The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay through p. 85 - Ryan

I’ll start by giving Jake kudos for the selection.  So far I am hooked.  Now on to my scanty attempt at a little critical analysis: Chabon’s early use of the rebirth metaphor as seen through Kavalier’s worship of Houdini and his own pursuit of the fabled escapist’s endevors – is a nice hook on an individual level.  I find myself instantly routing for this kid, and hoping he hits it big in America.  Not bad...

At the same time, the notion of a rebirth – on a macro level – is a bit eerie when one considers the backdrop of what’s going on in Europe right now, given that we all know (with the benefit of hindsight) that the rest of the Jews of Europe will be facing down death in the not too distant future.  It was chilling for me to think of rebirth on this level (in terms of say the future founding of the Israel) because between the two events there is a level of death and destruction, particularly of a sophisticated nature, that makes me, for one, embarrassed to be a human being.  Rebirth indeed.

I suspect that we’ll see this notion of rebirth continue; Chabon already alludes to it briefly when mentioning Clay’s “caterpillar schemes," and at this point I’m wondering if we’ll see several births and rebirths between these two main characters as they face up to what is going on at this moment in history.

Enough with my attempts at discerning intent; now on to the Golem.  Frankly, I was determined to see if I could figure out what they were talking about.  My best friend growing up was a secular Jew, and I was exposed to some elements of his more faithful relatives at times, so I felt I would be able to draw upon some recessed memories from my youth to somehow figure out what the hell there were talking about.  I was wrong.

And so after finishing Part I, I immediately went to the world wide internets for a quick tutorial.  What I found was unsatisfying, if not more confusing.  From what I gathered the story of the Golem of Prague is about a mystical being created from local river clay in order help the Jews defend them against Christian persecution.    

Question – can either of you, or perhaps one of our loyal followers with a better understanding derived from a source more respected than Wikipedia shed some light on this topic?  I feel like the Golem might come back into play down the road, and if that’s the case I’d like to be armed with a better understanding the second go round.