work". Despite its detractors, it has
become an important part of the Jewish faith, particularly the Orthodox
tradition. The Zohar also redeveloped the myth of the first man, Adam
Qadmon (although it's doubtful that he's a model for Alex-Li Tandem). The
Zohar claims to be a complete guide to life, the universe and everything,
reinforcing the Talmud in the face of the threat of philosophy. However,
although it would seem to uphold the Torah, it also threatens to supplant it
(maybe the Autograph Man is designed to supplant White Teeth?)
Most of the ideas espoused by the Zohar already
existed, such as the sefirot: the Zohar just put them into a more form.
The sefirot provide an intriguing structure for the first half of The Autograph
Man, but perhaps Zadie Smith could have explored it further by presenting the
left-hand sefirot, which leans more towards damnation rather than
enlightenment, but such a progression does not fit Alex's story.
YHWH - Prologue Zohar The Wrestling Match p. 1 - the
Hebrew name for God as revealed to Moses (literally and enigmatically "I
am who I am"). It's called the Tetragrammaton. Alex-Li will
later use the Tetragrammaton as his signature in the novel - i.e. he signs his
name as God!
'I'm actually talking about the "Coming Home"
episode when Kellas found out about his, you know, his wotsitcalled, his bionic
features' - Prologue Zohar The Wrestling Match p. 5 - Alex seems to be
referring to The Six Million Dollar Man, whose hero, Steve Austin, was
bionic. Although there never was an episode of the Six Million Dollar Man
called "Coming Home", so it looks like Zadie Smith made this
up. The scenario seems more akin to the Seventies' version of The
Incredible Hulk, in which the hero spent his life on the road being pursued by
a journalist, who suspected him of being the ugly green freak that kept
splitting his pants whenever he got angry. A more plausible episode title
would have been "The Enemy Within", beloved of lazy scriptwriters
everywhere
Big Daddy -
Prologue Zohar The Wrestling Match p. 6 - his real name was Shirley Crabtree
('Big Daddy', his stage name, was taken from 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof').
His father was also named 'Shirley', so the story of his mother hoping for a
girl and keeping the girl's name for her son is unlikely. He was a
huge star in Britain in the early 70s and 80s. Although the bouts
were accused of being 'fixed', they were hugely entertaining, unlike the WWF,
or whatever it is they call themselves now. His wife made that fantastic
costume
Esther - Prologue Zohar The Wrestling Match p. 11 -
probably named after the Biblical Book of Esther. She was the wife of Persian
king Xerxes I who, along with her cousin Mordecai, prevented the massacre of
the Jews. This is now celebrated by the festival of Purim
Giant
Haystacks - Prologue Zohar The Wrestling Match p. 15 - as the
Big Daddy website says above, Giant Haystacks was more famous internationally
than Big Daddy. He was indeed over 45 stone (p.16). He never did
beat Big Daddy, despite being heavier by about 20 stone
'I WANNA LEARN HOW TO FLY' - Prologue Zohar The Wrestling
Match p. 16 - is a quote from the theme music to 'Fame' - the television
series of this Alan Parker film made this phrase internationally
famous. The lyrics from the theme music are also quoted on the front
cover of the hardcover: 'Fame! I'm gonna live forever!'. Although the
lyrics by Dean Pitchford are copyrighted in 1980, I'm not absolutely sure that
Alex-Li and his cohorts would have known about it at age 12 - I thought the
showing of the TV series on the BBC was a few years later than this?
Prince Albert - Prologue Zohar The Wrestling Match pp.
17-19 - Prince Albert and Queen Victoria were first cousins. She proposed
to him in 1839, and 4 months later, they were married. The
Christmas Tree was indeed popularised by Prince Albert, although he only
received true recognition on his death. Albert was not popular with
politicians when he toned down their language in official dispatches. He
died in 1861
"excessively
handsome, such beautiful eyes... my heart is quite going" -
Prologue Zohar The Wrestling Match pp. 17-19 - this webpage features another
profile of Victoria and Albert. Zadie Smith's invention of Excessive
Grief Syndrome (EGS) is a nice touch
Albert
Hall - Prologue Zohar The Wrestling Match pp. 17-21 - a history
of the famous venue - Zadie Smith covers its highpoints quite well
'ladies
buy 80% of all the things that are bought on this earth' - Prologue Zohar
The Wrestling Match p. 25 - this is true, according to this webpage
Philography -
Prologue Zohar The Wrestling Match p. 31 - more details about autograph
collecting
Judaica - Prologue Zohar The Wrestling Match p. 31 - are
literary material relating to Jews
the BBC Test Card -
Prologue Zohar The Wrestling Match p. 34 - the girl was Carol Hersee, and the
most famous test card in the world was devised by her father George Hersee, but
the rag doll remains unaccredited to this day
Book One Mountjoy: The Kabbalah of Alex-Li Tandem p. 43 -
Kabbalah - Jewish mysticism from 12th Century to present day, an oral tradition
due to the need of having a personal guide who prevents you from straying into
mystical dangers (Adam would appear to perform this role in The Autograph
Man). Adam would be an appropriate guide since he's named after the first
man, and much of Kabbalah's power derives from 'knowledge' of the 'unwritten
Torah' divulged to Moses and Adam by God. Of great influence on this was
the Sefer Yetzira (“Book of Creation”), possibly written in or before the 6th
century, which was the first Jewish book on magic and cosmology. It
explained the process of creation involving the 10 divine numbers (the
'sefirot' that provide the structure to the first half of The Autograph Man),
and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. These were called “32 paths of
secret wisdom.” No doubt Zadie Smith avoided telling her story via these
32 paths as this would have made The Autograph Man too long, and it did not fit
the structure of the story that she was telling. "Sefirot" is
Hebrew for "numbers"
'Take
me to the centre of everything' - Book One Mountjoy: The Kabbalah of
Alex-Li Tandem p. 43 - mentioning Madonna's surname would appear to be a
redundant gesture on Zadie Smith's part (everyone knows who Madonna is).
It is possible that Zadie Smith got this quote from this newspaper article - it
is after all, about the auction of Madonna memorabilia at Sotheby's in 2001, a
scenario that is closely related to the subject matter of The Autograph Man
'The
unique phenomenon of distance, however close an object may be' - Book
One Mountjoy: The Kabbalah of Alex-Li Tandem p. 43 - is a quote from Walter
Benjamin's 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' - what he
was actually saying is that the 'aura' generated by a work of art (i.e. the
Mona Lisa) is incrementally diminished by multiple reproductions of it as, say,
a postcard. Although he was undoubtedly wise, Walter Benjamin was not all
that popular with Nazis or Communists, as he committed suicide rather than fall
into the hands of the Gestapo at Port-Bou. I am not quite sure of
the equation of fame=aura in this context, but of interest to readers of
The Autograph Man is the fact that Walter Benjamin was Jewish (no doubt why he
was trying to flee the Nazis), and that early on in his life, he was influenced
by Kabbalistic
thought. As Zadie Smith later writes in Six/Hesed p. 126 - "The
wise guy Walter Benjamin in need of a comb, a better tailor, a way out of
France"
One/Shechinah p.45 - Shechinah is the Hebrew word for the
"presence of God in the world". It forms part of the sefirot in
Alex-Li's Kabbalah
"It looked as if the Flood had passed through
Mountjoy, scrubbed it clean... There were rainbows everywhere" -
One/Shechinah p.46 - an allusion to the Book of Genesis, the first Book
of the Bible (so Zadie Smith starts off at the beginning of the Bible).
God decides to do a cull of humanity, wiping out the numerous evil folk in the
process. He did warn Noah to built a rather big boat though. God
created the first rainbow - the first covenant between man and God - to signal
that the flood was over, and to say that he would never wipe out humanity by such
means again. Yann
Martel also alludes to the Flood in Life of Pi by
stranding Pi in an ocean
Accidental eyes - One/Shechinah p.46 - Rubinfine's
description of Alex's eyes - halfway between Oriental and Occidental, is quite
memorable
'Legal name: Microdot. Street name: Superstar' -
One/Shechinah p.47 - despite making itself 'famous' all through Alex's
body, the names of this drug, because they are both so uncool, are
improbable. This is a guess, but Zadie Smith may have got this name from
the Verve single 'She's a
Superstar' which I believe was produced by a record company called
'Microdot'. It's a song about fame, so it's possible that this is where
the drug got its name
Bill Robinson - One/Shechinah p.48 - 1878 to 1949 -
starred in several 1930s Shirley Temple films. He had a great talent as a
dancer - great with his legs - he could run backwards at speed!
Floxine -
One/Shechinah p.49 - or to give it its scientific name, 'Vinyl Chloride',
is not good for you, as it's a chemical warfare agent
The Dance of Scoff - One/Shechinah p.50 - was
probably not devised by Bill Robinson - it looks to be the work of Marvin the
milk operative alone
Greta - One/Shechinah p.54 - Alex's vintage MG is named
after Greta Garbo, the famously reclusive film actress who retired to an apartment
in New York - possibly the model for Kitty Alexander. Perhaps the car
should have been named after Zsa Zsa Gabor?
Brer - One/Shechinah p.55 - is short for 'Brother', most
famously used by Joel Chandler Harris in his creation of Brer Rabbit, derived
from African folklore
'Alex folded into the door-frame like Lauren Bacall' -
One/Shechinah p.55 - no doubt a stance derived from the famous whistling scene
in Bacall's first film, 'To Have and to Have Not'
'He believed, further, that on such days all you can do
is follow, dumbly, with your knuckles grazing the ground. In that sense,
if no other, he was a profoundly religious man' - One/Shechinah p.55 - seems to
be a bit of an oxymoron to me, or it would be to certain nineteenth century
conservative clergymen opposed to Charles Darwin's theory that we are all
descended from apes
'Alex closed his eyes. Clicked his heels together
three times' - One/Shechinah p.56 - a reference to The Wizard of Oz ('There's
no place like home'). Millat in White Teeth also improbably performs
this ceremony ('improbably' because he's a Willesden hardboy), but it
comes more naturally to Alex, derived from his love of the movies
Yesod - Two/Yesod p.57 - another part of the Kabbalah -
'Foundation'
Sandra Dee -
Two/Yesod p.57 - find out all about her, although she's really quite dull
Dolores
Del Rio - Two/Yesod p.57 - is a bit more interesting
Peter Lawford - Two/Yesod p.57 - was a member of
the Rat Pack
'Anyone who is able to leave a successful
answering-machine message is a kind of actor' - Two/Yesod p.58 - this is
very true
'He had been humiliated many times by that ubiquitous
good-looking drunk girl who rests against the refrigerator and coolly assesses
the validity of your life'- Two/Yesod p.59 - she goes to all the best parties,
damn her!
'Alex-Li is an Autograph Man. A little like being a
munchkin, or a good witch or a flying monkey or a rabbi. Not much without
your belief' - Two/Yesod p.59 - very good. In the land of Oz, this
especially applies to wizards
Elizabeth Taylor - Two/Yesod p.59 - although she was born
in England, her parents were American
Veronica Lake - Two/Yesod p.59 - famously
body-doubled in LA Confidential
Gene Tierney - Two/Yesod p.59 - most famous for the 1944
film 'Laura'
Rosemary Clooney - Two/Yesod p.59 - was the star of
'White Christmas'
Jules Munshin -
Two/Yesod p.59 - who, we are told on p. 63, appeared in The Girl from Peking
with Kitty Alexander in 1952, was a real actor. Not that we thought, like
The Guardian, that
Zadie Smith had made him all up. Of course not. He appeared in On
the Town, Take me out to the Ball Game, and Silk Stockings (his appearance as
one of the Lollipop Guild in The Wizard of Oz seems to escaped notice however)
Bettie Page - Two/Yesod p.60 - famous pin-up model
David Ben-Gurion - Two/Yesod p.60 - the first prime
minister and defence minister of Israel
"I saw the best minds of my generation/Accept jobs
on the fringes of the entertainment industry" - Two/Yesod p.65
- seems to be either a direct quote or a pastiche of Allen Ginsberg's
'Howl'
Harriet
Brown - Two/Yesod p.65 - find out more about Greta Garbo's
pseudonym
"Monroe's
first husband" - Two/Yesod p.66 - was Jim Dougherty, although
she was still only 'Norma Jean' back then
"the third man on the moon"
- Two/Yesod p.66 - was Charles "PPete" Conrad, Jr. He died
in a Harley Davidson accident in 1999
"the Fifth Beatle" - Two/Yesod p.66 - in
strict chronological terms, Pete Best was the fifth Beatle. The Beatle's
first drummer was usurped by Ringo Starr, at the suggestion of George
Martin. Pete Best is famously believed to now be working in an employment
exchange. Stuart Sutcliffe, the other early Beatle, died in Hamburg in
1962
Netsah - Three/Netsah p. 67 - also spelt as
'Netzah' meaning "eternity"
Three/Netsah p. 67 - in a recent radio
interview, Zadie Smith said she got the comic scenario of the three rabbis from
a book called Fantastic Jewish and Hasidic stories, in which things often
happen in threes, like three men trying to carry a table up a hill
"In his opinion, Rubinfine was too young to be
making up aphorisms. He was only three years older than Alex. He
was 30. You can quote all you like at thirty, but that's where it's got
to end" - Three/Netsah p. 68 - this paragraph doesn't really
make a great deal of sense
Scholem - Three/Netsah p. 71 - Rubinfine is referring to
Gershom Scholem, who closely studied The Zohar in the twentieth century. He
became convinced that the Zohar, far from being ancient, was a medieval text by
Moses de León. Which is why Rubinfine says that "The Zohar is a
pretty good novel, no more, no less".
Shabbetai Tzevi - Three/Netsah p. 71 - or Shabbatai Zevi
was a false messiah who converted to Islam. Got rather too carried away
in the years leading up to 1666 (i.e. the number of the beast), just like some
more recent cults did in the years leading up to the millennium. Not
surprisingly, he was imprisoned in Constantinople in early 1666, and after
torture, converted to Islam. His supporters wavered over whether to do
the same. He died in ignominy 10 years later
HaShem - Three/Netsah p. 71 - is another one of God's
names
"It was Harrison Ford in a film about the Amish type
of goyish" -Three/Netsah p. 74 - a reference to Harrison Ford's film
'Witness', in which a detective has to go undercover in an Amish
community. Ford is most famous for playing Han Solo in Star Wars and
Indiana Jones
Bette Davis - Three/Netsah pp. 74-75 - real name Ruth
Elizabeth Davis. She won her second Oscar for 'Jezebel'
"Someone thought Tandem sounded better" -
Three/Netsah pp. 75 - my family name was changed from O'Mahony to Mahoney
to sound more English! It's what some immigrants thought they had to do
to get on in the UK in the past
Hod - Four/Hod p. 77 - meaning 'majesty' in the Sefirot
(Zadie Smith's translation has it down as 'splendour')
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle - Four/Hod p. 78 -
"Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle states that it is impossible to know
both the position and velocity (speed and direction) of an object at the same
time. How come we don't notice it then? Because the effect is so tiny that it
isn't noticeable at anything larger than subatomic levels" - quotation
from the BBC's h2g2 site. "a quantum entity such as an electron does
not possess both a position and a momentum simultaneously" - is how
John Gribbin explains it
Heller Insurance - Four/Hod pp. 77-78 - probably a
reference to the satirical writer Joseph Heller, whose most famous novel was
'Catch 22'. "There were no accidents in the minds of Helleric
employees. Only malevolent woundings" - very good. In Heller's
novel, the Catch 22 was that you were considered insane if you continued flying
dangerous bombing missions. If however, you asked to be relieved of duty
on the grounds of insanity, since you did not want to fly dangerous bombing
missions, you were considered to be sane, and your request was denied
"Can't
Help Lovin' dat Man" - Four/Hod p. 79 - read the lyrics
Mickey
Rooney and Ava Gardner - Four/Hod p. 79 - find out more about their
relationship
"I drove Esther into a bus-stop" - Four/Hod p.
80 - White Teeth had a similar crash, involving Ryan's moped and Clara's teeth
"lunula of vomit" - Four/Hod p. 85 -
i.e. a crescent of vomit, semicircular like the white base of the fingernail,
from the Latin for 'moon'
"Sometimes Alex thought that if you got all the
part-time mature students in the world and laid them head to toe around the
line of the equator strapped down in some way so they couldn't move, that would
be a good thing" - Four/Hod p. 86 - Alex Li's reaction to meeting
Gladys. Serves him right, fare dodger
Max Brod - Four/Hod p. 88 - the friend, editor,
biographer, and publisher of Franz Kafka. He ignored Kafka's instructions
to destroy his unpublished manuscripts after his death, and thus created his
posthumous fame
"Everyone gets all the TV programmes, as near as
dammit all of the cinema, and about 80 per cent of all music. After that
come the secondary mediums of painting and those other visual arts that do not
move. These are generally just for
someone, and, although you always hear people moaning
that there isn't enough of them, in truth someone does all right.
Galleries, museums, basements in Berlin, studio flats, journals, bare walls in
urban centres - someone gets what they wants and deserves, most of the
time" - Four/Hod p. 90 - what, no mention of the literary novel?
Twenty-two
Foundation Letters - Four/Hod p. 95 - this website gives a bit more
information about them
"He ordained them, he hewed
them..." - Four/Hod p. 95 - is a quote from the Sefer Yetsirah
("Book of Formation"). This website also illustrates the
twenty-two Foundation letters
"It must have been soon after this that a bus-stop
dashed across the road like a lunatic and threw itself at Alex's car" -
Four/Hod p. 98 - sounds like a malevolent wounding claim from Heller insurance
"re-realize it" - Four/Hod p. 99 -
there is the precedent of reredorter, but I'm sure Zadie Smith doesn't want to
go down that route. She's a literary writer, so she doesn't have to
apologise for making words up - it's her job to be innovative
Leonard Cohen - Four/Hod p. 100-101 - melancholic
Canadian singer songwriter who started out as a novelist, and who wrote frank
songs about having sex with Janis Joplin, amongst other things
Tif'eret - Five/Tif'eret p. 102 - beauty that mediates
between Hesed (goodness) and Gevura (severity) in the Sefirot
"Alex, unfairly, was making a certain pointed
International Gesture (tongue tucked in front of the lower teeth; long
invisible chin, tickled by fingers of right hand)" - Five/Tif'eret p. 105
- this is not actually an international gestture, it is the
Jimmy Hill. This practice spontaneously developed
in British playgrounds in the early 80s when the BBC Match of the Day
commentator Jimmy Hill shaved off his beard, revealing a huge chin.
Thus whenever a British school kid felt that they were being fed BS, they would
do this gesture along with a chant of "Jimmy Hill, Jimmy Hill", since
good old Jimmy was regarded by many as being the ultimate bullshit
merchant. To be fair, Jimmy was ridiculed unfairly for being ahead of his
times by creating an all-seater football stadium (whose seats subsequently
became missiles). Unfortunately, Jimmy has now gone way to the Right in
political terms, which does lead him to say some quite lamentable things from
time to time
Jimmy Durante - Five/Tif'eret p. 106 - American
comedian who had a big nose rather than a big chin, earning him the nickname
Schnozz
"the phthisic wife" - Five/Tif'eret p. 108 -
phthisis is a wasting disease, like TB, so the wife of the Elvis fan is rather
eclipsed by his fatness
Jayne Mansfield - Five/Tif'eret p. 111 - was
decapitated in a traffic accident in 1967
Grace
Kelly decapitated - Five/Tif'eret p. 112 - there looks to be very little
about this on the internet, and it’s dismissed on this webpage
George Sanders
- Five/Tif'eret p. 114 - probably most famouus as the voice of Shere Khan in the
Disney film of The Jungle Book. Learn more about his life and his suicide
note
"'You should ask that the writer lady makes you this
bloke in the book who organizes an auction and then buys his place in, er...
wait - no, yeah, in a book as a character who organizes an auction and then
buys his place in a book and asks...'" - Five/Tif'eret p. 114 - someone
called 'Amanda Payne' did bid at an auction to have their name included in
Margaret Atwood's Oryx
and Crake. Indeed, I'm reliably informed that a very generous donor
named Baguely did bid to have their name included in this novel, something that
I could never see the fictional Baguely doing!
Jeanette
McDonald and Nelson Eddy - Five/Tif'eret p. 116 - found out more about them
Ruby
Keeler - Five/Tif'eret p. 117 - was married to Al Jolson, the actor who is
credited with having the first speaking role in the movies. Ruby Keeler
was the star of 42nd Street
"Never have I been more perfectly Jewish. I
have embraced a perfect contradiction, like Job. I have nothing and, at
the same time, everything" - Five/Tif'eret p. 119 - Job was an intensely
pious man who had everything. Satan bet God that Job's piety was based on
his wealth, and, that if he lost everything, he would curse God. The Book
of Job is kind of like
Trading Places without Eddie Murphy, or indeed, any
jokes. After Job has lost everything, including his health, 3
'friends' - 3 'comforters', turn up and berate Job to admit that his
suffering has been caused by his sins. Job refuses to curse God, but does
despair at the reasons for his pain. “Oh that I had one to hear me! Here
is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me” (31:35), thus Job's pain is caused
by the fact that there are no autograph hunters around, or by the fact that God
is not an autograph hunter. God then turns up and speaks to Job from a
whirlwind (just like Crake is supposed to commune with Snowman in Margaret
Atwood's novel Oryx and Crake), and berates him for not realising that God's
actions could ever be realised in human terms. He then gives Job twice
his former wealth and a new family of similar proportions, and allows him to
live a contented old age (although the Book of Job is criticised, appropriately
enough, for one of the most inhumane depictions of God in the Bible, for surely
Job thinks of his first family from time to time)?
"Alex believed in the God chip in the brain,
something created to process and trigger wonderment. It allows you to see
beauty, to uncover beauty in the world..." to see the color purple in a
field, perhaps? "But it's not so well designed. It's a chip that has
it's problems. Sometimes it confuses a small man with a bad moustache and
a uniform for an image of the infinite" - Five/Tif'eret p. 119 - in
Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, Crake tries to delete the God chip, but
Snowman suspects that he hasn't succeeded when he witnesses the Crakers
worshipping a construct that they have made of him
"For I am an Autograph Man" -
Five/Tif'eret p. 119 - very good
"'Kofi Annan'" - "'Boutros
Boutros-Ghali'" - Six/Hesed p. 121 - this form of greeting was first
invented by Paul Whitehouse et al in The Fast Show, no doubt based on the
handover of the UN Secretary Generalship between these 2 gentlemen
Isaac
Hayes - Six/Hesed p. 126 - Isaac
Hayes is famous for the soundtrack to the blaxploitation movie Shaft, and
as the voice of Chef in South Park, chocolate salty balls 'n'all
Klee's
Angelus Novus - Six/Hesed p. 126 - is a painting that the famous wiseguy
Walter Benjamin bought in 1921 (so probably not a coincidence that he's
mentioned on the same page). Walter Benjamin placed a great deal of
importance upon this Paul Klee painting, and you can read his thoughts about it
here. I
don't think that Benjamin would have thought much about the Age of Digital
Reproduction
"he wavered for weeks about Philip K.
Dick" - Six/Hesed p. 128 - does Zadie Smith dream of electric
sheep?
shivah - Six/Hesed p. 128 - Hebrew for 'seven', the 7
days spent in mourning following the death of a loved one. You're
supposed to cover all mirrors, not go to work, not shave, and to not have
marital relations, although, since Alex and Esther aren't married, they can
probably get away with it
Omphalos - Six/Hesed p. 129 - Greek for 'navel', also the
name of the holy stone at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, supposedly the centre
of the universe
Slash - Six/Hesed p. 130 - British guitarist for
Guns N'Roses, his original name is Saul Hudson
Nation of
Yahweh - Six/Hesed p. 130 - more details about this organisation
The
Commandment Keepers - Six/Hesed p. 130 - learn more about them and the
Nation of Yahweh
Ein Sof - Six/Hesed p. 131 - or En Sof, the
infinite, unknowable God in the Kabbalah
ayin - Six/Hesed p. 131 - Hebrew for 'eye', and the
sixteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet
Fats Waller
- Six/Hesed p. 131 - learn more about him
seder - Six/Hesed p. 133 - the Passover festival.
Prior to the Exodus, the Israelites were told to daub their houses with lamb's
blood so that God will know which to 'pass over' or to 'protect' whilst he
smites the first born of both man and beast
shul - Six/Hesed p. 133 - is Yiddish for synagogue
Haggadah - Six/Hesed p. 134 - or Haggada from the
Hebrew 'to tell', the popular culture and folklore of the Talmud
Luddism - Six/Hesed p. 134 - a reference to the Luddite
uprising from 1811-1812, where craftsmen protested against the
industrialisation of the textile trade, which threatened their
jobs. Although they were against attacking mill owners, they themselves
were shot down in one incident, and violently repressed at a trial in York in
1813, where many of them were hung or transported
Was Marvin Gaye Jewish? - Six/Hesed pp. 134-135 - find
out
here
Sammy Davis jr. - Six/Hesed p. 135 - converted to Judaism
in 1956, a fact that features in a particularly funny scene in Jonathan Safran
Foer's
Everything
is Illuminated
"I don't give a damn about the
new ones. I don't care if so-and-so makes a convincing
paraplegic..." - a reference to Daniel Day-Lewis? "I couldn't
give a damn about his stupid, ugly real name - he should change it. So he
put on forty pounds and learnt to box. And?" - a reference to Robert
de Niro in Raging Bull? "So he went and lived with chimpanzees for
three months. And?" - a reference to Sigourney Weaver? "I
don't care if he climbed Everest..." - a reference to Brian
Blessed? "I don't care. All that is useless to me. I
can't watch a film after 1969" - Six/Hesed p. 136 - a reference to the
preponderance of the Lee Strasberg 'Method' of acting. Although it has
overtaken Hollywood, Method is Eastern European in origin, first proposed for
theatre acting by Konstantin Stanislavski. During the making of 'Marathon
Man', Sir Laurence Olivier criticised Dustin Hoffman for staying up all night
in order to create a suitably haggard appearance for one scene by saying
something along the lines of "Why don't you try acting?".
Sidney Poitier, referred to on p.137, was one of Strasberg's students
Halachah - Six/Hesed p. 138 - or 'Halakah', Hebrew
for 'path' or 'way', where the law is laid down. The law was first
recorded orally, and then written down in the early Christian era, and forms
the learned, high culture part of the Talmud
"Alex has been trying to leave for about three
years. He is hovering over the sofa in the pose of a cross-country
skier" - Six/Hesed p. 139 - great stuff
"When the world was created... He entered with
His orbs of light; made from the letters, He filled the world with
Himself. But HaShem is infinite - in order to create finite beings, He
had to retract Himself, He had to
withdraw. Creation is an act of withdrawal.
But when He exited, He... He did not exit fully. He left shards of
himself... specks of light and... bits..." - Six/Hesed p. 139 - this
is the Cosmogony, the 'story of creation' set out by the Kabbalah, and beloved
of dopefiends everywhere, probably due to the sexual aspect of the
metaphor. In Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, the Cosmogony Snowman
relates to the Crakers is drawn from the memory of the mystical nonsenses
that his former girlfriend Morgana uttered. This act of withdrawal is called
"Tsimtsum" in the Kabbalah, and this process is dramatised in Yann
Martel's Mann Booker Prize winning novel The Life of Pi. The ship
that Pi sails away from India on is called 'Tsimtsum', and following its
withdrawal (i.e. its sinking), Pi's incredible story and Richard Parker are
created. As well as creating room for the world and us, tsimtsum also
provided capacity for the generation of evil
"the problem is this: the godhead is incomplete. He
needs us" - Six/Hesed p. 140 - it is the law that
dopefiends everywhere speak of the 'godhead' (you know who you are, Toby
Parlour!!!)
"The purpose is for us to reward
Him, not for Him to reward us - if you don't get that,
you can't understand Job" - Six/Hesed p. 140 - despite, or maybe
because of the dope, 'Adam' is very erudite about the Kabbalah cosmogony
"Remember Scholem?" - Six/Hesed p. 140 -
another reference to Gerschom Scholem, "the founder of the scholarly study
of Kabbalah", who was also a friend of Walter Benjamin,
as
this site relates
"it's not like you have a proper job, is it?" -
Six/Hesed p. 141 - classic
Gevurah - Seven/Gevurah p. 144 - or Gevura, 'might',
'severity'
Grace - Seven/Gevurah p. 144 - Alex's cat is named after
Grace Kelly
"a line of strange doodles - a table, two
long-haired sprites, another table on its side, a broken twig" -
Seven/Gevurah p. 145 - looks as though Alex has signed the Tetragrammaton as
his name (i.e. he has signed himself as God). When asked for his name
while ordering a pizza in Life of Pi, Pi answers by saying "I am who I
am", thus answering in the same manner as God when he was questioned by
Moses as to his identity. Of the two, Pi is slightly less blasphemous
than Alex
"a man claiming to be an artist projected this
world-famous interface, this window, with its tinkly opening music, on to the
wall...For a moment everyone in the bar was reminded,
compelled to remember, the work undone. Documents
unfinished. Letters half written. That game of suspended solitaire
which sits at home, waiting for Alex-Li and his entire generation to return and
finish it (and lose)" - Seven/Gevurah p. 149 - according to Encarta,
'Windows' is the 'street name' for 'Microsoft Windows' (what's the
street name for Encarta then? 'E'? 'Speed'? 'Microdot'?). It is an
operating system or platform for Personal Computers. I wrote an essay
about the advertising for Windows 95 once. Microsoft was co-founded by
Paul Allen and William Henry Gates III in 1975. All of the above is a
truism, except for those reading The Autograph Man in 2103, for whom Windows 45
will be but a distant memory, after Microsoft was finally rolled over
by Apple and wrapped up in Linux in 2063, albeit only after my Dad overcame his
addiction to Windows Solitaire
Wall
of Jericho - Seven/Gevurah p. 151 - find out more about the Israelite
assault on Jericho
"Kitty Letter done, Alex presses a button and the
box of tricks begins to sing. With its
jug jug. With its dirty bird song. In a few
seconds, he will be connected to the world. The world! One day he
will take advantage of this incredible resource. He will find out about
ancient Babylonia and gain a working knowledge of Estonian. He will learn
how to make a bomb" - Seven/Gevurah p. 153 - for readers in 2103, this is
how you connected to the internet in the early 21st Century. The
'internet'. The what? Oh well, never mind...
Mickey Carroll - Seven/Gevurah
p. 151 - learn more about the little Munchkin
Helen Keller - Seven/Gevurah p. 154 - was indeed
blind and deaf, but she did learn to speak at age of 10, and was no longer dumb
after this (far from it)
Dick
Powell - Seven/Gevurah p. 155 - he was so famous that even his home town
doesn't know who he is!
Mata Hari - Seven/Gevurah p. 155 - Dutch prostitute
who spied for the Germans during World War I, and who got many secrets from her
liaisons with allied officers. She was shot by the French in 1917
Gina Lollobrigida - Seven/Gevurah p. 155 - Italian film
actress who starred in several Hollywood films
Jean Simmons - Seven/Gevurah p. 155 - was a memorable
Estella in David Lean's Great Expectations when she was 17
Alain Delon - Seven/Gevurah p. 155 - French film
actor who was the first cinematic Tom Ripley
Lassie - Seven/Gevurah p. 155 - any given collie dog
"Alex reflected on the plight of poor Franz
Kafka. All day long stuck in that office, drawing the mutilated hands of
strangers, the victims of industrial accidents. His genius ignored for so
long. Suffocated by colleagues. Ridiculed by friends and
family. Almost directly, Alex felt better. Yes, there was always
Kafka. Alex found examples of ignored genius from
history very soothing" - Seven/Gevurah p. 156 - very good
Seven/Gevurah p. 157 - Colonel Paul Tibbets was the pilot
of the B-29, whilst Major Tom Ferebee released the bomb that devastated
Hiroshima in 1945
"While waiting, he visits a medical site and
diagnoses himself as having a rare blood disease" - Seven/Gevurah p.
158 - the internet is responsible for many dangerous outbreaks of
hypochondria
"Switchable" - Seven/Gevurah p. 158 - is listed
as an adjective in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, although Alice
could have used 'transferable' instead
"amorphous" - Seven/Gevurah p. 159 -
without any clear shape or structure, indeed "like a poisonous gas they
were breathing", although, as far as we are aware, only Alex lights up
Terms of Endearment - Seven/Gevurah p. 160 - big
Eighties weepy movie that starred Debra Winger? as a young woman dying of
cancer, with Shirley MacLaine as her mother and Jack Nicholson as an astronaut,
if I remember rightly, who drives a car crazily on a beach in the most famous
scene. Not one of my favourites
"With two little words, violently said, Esther
terminated the conversation" - Seven/Gevurah p. 160 - my guess would be
"fuck you". 'Fuck', often described as ancient
Anglo-Saxon, is actually a much more modern word derived from Dutch and
Swedish
Hochmah - Eight/Hochmah p.163 - or 'hokhma' - wisdom
"a
traveller threw all his silver coins into the water" - Eight/Hochmah
p.165 - sorry Rabbis, but Bahya's story is actually about Repentance
"Income
twenty shillings, expenses nineteen shillings and sixpence - result happiness.
Income twenty shillings, expenses twenty shillings and sixpence - result,
misery" - Eight/Hochmah pp.169-170 - is the actual Micawber quote from
Charles Dickens' David Copperfield
Harold Lloyd - Eight/Hochmah p.171 - wasn't one for
hanging around in the film Safety Last, which featured a very cute mouse
Mary Astor - Eight/Hochmah p.171 - was in The Maltese
Falcon
Joel McCrea - Eight/Hochmah p.171 - starred in many
Westerns
"Not yet accepting the role we all get cast in,
eventually: the walk-on (fall-down) part with no lines" -
Eight/Hochmah p.175 - a variation on the "All the world's a stage"
speech from Shakespeare's
As You Like It?
the
Left-Handed Shop - Eight/Hochmah p.175 - possibly the one Alex sees.
Sounds very sinister to me
Hasidim - Eight/Hochmah p.175 - means 'the pious ones' in
Hebrew
yahrzeit - Eight/Hochmah p.179 - is Yiddish for
'year time', the anniversary of the death of a close relative
"Oh, so now... you're having an epiphany about the
importance of not having epiphanies" - Eight/Hochmah p.180 - this is
indeed great
"somewhere in Alex's head he is the greatest, most
famous person you never heard of" - Eight/Hochmah p.180 - this condition
is catching
"You know how the sky's blue?" -
Eight/Hochmah p.186 - I do now, after it was explained by Magid in White
Teeth. Lord Rayleigh first came up with the idea of Rayleigh Scattering
to explain this. As the Encyclopaedia Britannica relates,"The
angle through which sunlight in the atmosphere is scattered by molecules of the
constituent gases varies inversely as the fourth power of the wavelength;
hence, blue light, which is at the short wavelength end of the visible
spectrum, will be scattered much more strongly than will the long wavelength
red light. This results in the blue colour of the sunlit sky, since, in
directions other than toward the Sun, the observer sees only scattered
light." So there you go
"No complicated knots or car exhausts - you know -
with the Hoover tubes" - Eight/Hochmah p.187 - Boot has obviously
been reading White Teeth, where Archie attempts a 'passenger action' with a
Hoover and a car exhaust
"It was a cheque. But where a signature should
be Boot saw a shaky table, a catcher's mitt, the bottom half of a chair" -
Eight/Hochmah p.188 - Alex looks to be signing himself off as God again in the
form of the Tetragrammaton
"Mr
Huang's Story as told to Alex and Sarah" - Nine/Binah p. 189 -
is a Zen story, Real
Prosperity
Binah - Nine/Binah p. 191 - or 'bina', 'understanding' or
'intelligence', of the kind not shown by Alex's maths teacher
"'Which philosopher was delighted when he heard that
his student had given up philosophy to work in a canning factory?'" -
Nine/Binah p. 191 - this was Ludwig Wittgenstein, who
was always urging his students not to take up academic careers
micturated - Nine/Binah p. 192 - i.e. 'pissed'
The Nicholas Brothers
- Nine/Binah p. 193 - tap dancing brothers wwho appeared at the Cotton Club and
became Hollywood stars
"With downcast, pretty eyes, he reached out for the
kettle and put the water on" - Nine/Binah p. 194 - 'pretty eyes' is
probably not an adjective that Alex would use concerning Joseph in this scene,
or is this an example of Zadie Smith's feminine voice intruding into the scene,
or is she trying to make Joseph himself look feminine? Or it could be
that Joseph is adopting an International submissive Gesture?
"Let's remember our university degrees. Let's
remember our Ludwig Wittgenstein. Tell me about the nature of a
proposition" - Nine/Binah pp. 196-197 - Wittgenstein was an
Austrian-British linguistic philosopher, who was educated at home in a
'hothouse' environment, so that, even if he had not died in 1951, he would
never have been able to have made much of a contribution to the Friends
Reunited phenomenon, unless you count as valid their work-based, bowling-green
efforts. His brother Paul Wittgenstein was a brilliant pianist who lost
his right arm in World War I but continued playing, and didn't give up and
take out all his frustrations on innocent school children instead. Ludwig
Wittgenstein did become a school teacher, and although he got on well with the
pupils, the other teachers and the local villagers weren't so keen on him
(probably confused him with Frankenstein's monster). He spent a great
deal of his academic life in Cambridge, which is where Zadie Smith probably
came across him whilst doing her own degree. Wittgenstein's big thing was
the philosophy of language, i.e. how is it that anything is ever said, and how
is it that anything said is understood by another person? He came up with
the idea that propositions are 'pictures of reality'. The proposition
that Alex comes up with would seem to be a very violent picture, reminiscent of
Picasso's Guernica. Although Wittgenstein's discussion of 'language
games' is appealing (i.e. that theologians are involved in a communal language
game that is very much different from say, the language game of scientists),
this is been mucked up slightly by the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies
with its interdisciplinary approaches, at least in the world of the humanities
"But first we're going to drink. We're going
to get tight. Middle of the movie stuff" - Nine/Binah p. 197 -
bizarrely enough, Alex says this in the middle of the novel! This is a
bit too yucky for me, and Alex is far to 'aware' that he is in the fulcrum of a
fiction for my liking. In other words, Zadie Smith is not being very
subtle here
Purim - Nine/Binah p. 198 - is probably the most
joyous Jewish religious festival (try saying that with a cork-nut in your
mouth), involving much more merriment than Alex's party "in inverted
commas" (p. 197), although it does involve chanting from the Book of
Esther (see above for supposition regarding the naming of Esther)
"You never saw so many ambitious little... human
beings" - Nine/Binah p. 198 - this is very true of the moment, where
practically everyone wants to be famous or to write about famous people by
becoming a journalist. The most depressing thing is that the desires of
these little human beings will probably come true, what with the ever more
expanding digital universe, although the audience itself will no doubt
shrink. I guess that we'll just have the equivalent of the outrageous
'blog prog' for the day, although I've never been tempted to watch the Big
Brother audition tapes. Personally, I've stopped watching Big
Brother. I've stopped watching TV. Having said that, the negative
side of this phenomenon has never been expressed better than by Jimmy
McGovern's 'To be a Somebody' (Robert Carlyle's big break).
Does Rubinfine think that saying 'children' is
politically incorrect, or is he just getting used to having to employ
euphemisms for 'midgets'?
Discuss.
Tokophobia - Nine/Binah p. 200 - is an "intense
anxiety or fear of death which leads to some women dreading and avoiding
childbirth despite desperately wanting a baby"
"Alex and Adam, like Akiva, hiding in their
caves!" - Nine/Binah p. 200 - looks to be a reference to Akiva ben
Yosef, the most renowned Rabbi in 132 AD. He supported Simeon bar Kosba
in his uprising against the Romans, who were trying to bring the Jews further
into their world by imposing their values and customs upon them, which involved
the banning of circumcision. Akiva proclaimed Simoen as 'Bar Kokhba'
(i.e. 'son of the star', a reference to the messiah). The Christians
didn't take part in the rebellion, probably because of this. The
rebellion was successful at first, and Emperor Hadrian (of the wall fame),
brought Severus over from Britain to crush the uprising (from his name, I'd
guess that Severus wasn't all that easy-going). Close to 600,000 Jews
died in the actual war, with many more dying from the resulting
privations. The Jews were forced into exile away from Jerusalem
The
Sefer
Yetsirah - Nine/Binah p. 201 - or the Sefer Yetzirah. Find out more
about it via the provided link
Louise Brooks - Nine/Binah p. 202 - silent
film star who first made her name in Hollywood, but then made several powerful
films in Germany, her most famous being 'Pandora's Box'. She employed the
name of her character in that film for her 1982 biography, 'Lulu in Hollywood'
Taylor - Nine/Binah p. 202 - Elizabeth Taylor
Pickford - Nine/Binah p. 202 - a reference to
Mary Pickford, the most powerful actress in early cinema. She had her own
production company at 23, and in 1919, she formed United Artists with Charlie
Chaplin, D W Griffith, and her husband Douglas Fairbanks
Cagney - Nine/Binah p. 202 - James Francis