Volume 3, Number 2

[james_morrow]

THE INVENTION OF THE INVENTION OF LYING

For the past several months I’ve been receiving e-mails from fans of my novella, City of Truth, asking how I feel about the recent Ricky Gervais comedy, The Invention of Lying.

The parallels between my novella and Gervais’ movie are many. Both posit societies in which mendacity is unknown. Both sport plot

Comments

[kylecassidy]

welcome back! i've just started "shambling" -- liking it very much so far.

[sovay]

If You cannot be bothered to inform Mr. Lieberman that You are personally revolted by his gelding of health-care reform in the United States, then I’m going back to worshipping trees.

V'imru amein.

[tntanuki]

To both posts I heartily say: hear, hear!! And I'm so glad you're back! Happy Solstice, backatcha!

I'm Jewish and I'm with Lieberman

[anonymous]

Mr. Morrow -- help me out here. When a religious believer in the Senate votes to criminalize abortion on account of his religious teachings, secular humanists say that religion should not be brought into politics. But when a religious believer instead casts a vote on something that you believe violates the tenets of his religious teachings, then you have to bring bring his religion into it. I not only disagree with you on this, as a Jew I am personally offended. This wouldn't bother me so much if it weren't for the fact that while just about every secular humanist I meet cares nothing about offending the pious, you have always seemed to try to avoid being hostile. Until now

Re: I'm Jewish and I'm with Lieberman

[james_morrow]

Dear Anonymous: I appreciate your thoughtful and heartfelt comment. To be honest, I’ve always resisted the notion of “taking offense” at another person’s critique of an arguably problematic worldview. (You know as well as I that the YHWH of the Torah recommends all sorts of vicious behavior.) To adopt such a posture, I feel, is to shut down the most precious post-Enlightenment gift the Western world possesses these days, reasoned discourse: “I’m offended, sir, therefore this conversation is over, period, full stop.” We can do better than that, Anonymous

Re: I'm Jewish and I'm with Lieberman

[anonymous]

Mr. Morrow, thank you for your very thoughtful reply. To begin, I see what you're saying about the notion of "taking offense," and from your point of view I can understand what you're getting at. The fact of the matter, however, is that it is impossible to critique a pre-enlightenment worldview with post-enlightenment premises. I cannot appeal to the kind of "reason" that you and the modern world expects in defending my beliefs in divine revelation, i.e. empirical reasoning. (although empirical reasoning is only one kind of reasoning -- experience and speculation are both in the category of reason, albeit not empirical in the post-enlightenment sense, as I cannot expect you to see what I see, experience what I've experienced, or interpret what I've interpreted. As a Jew, I don't even bother debating religion with members of other faiths. Some of my best friends are Christian, and though I'm interested in learning about what they believe, I respect that their piety is good for them and I am happy that it has brought them

Re: I'm Jewish and I'm with Lieberman

[anonymous]

In addition to that, another reason I am sensitive to this is that Joe Lieberman, being the most prominent Jewish politician in the United States, is cited all over the Internet in anti-semitic slurs and rants. Not only have I seen it, but the Anti-Defamation League has documented hundreds of instances of Lieberman's religion being used as "proof" that Jews are capricious. Some of the ones I've seen include, "Joe the Jew would sacrifice as many Americans as possible for Israel," "Jew Lieberman will not be happy until America is destroyed," and "I would have gassed Joe Lieberman first." The health care issue has ignited even more of them recently. And the fact of the matter is that anti-semitism is now a phenomenon of the political left rather than the political right. While decades ago it used to be christian conservatives who used to hate Jews, it is actually now the liberal minded who have become anti-semitic. In our post-World War II era, the "progressives" have come to despise any kind of nationalism, and Jews being the "

[ext_3916537]

I VERY MUCH ENJOYED NOH EXIT IN MY ISSUE OF CONJUNCTIONS.. YOUR PORTRAYALS OF SARTRE AND DE BEAUVOIR WERE HILARIOUS. IN MY COLLECTION, THE COYOTES FORGIVE YOU, I PUBLISHED A STORY TITLED "GRANT SAYS NO" REGARDING NOH THEATER AND HOW GRANT SPARKED ITS REVIVAL DURING HIS 1879 VISIT TO. JAPAN. IT INCLUDES A DESCRIPTION OF A NOH PLAY HE MIGHT HAVE SEEN, ENTIRELY CONCOCTED.

JIM DRUMMOND
JIM@JIMDRUMMONDLAW.COM

Noh Exit

[james_morrow]

Dear James,

Glad you liked my play. If you want to continue this conversation, perhaps we should try Facebook (I don't blog much these days). My email address is .

Cheers,

Jim