Comments on: Golem

Golem

homunculus — Wed, 21 May 2003 00:16:36 -0800

How to create a golem. (No, not him.) The method for creating golems is said to come from a Kabbalistic text, the Sepher Yetzirah. I've always wanted one of these, but "purity of purpose" might be a problem. [First link via The Cartoonist.]

By: Katemonkey

Katemonkey — Wed, 21 May 2003 01:20:53 -0800

Oh how very very cool... Even though I took a Jewish Mysticism course at uni, we never got around to discussing golems. In a wacky coincidence, the X-Files episode involving a golem aired on the night I was writing my final for the class.

By: eddydamascene

eddydamascene — Wed, 21 May 2003 01:26:01 -0800

"Puttermesser reached out a correcting hand, and then withdrew it. Once again the dust left deep red ovals on her fingertips. But it was clear that the nostrils needed pinching to bring them closer together, so Puttermesser tentatively pinched. The improvement was impressive. She blew into the left nostril to get rid of a tuft of dust; it solidified and rolled out like a clay bead. With squeamish deliberation she pushed the nose in line with the middle space where the eyebrows ought to have been. There were no eyebrows, no eyelashes, no fingernails, no toenails. The thing was defective, unfinished. The mouth above all required finishing..." - from Levitation, by Cynthia Ozick In the story, she uses the golem to take over the city of new york. (the golem runs her mayoral campaign)

By: luser

luser — Wed, 21 May 2003 01:55:05 -0800

Snow in August. Pete Hamill's story of the friendship of a Catholic boy and a Rabbi in 1940s NY. A golem figures prominently in the plot

By: misteraitch

misteraitch — Wed, 21 May 2003 02:21:35 -0800

By: plep

plep — Wed, 21 May 2003 03:55:00 -0800

Great - thanks, homunculus. (Oddly I'm reading Meyrink's book at the moment...)

By: cachilders

cachilders — Wed, 21 May 2003 04:03:37 -0800

Batman fought a golem in an issue of detective comics written by Peter Milligan.

By: LittleMissCranky

LittleMissCranky — Wed, 21 May 2003 04:10:20 -0800

Great links. I'm going to make one of my very own.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Wed, 21 May 2003 05:17:00 -0800

i wish they were real...it would have helped with the nazis.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Wed, 21 May 2003 05:55:38 -0800

oh, also--The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay features the Prague Golem (or what's left of it).

By: troutfishing

troutfishing — Wed, 21 May 2003 06:08:20 -0800

"The longer the golem is used for such impure purposes, the larger it grows and the more unwieldy it becomes." [from the 'history of Golems'] - try substituting "US Dept. of Defense" or "US military" in place of the word "Golem" in the quote. "The longer the US military is used for such impure purposes, the larger it grows and the more unwieldy it becomes." Or, better yet, try substituting random words, like Metafilter or "government": "The longer Metafilter is used for such impure purposes, the larger it grows and the more unwieldy it becomes." "The longer government is used for such impure purposes...." It slices! It dices! It vibrates! I think we already know how to make Golems, deathless entities which never stop but tend to quickly get out of control - they're called "corporations" and "bureaucracies". Great link.

By: Dark Messiah

Dark Messiah — Wed, 21 May 2003 06:36:15 -0800

I've known how to make golems for years. You just need to be able to afford the GP and XP costs for the body, and have the Minor Creation and Wish spells. Oh shit, I'm back in reality.. I'm scared... *clutches Dungeon Master's Guide*

By: Grimgrin

Grimgrin — Wed, 21 May 2003 07:08:15 -0800

Once again Bob The Angry Flower has a cartoon that is topical.

By: mikrophon

mikrophon — Wed, 21 May 2003 09:07:36 -0800

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay features the Prague Golem See also Michael Chabon's essay on the novel as a golem. Also fun is James Sturm's the Golem's Mighty Swing.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Wed, 21 May 2003 09:40:40 -0800

dictionary.com has this to say: [Hebrew golem, lump, clod, fool] and a mechanism that can move automatically [syn: automaton, robot] thus bolstering my view that my employer has been producing golems from normal healthy functional human beings for many years.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Wed, 21 May 2003 09:45:00 -0800

Uh, homunculus, I'd stay away from the big guys if I were you: The homunculus is a "mini-golem" which consists of only 1 card and does not need a switch to activate. This type of golem is very weak, cannot use special attachments, and does not generate points. However, the homunculus is an annoying gnat to your opponents and on some occasions have taken down the mighty. Homunculi make a "squish" sound ... usually while being stepped on by a bigger golem!

By: tragedy_and_comedy

tragedy_and_comedy — Wed, 21 May 2003 09:49:13 -0800

"The danger is not that the golem... will develop overwhelming powers; it lies in the tension which the creative process arouses in the creator himself." -Gershom Scholem, quoted in Michael Chabon's essay. So if troutfishing is right about the government and corporations being golems, then their creators' tension comes from the government and corporations. Interesting.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 21 May 2003 10:37:33 -0800

languagehat, ever ride an elephant? Golems are great for piggyback rides. Whee!

By: hippugeek

hippugeek — Wed, 21 May 2003 12:41:34 -0800

Ach, homunculus! A great many thanks. I've just finished a class on iconoclasm in recent Jewish fiction, so this is a fun cap. I'm actually using one of Ozick's Puttermesser stories in my final paper--if anyone is interested, the story eddydamascene excerpted is also published as "Puttermesser and Xanthippe" in The Puttermesser Papers.

By: eddydamascene

eddydamascene — Wed, 21 May 2003 20:36:56 -0800

the story eddydamascene excerpted is also published as "Puttermesser and Xanthippe" in The Puttermesser Papers ah, but then you miss the title story of Levitation, which is my favorite.