Learn History Through Fiction: Nazi Racial Hygiene Laws Adopted from U.S. Eugenics

“Racial hygiene” or “Aryan purity” laws of Nazi Germany decreed that people with hereditary and incurable diseases be sterilized or euthanized. The policies were adopted from eugenics, a popular theory in the U.S. Candidates, beginning with children and later extended to adults, were evaluated by German Genetic Health Courts. The policy was originally aimed at weeding out those with mental illnesses. It was then applied to physical disabilities, but carefully, since Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda, had a congenital club foot. From 1933-1939, an estimated 360,000 Germans were sterilized. Euthanization was carried out by lethal injection, but later speeded up by the use of gas. Among those affected were midgets. Some, who escaped from Germany, subsequently appeared as Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. Read more about Nazi Germany and the making of the movie in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

Mapping or Meandering?

Barbara Kingsolver and Richard Powers recently had a conversation about the craft of writing (see “A Talk in the Woods” by Kevin Larimer, Poets & Writers, November/December 2018, pp. 46-55). I resonated with Kingsolver’s description of her creative process as it bears many similarities to how I work. For example, she says “I do a lot of architecture. I do an enormous amount of planning. … [Others] say ‘Well I just start writing and I don’t have any idea where I’m going to end up, and it’s like a wander through the woods.’” Like Kingsolver, I’m a “mapper” rather than a “meanderer” (my terms). Not that I don’t change direction or take detours as the story evolves, but before I can start to write I like to identify a final (albeit draft) destination and set out markers along the way. For more thoughts on the observations of these noted authors, see REFLECTIONS.

Learn History Through Fiction: The Line Never Stops

In Chicago’s 1900s meat-packing plants, children as young as three were used to clean out sausage-grinding machines. Some fell in; many lost fingers or worse. So did adults. No hairnets were required so heads got pulled into the machines when hair or beards got caught. But managers would not stop the line or slow production. Whatever fell in became part of the sausage. Read more Chicago and labor history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Learn History Through Fiction: The Man Behind the Screen

Frank Morgan, who played the Wizard and Professor Marvel in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, was born Frank Wupperman, the youngest of six boys and five girls, in New York City in 1890. W.C. Fields was originally cast in the role but the studio got tired of haggling over his fee. Morgan had a distinctive and powerful voice and even “hidden” behind the screen, could elicit terror in pleading victims. Read more about the making of the movie in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

Lively TAZIA AND GEMMA Book Reading

Great audience turnout and lively Q & A for the Tazia and Gemma book reading and signing at Nicola’sBooks in Ann Arbor on October 17. I read narrative passages from the first Tazia section and my daughter Rebecca joined me to read the mother-daughter interview from the first Gemma section. I encourage city residents and visitors alike to visit this premier independent bookstore. Thanks to Nicola’s for hosting and to all who attended the Tazia and Gemma event. For a complete list of my publication events see NEWS; to read more about my books see NOVELS.

Immigrant Yarn Project Honors Our Heritage

The Immigrant Yarn Project is the nation’s largest crowd-sourced public art installation in honor of our nation’s rich immigrant history. Hundreds of people are contributing knit and crocheted pieces, which will be assembled into 100 sculptural columns and exhibited in San Francisco in May 2019 before traveling to other locations around the country. I crocheted and sent a granny square (photo below) along with this story: Over a hundred years ago, my four grandparents and my father emigrated from Eastern Europe to the United States. My grandmothers were seamstresses, my mother and aunts were knitters. I knit, crochet, and weave with yarn that I hand-dye. In the enclosed granny square, each strand is made with four shades of cotton thread, each thread is brushed with many colors. The yarn itself thus represents the diversity of our nation. The light blue yarns are left over from when I made my daughter’s “chuppah,” or Jewish wedding canopy, a tradition passed down to yet another generation. The dark blue threads, remnants from decades of weaving projects, represent the Atlantic Ocean which my family had the courage to cross on their voyage to this country. I am also a writer and my NOVELS and SHORT STORIES are often about immigrants, past and present. I am pleased to be part of the Immigrant Yarn Project, which joins with other art and literary expressions in celebrating America’s rich heritage. Read more about the project with instructions on adding your own piece at https://enactivist.org.

Learn History Through Fiction: 11-14 Hour Work Day at Triangle Waist Company

Triangle Waist Company, site of the 1911 fire that killed 146 people, employed 500 workers, mostly young Jewish and Italian immigrant women, who worked 11-14 hours a day on weekdays and 7-10 hours on Saturday. Women earned $6 to $7 per week and men up to $10. During the slow season, although employees worked the same number of hours, the owners deducted $2 a week from their pay. The busy season meant a seven-day week, and workers were told, “If you don’t come in Sunday, don’t come in Monday.” Read more about inhumane labor conditions 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Learn History Through Fiction: Look Like a Munchkin

The appearance of the Munchkins in the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz has little to do with L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel on which the movie is based. In the book, Munchkins are described only as shorter than usual in stature and clad from top to toe in blue. The hairdos (for example, the bald heads and spit curls) and elaborate costumes (for example, the flowing blue robe and high hat of the Coroner, the Mayor’s green frock coat and plaid vest, the Lullaby League’s pink tutus, and the Lollipop Guild’s Tartan shirts and striped tights) are the invention of costume designer Adrian Greenberg and makeup artist Jack Dawn. Read more about the Munchkins and the movie in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

TAZIA AND GEMMA Book Reading on December 04, 2018

I’m doing a Tazia and Gemma book reading and signing at the Ann Arbor Jewish Community Center on Tuesday, December 04, at 7 PM, 2935 Birch Hollow Drive, Ann Arbor. The event is free and open to all. See details on the NEWS page. Learn more about the book at NOVELS.

What I’m Reading: My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

My Amazon and Goodreads review of My Year of Rest and Relaxation (Rating 2) – Zzzzz. Critical accolades woke me to read Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation. As a writer, I relish making unlikable characters interesting, if not sympathetic, and eagerly anticipated this challenge as a reader. Alas, Moshfegh’s privileged narrator has none of the above mentioned virtues. Nor does she offer unique or redeeming insights into the everyday beauty that ameliorates life’s pain. She’s as trite and tedious as the mindless state of unconsciousness rendered by her Rite Aid warehouse of medications. The reader’s boredom is not even relieved by complex secondary characters; their nastiness wallows in stereotype. While Moshfegh has a good eye for detail and is in command of her craft, the elaborate shell she creates here is hollow. Emerging from the slumber induced by this novel won’t leave readers feeling refreshed, but with a sour taste best relieved by vigorous tooth brushing and starting the new day with a more worthy book.