martillo@ihuxt.UUCP (Yehoyaqim Martillo) (05/06/84)
I am interested in the issue of the portrayal of Jews in the popular media. While Marvel comics typically portrays Jews as victims, being saved from Nazi or some other persecution by some superhero, The Final Reflection by John M. Ford, the latest Star Trek novel, shows quite a different Jew. From The Final Reflection: Van Diemen was a large, impressive male with yellow hair and light skin; he wore a Starfleet dress uniform with plenty of gold braid, more by far than Admiral Whitetree had worn. Jael Rabinowich [Colonel of the Earth Surface forces] wore a uniform like those her soldiers wore, with rank badges of dark fabric that would not show to an enemy's scouts or snipers, and a sidearm of dull black metal that was clearly not for show. She was darker than van Diemen, much smaller, though not slight. Krenn [first Klingon emissary to visit the Earth] thought about Whitetree's comments on female commanders. He looked at Rabinowich's face, and wondered what tools she would use to lead. ... Dr. Tagore [Ambassador-designate to the Klingon empire] put his thin-fingered hand cross his eyes, as if to hide them from the faces on the screen; but at once he took it away, and looked at Krenn and Akhil [first officer to Krenn]. "I said that Colonel Rabinowich's was a line of warriors. That line is rooted in a hate that ran deeper than blood runs in the liver, that many people of the best intention though could only end in the separations of walls and wire, or in the mass grave. And there were those things. But the walls are down, and the graveyards...they are remembered, and kept, which is a thing our race does. ... There were still Humans at the base of the guideway as the train hurtled into the city, now holding colored flags instead of torches. Colonel Rabinowich said, "We'll be going underground a few klicks before the terminal. And an identical train will come out of the southbound pipe. We'd have done it at the Baton Rouge shunt, but there wasn't time." "And the change of course?" Dr. Tagore said. "Let 'em think we tried to fool 'em, and failed." "An excellent strategy," Krenn said, careful to draw no comparisons with Klingon methods, though any Imperial officer would have hailed the trick. "You honor your craft and your line." He understood well now which of the leader's paths she had mastered: the way of greater cunning. ... "All out," Dr. Tagore said lightly, "change here for the Southern Crescent." Colonel Rabinowich looked at the Ambassador for a moment, then said, "Your escort to the hotel's on the platform. We'll be meeting you at a different platform: right now we've got to get the numbers scraped off this train and a different set on. Enjoy your breakfast." "You aren't coming with us?" Krenn said. "Or the Admiral?" "Or the Ambassador," Dr. Tagore said. Rabinowich paused. "You must -- no, of course you don't know. The invitation wasn't to us. Grandisson [leader of a movement similar to the nuclear disarmament movement] doesn't like Starfleet people." "You are not with Starfleet." "Never been off Earth, in fact. Max Grandisson doesn't like me for a reason I thought was extinct until I was twenty-eight years old." She gave a flat smile. "It goes a long way back. Unto the tenth generation, and then some. Shalom aleichem, Captain Krenn, Commander Akhil." "Aleichem Shalom," Krenn said, and as the Colonel's mouth opened in surprise, and then a grin, Krenn caught Dr. Tagore's nod in the corner of his eye.
bbanerje@sjuvax.UUCP (B. Banerjee) (05/09/84)
Sorry For posting to this newsgroup, but it was a natural followup. Mr. Martillo quotes ... >> From The Final Reflection: >> >> ... >> >> Dr. Tagore [Ambassador-designate to the Klingon empire] put his >> thin-fingered hand cross his eyes, as if to hide them from the faces on >> the screen; but at once he took it away, and looked at Krenn and Akhil >> [first officer to Krenn]. "I said that Colonel Rabinowich's was a line of >> ....... I was interested in the name of the Ambassador-designate. Ravindranath Tagore was the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize (In literature). It is gratifying to note that someone, be it the author of a pulp S-F novel, is recognising the presence of Indians (people of the Indian subcontinent) in the world. I have often joked with friends that in the event of a nuclear holocaust, the major ethnic survivors would be Indian (as they have spread to every nation in the world.....modern cultural colonisation). Of course this was before I proposed this to a friend of Chinese extraction who promptly claimed that the Chinese were more numerous than Indians (I had to concede the point). For the record, Jews in India have never been persecuted. This is however, due more to the fact that the Hindus and the Muslims (There is no such word as Moslem..) were going at each other too hard to bother with the other minorities. This has given us a (to my mind unjustified) reputation for tolerance of minorities. Anyhow, enjoy.... -- Binayak Banerjee {allegra | astrovax | bpa | burdvax}!sjuvax!bbanerje P.S. Send Flames, I love mail.