Just last month he published his essay "Words" in the New York Review of Books. His dazzling intellect and hallmark lucid prose there are undiminished, despite, as he confessed, the immense effort basic articulation of his thoughts had come to require. Now that he's gone, I cannot put together the words to express the loss.
Oh man, I'm about 1/3 of the way through Postwar right now and am amazed that something like this could be the work of just a few years. The command of the material and the coherency of the presentation of an enormous, complicated topic is amazing. And unlike some authors, he doesn't make the simplifications glib, but rather communicates them as the backbone of a more nuanced history. It's amazing, and I am excited to read more from him. I'm terribly sorry to see him pass away and in such a harrowing manner, but I'd be even more sorry if I knew of him not at all and couldn't feel the pangs of sadness at his death.
A paragon of honesty, intelligence, and courage in the face of soul-killing adversity. It is sad to contemplate what else he might have shared with us had ALS not stolen him away so soon. posted by rdone at 12:02 PM on August 7, 2010
As Epenthesis notes, Judt didn't really want to stick around in the twilight world of ALS - still a tragedy the whole thing had to happen. His essay Night was haunting, to the point where I don't know that I'd wish he "stuck around longer," but it's a shame the whole thing had to happen. posted by graymouser at 1:17 PM on August 7, 2010
He was one of my first professors at NYU. It was an honor and a pleasure to listen to his lectures. posted by DrGirlfriend at 9:38 PM on August 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
I just finished Post War this morning. It was uniformly excellent and I can imagine reading it again and again. posted by girlgenius at 10:18 PM on August 7, 2010
Damn, damn, damn. He was a smart, passionate man and an amazing writer. Was so upset when I heard he had ALS.
I disagreed with him politically. Have read a good deal of his work, and still feel he deliberately ignored or diminished certain harsh realities and historical facts to reach some of his conclusions regarding Israel and Zionism. That said, what the American Jewish community did to him after his essay advocating a one-state solution and his subsequent warning that criticism of Israel should not be automatically equated to antisemitism was a sin. They could have met him as an intellectual equal, respected him for taking a principled stand, disagreed with him and continued a dialogue. Instead, they ostracized him and drummed him out. And we all suffered for it.
There would have been tremendous value in such a dialogue for America's Jews. The ADL's ideological monomania does not speak for all of us. Nor does the AJC. But because so many believe that Israel is the only thing standing between them and extinction, they view reasonable (reasonable!) criticism of it as a threat. We are far poorer for that attitude.
Judt's writings speak eloquently about the dangers of ethnic ideology -- of giving any government carte blanche to do as they wish by holding them above critique. He was absolutely right.
Judt turned into a man who believed that of all the dictatorships, genocidal regimes, and tyrannies in the world, it was little Democratic Israel that deserved to be eliminated and replaced. To his lasting shame, he took this belief to his grave. posted by AdmiralAdama at 1:35 PM on August 16, 2010
Tony Judt turned into a man who, for all his good works and clarity of ethought, was the whipping boy for a fascist mentality that one would think would not exist in people who were the victims of a fascist mentality. posted by Jimmy Havok at 8:59 PM on August 16, 2010 [4 favorites]
haha so not wanting your state to be eliminated and absorbed into surrounding countries is a "fascist mentality"? interesting. posted by AdmiralAdama at 2:59 PM on August 18, 2010
haha demonizing your victims is fascist. posted by Jimmy Havok at 7:13 PM on August 18, 2010
posted by joedan at 10:28 AM on August 7, 2010