The Red Tent

[windyrdg]

Hi There:

I'm curious to know if Jews find books like The Red Tent and Queenmaker as bothersome as I (a Christian) did.

Though beautifully written and technically excellent, both books are what I would term revisionist history. The portrayal of Jacob and his sons (Red Tent) and David (Queenmaker) as fundamentally bad people bothered me a lot. I also found the points where they veered away from the Bible story troubling.

All in all, they both left a bad taste in my mouth. What about you?

[StephanieFox]

I have not read either one, but am familiar with the idea behind the Red Tent. From this limited perspective, I have to say that it probably wouldn't bother me much. I don't see it 'veering from the original biblical story,' but instead an alternative historical/futuristic view. I think what's being pointed out is that many religions like these tend to treat women very badly. I think if you survey religions past and present, the more war like the culture (or religion) the more likely women are going to be powerless.

If I find the time, I'll try to read those books.

[Perks]

I thought The Red Tent one of the most fantastic books I've ever read. It holds a place of honor on my bookshelf. I'm very hesitant to call a fictitiously different point of view of a well-known 3,000 year old story 'revisionist history'.

If you have siblings, you know that very different versions of the same story can come out of the same household, complete with polar opinions of the player's motivations.

The Red Tent is an amazing piece of literature.

[Cranky]

I'll ditto Perks here. I love this book. Truly excellent. Made me jealous I hadn't thought of it first, too. :)

[Sarita]

If you have siblings, you know that very different versions of the same story can come out of the same household, complete with polar opinions of the player's motivations.

The Red Tent is an amazing piece of literature.
Have you read the Poisonwood Bible? What you say here reminds me of that amazing book.

But yeah. I really love this book. Being raised by a very religious family, and knowing the bible pretty well, the sections where Dinah's mentioned are very sparse. I think there's a lot of room for creative licence within her biblical story.

I'm actually rereading The Red Tent now. This book touches me in a way that other books haven't. The lines in the prologue,

"I am so grateful that you have come. I will pour out everything inside me so you may leave this table satisfied and fortified. Blessings on your eyes. Blessings on your children. Blessings on the ground beneath you. My heart is a ladle of sweet water, brimming over. Selah."

They melt me every time I read them.

[Perks]

The Poisonwood Bible is right next to The Red Tent on my shrine-shelf.

[Perks]

I'm actually rereading The Red Tent now. This book touches me in a way that other books haven't. The lines in the prologue,

"I am so grateful that you have come. I will pour out everything inside me so you may leave this table satisfied and fortified. Blessings on your eyes. Blessings on your children. Blessings on the ground beneath you. My heart is a ladle of sweet water, brimming over. Selah."

The ending lines kill me every time. When I want to remember what profound writing sounds like in my head, I go to:

Egypt loved the lotus because it never dies. It is the same for people who are loved. Thus can something as insignificant as a name - two syllables, one high, one sweet - summon up the innumerable smiles and tears, sighs and dreams of a human life.

If you sit on the bank of a river, you see only a small part of its surface. And yet, the water before your eyes is proof of unknowable depths. My heart brims with thanks for the kindness you have shown me by sitting on the bank of this river, by visiting the echoes of my name.

Blessings on your eyes and on your children. Blessings on the ground beneath you. Wherever you walk, I go with you.

Selah.

Okay. I'm crying again.

[Sarita]

Okay. I'm crying again.*sniff* me too. Talk about writing.

[Cranky]

You can say that again. Beautiful. I think I'm gonna have to go re-read it now.

[misslissy]

I'm not bothered by The Red Tent itself on a whole, when I read it in 9th grade (and wrote a paper on it for history class) a few years ago. I liked it over all. What I wish was that someone would have told me about the sex scenes. As a 9th grader, they made me uncomfortable and distracted from the story. I think it would have been just as good without them.

No offense meant by any of this, so don't eat me please.

[windyrdg]

I absolutely agree that the Red Tent is a very powerful and well-written book. The prose is lush, enveloping and evocative. And the Poisonwood Bible was a great book as well...esp. the unique voice for the multiple narrators.

Logically, I know Dinah is entitled to her own vision of the events, but it just bothered me to see the patriarchs cast in such a negative light. Probably my problem.

[Perks]

I'm sure a good many people might feel the same as you.

Those characters would have undoubtedly been seen in a different light if told by someone else in the Bible. The authors of those texts picked a perspective, just as Anita Diamant did.

Honestly, someone out there found Mother Theresa to be a pain in the ass. It's all in the point of view.

[StephanieFox]

Jews are less likely than others to get upset by fiction that plays around with Biblical stories. What upsets Jews is when the bad guys are the Jews. I said 'bad guys' not 'bad guy.' If the Jews as a group are portrayed as money grubbing, penny-pinching, Jesus-killing, bank controlling, baby eating...well, you know the drill. That's what upsets us in literature.

[HeronW]

Much of what was laid at the feet of Jews in the Middle Ages crossed over into blaming on witches: the dress, not eating certain foods, holding different holy days, being learned in books and herbs.

The Red Tent opens the women's tales of the Bible, a refreshing change from the patriarchal crap that blames women for everything from original sin on down.

[ishtar'sgate]

Much of what was laid at the feet of Jews in the Middle Ages crossed over into blaming on witches:
Jews were also accused of poisoning wells in the Middle Ages, thereby bringing the plague to countless households.
Linnea

[skylarburris]

I think whether you like The Red Tent or not probably has less to do with whether you are Jewish or Christian than whether you are "progressive" or "orthodox". In my experience, on average, I have found that Reformed Jews tend to like The Red Tent and Orthodox Jews dislike it; liberal Christians tend to like the Red Tent and evangelical Christians tend to dislike it.

What I most didn't like about the book (I'm Christian) was that the male characters were horribly flat. In the Bible, the characters of Jacob and Joseph are more well-rounded; they are humans with both faults and virtues, moments of greatness and of pettiness. In Diamant’s novel, we largely see only one side to these men--the downside. We never get any sense that they are worth caring about, that there is any emotion within in them that we, as readers, can relate to.

As far as theological objections are concerned, I had a few. The author unnecessarily, I believe, alters some segments of the Biblical narrative. She even suggests that the significant, divine naming of Israel was nothing more than Jacob's cowardly choice to change his name so as not to be associated with the slaughter in Schechem. When Rachel steals her father's household idol in the novel, Jacob seems both to know and yet not to care (at least for a long time). In the Bible, however, he thinks no one among him has taken it, and he basically says, "If anyone took it, let him die," in effect unknowingly cursing his beloved wife, who does die later in childbirth. Had Diamant not altered this point, it might have made for some wonderful pathos in the novel.

I felt like the Red Tent was in some ways at least an expression of a growingly popular modern neo-paganism, which incorporates the myth of the universal, goddess/Mother, feminist ideology, and a sort of body/self worship. I don't complain that Anita Diamant made some of the characters pagan; it is clear from the Bible that many early pre Israelites were, and of course, even the Israelites themselves routinely slid back to idol worship. But in The Red Tent, polytheism almost seems to be portrayed as a healthy, feminine alternative to the somewhat deranged patriarchal monotheism of Jacob's fathers. That was my impression when I read it anyway, and I have known Jews who "got that vibe" so to speak, as well as those who don't see it that way.

Christians do tend to get more upset by the altering of Bible stories than Jews, because we do not have a tradition of midrash, but midrash has its rules and structures too--it's not just a make up any story you like tradition. It's a fleshing out, an explanation, not a contradiction.

[mayamolly]

I'm writing a novel in the same vein, so no, I wasn't offended. :) However, I know more Orthodox Jews were-- for example, I think I remember reading a very critical review of The Red Tent on either Aish.com or Chabad.org. (And btw, I am somewhat orthodox-- I just don't think it's as wrong for us to explore the humanity and imperfections behind Biblical characters.)

I love the Poisonwood Bible, too!!