Staying Warm

[mallorys_camera]

Gabby bailed on the Long Island City sage-burning exercise, which is great because I so did not feel like making an additional trip into the city and traipsing around in 15 degree temperatures, esp since Summer and I are meeting up there on Wednesday to go museum-hopping.

Plus, I just missed getting a passing score on the Tax-Aide recertification exam. I only have one more opportunity to take it. Clearly, I need to study.

I flew into the most enormous snit when I flunked the exam. Got very surly and furious. Fuck ‘em! I thought.

I suppose my happy life has fortified me to the point where I’ve actually begun to feel entitled. Not necessarily a bad thing, although clearly counterproductive in the current instance: I enjoy doing free tax preparation for people (for whatever bizarre reason), so I really need to meet the standards expected of me.

Still flummoxed over Cute Meet between femme fatale and Hasid.

Comments

brain storming blah blah blah...

[immemor.livejournal.com]

Cute Meet between femme fatale and Hasid. In my mind, Hasidic Jews are only ever at the deli or synagogue or hospital where every single one is employed as a doctor. Difficult to flesh out a lovable, human character when you know next to nothing abut their customs or religion or value system. But I just don't see this couple meeting atop the Ferris Wheel and 'accidentally' kissing as they lean into nibble on the cotton candy. What year are we talking about? Meeting at a rally for pre-war/war refugees or Israel supporters if it works for time/character/what we know of her. Yeah, I can see why you're in a pickle as none of these are 'romantic' or cute or super original. I could see June being one of those lightning bolt people, people you meet and kind of love right away. But that's not usually how we think of Hasidic Jews since they seem less like individuals out in public. But maybe June liked that. Maybe she felt he offered a type of penance or homecoming. A relationship based on comfort of the familiar. What do we know about this guy historically, if anything, beyond his religion? The devoutly religious tend not to use the word 'cunt' every third page; and, they have sex through that sheet with the hole in it (if they really do that?); this guy was clearly the anti-Henry. But I can't see anyone from mainstream culture being attracted to someone who's Hasidic without them also being drawn to at least the culture, if not the religion. It be kind of like falling for someone who's Amish - a part of you needs to fall in love with the idea of not using electricity, too. So my assumption would be he makes the move toward June, as she's his lightning bolt woman; she has a gestalt romance with him and his culture.

Re: brain storming blah blah blah...

[fuzzilla.livejournal.com]

These are all excellent points.

Maybe she does meet the Hasidic Jew randomly in a deli or somewhere she'd likely run into someone like that. Maybe this particular guy is so off-the-charts, ridiculously attractive that his belonging to this religion becomes kind of mysterious and intriguing (most things do become more intriguing, at least to one's lizard brain, through association with a hot person). She fashions together an interest in the religion because she's so interested in him and projects what their life might be like. This would imply June feels kind of lost and wants a sense of belonging that being with a person who's part of a very specific culture different from her own might provide.

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be based on an actual person, though, so maybe making him Super Duper Hot would be kind of a cop-out, characterization-wise, but stranger things have happened.

Re: brain storming blah blah blah...

[fuzzilla.livejournal.com]

Also, are Hasidic Jewish men not supposed to associate with women they're not married to or related to? (If they're too young to have gotten married yet, I'd assume there's a courtship ritual of finding pre-approved women within the community).

I remember waiting in a Greyhound bus station one time and it was crowded and a guy asked if he could sit at my table. I think he was a Hasidic Jew (it was many years ago). I was like, "Sure," and didn't think anything of it. Then I whipped out a vending machine sandwich and he said, "Oh, you're going to eat? I can't sit here then," and got up and left. He said it very politely, not like he was repulsed by the funk of my cheap sandwich or whatever. I assumed he was forbidden from sharing meals with a strange, not-of-the-community woman.

So maybe this guy is a bit of a rebel or questioning his faith somewhat if he does hook up with June? Or maybe she learns the customs and converts her faith, tries very hard to keep everything on the up-and-up with the community?

Re: brain storming blah blah blah...

[fuzzilla.livejournal.com]

Hey, maybe that's it - they meet in a Greyhound station. "Oh, you're going to eat? I can't stay then." "Why?" she said, tilting her head slightly and pinning him in place with her eyes... (Although this implies that traveling appears somewhere in the story).

RE: Re: brain storming blah blah blah...

[immemor.livejournal.com]

Haha, I just made basically the same comment before I read this. Now we'll need to see what the boss lady says about it.

RE: Re: brain storming blah blah blah...

[immemor.livejournal.com]

That might work! A crowded train station, there's an empty seat next to June and she's not eating. It could be revealed that he was going to sit next to a man, but the man was eating. (Unless it's only an issue with women eating.)

Re: Re: brain storming blah blah blah...

[fuzzilla.livejournal.com]

**(Unless it's only an issue with women eating.)**

I don't know anything more than what happened in that brief interaction. Just guessing, I would assume it applies only to women and not men, that there's something "intimate" about a devout man sharing food with a woman or something (even though it was my sandwich, I didn't think to offer any to a stranger, etc. It was about nipping even the appearance of impropriety in the bud, I guess).

Re: brain storming blah blah blah...

[fuzzilla.livejournal.com]

Although I guess there's the idea of "breaking bread" with someone being a metaphor for accepting them and welcoming them into your life, in which case, he might also snub a secular and non-religious man eating a sandwich. Something to research, anyway.

Re: brain storming blah blah blah...

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Excellent work, Team Creative (i.e. immemor and fuzzilla!)

For the record: Time period is the late 1940s when Hasids were first beginning to migrate to NYC, Believe it or not, Williamsburg was a Hasid-free zone before the end of WWII.

I like the idea of June and the Hasid meeting at a Greyhound lunch counter. I suppose the way to get around the alien female injunction is that June's Hasid was a worldly fellow before the Holocaust. Possibly even joins an order after being in a concentration camp. So is still conflicted between old worldly values and new restrictive values.

Re: brain storming blah blah blah...

[immemor.livejournal.com]

Glad to help. I can’t speak for fuzzilla, but I know I’m worthless to you when it comes to the Tax-Aide exam. :)

Yeah, I like where fuzzilla took that. I like the idea of him being worldly, too. But I’d keep him out of the concentration camps. For some reason, I see him in Northern Africa. French-Algerian, perhaps. Maybe have him survive Tobuk. This gives him exposure to Nazis and war but in a place people haven’t read about a million times over. It also gives him an earlier liberation and time to question his faith and perhaps that leads him to Hasidism, especially since this could be a way of connecting to so many of the Polish Jews were not as fortunate. And maybe this is something that helps bring he and June together – this understanding that they were each, more or less, rescued by geography.

[bb-lurks.livejournal.com]

My friends who are sexworkers could provide alternate scenarios of Chasids who go off the rails. They are no less likely to "sin" than other devout people. If some art of commercial sex could provide the meet, it would not be unrealistic. My sources tell me that they resolve the conflict between their desires and their beliefs by being quire disrespectful but there are exceptions.

[fuzzilla.livejournal.com]

Religious hypocrites? Why, I never heard of such a thing... :P

No, that's a great idea, depending on how likable and/or conflicted she wants the character to be.

[christies-world.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I wish I had read this earlier! If you ever want to stop by the Whitney let me know and I can leave you a ticket (and maybe we can meet in person if I am there!).

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

What a lovely offer! I would very much like to see the Whitney and have tea or coffee with you! :-)