In the Presence of the Imp: A Class with Isaac Bashevis Singer
MITCHEL, CLAIRE F.
In the Presence of the Imp A Class with Isaac Bashevis Singer CLAIRE F. MITCHEL he arrives at the classroom in his Reeboks with the pants cuffs of his seersucker suit turned up. His . tie is...
...Make relationships in your story clear...
...You write about your friends and I'll tell you about whom I meet in my mind...
...I volunteer and it becomes my new identity for him...
...I write about Jewish life because it is, at its worst, the best possible life that I know of...
...We need readers of Yiddish...
...Then you can create a character that's lovable because the reader doesn't have to deal with him or her as in real life...
...I never sit down to write with a message," he says...
...There are good writers...
...Professor Lester Goran, one of his translators and a friend whose lectern he is sharing, reads from the text...
...Goran, indulging him good-naturedly, starts again, enunciating exaggeratedly...
...On winning the Nobel Prize: 1 'I was excited once about the Nobel Prize...
...I write about Jewish life because it is, at its worst, the best possible life that I know of...
...You must show the passions of the flesh interacting with the yearnings of the soul...
...He speaks of his endless quest to perfect, by rewriting, that which he has not yet given to publication...
...A story must have an address because where the characters are tells us something about who they are...
...I still like to think and write about women," Blushing, he tells the class, "Don't be afraid to write about love...
...8...
...He will call it "A Cat in Stockings...
...We are curious about his choice of characters from the occult and supernatural...
...Because I speak with him in mame loshon (mother tongue—Yiddish), he asks how I cope...
...Readers don't come to me to find out how to live...
...But sometimes, when he's really ambitious, he does the entire job himself...
...He writes in longhand mostly because his antique Yiddish script typewriter needs to be fixed...
...Only good reading can be taught...
...get into it right away...
...He likes the short story form...
...It must combine what happens by design of the great celestial director (he looks upward, seriously, and points to the ceiling) and what the human being wants...
...It belongs to anyone who wants to read it...
...They nodded acknowledgment, but I marveled at how unimpressed they seemed by his presence...
...Literature should inform while it entertains...
...There are Tolstoy, Dostoyevski, Maupassant, and Conrad...
...Don't move into the story gradually...
...I don't even have a regular bachelor's degree...
...In the story we will find out...
...He speaks of the sexual approach in terms of techniques for writing and selling short stories...
...In class, when a young student asks why he writes about the shtetls of Poland, he says it's because that's what he knows about...
...Tell us about lust and degradation, treachery and adoration, senseless murder and wanton love," he exhorts...
...The writer does not make judgments...
...Getting old is not such a tragedy," he jests, "or why would people go to doctors to keep us alive longer...
...be a good boy and listen to your parents and study hard...
...The 83-year-old Nobel laureate waits for the University of Miami creative writing seminar—14 eager young writers and I, a 65-year-old grandmother—to settle down...
...Once it's out of his hands, "It's no longer mine...
...We return to the young woman's piece...
...It's good...
...People are curious about Jews," he answered...
...I said...
...Just analyze the stories of Joseph or Abraham...
...Sometimes I make a mistake and submit to the wrong publication...
...From his earliest memories he and his older brother, I. J. Singer, author of Yoshe Kalb and mentor to his younger sibling, wrote about the people they met in imaginary situations...
...He wondered, then and now, about the story possibilities in "the Good Book," but came to the conclusion that the great heavenly scribe is the best storyteller of all...
...he told me that although he knew he was published in Chinese, he had never seen any of it in print...
...Many times he must revise his work to suit an editor...
...He invited me to lunch at a coffee shop where he lunches daily...
...He wishes life were as simple today as the life he describes in his early stories about the camaraderie of the literati...
...magazine, women can't appear to be foolish...
...In his soft, cordial voice Isaac Bashevis Singer wishes us all "Good afternoon" as he removes his straw hat...
...There are demons everywhere, more demons than angels, so we don't know who will triumph...
...Pleased, he pulled a paper napkin from the metal holder and wrote a note: Naphtali...
...Read, read, read...
...That, and the passion, I decided...
...I take advantage of our tenuous closeness to ask if he, who is so familiar with apparitions, ever encounters the ghost that hovers over my typewriter causing writer's block...
...the reader will fill in what is missing...
...although the situation is unfamiliar, the protagonist must be believable and evoke sympathy...
...he might as well go on enjoying writing what he can, when he can...
...He leads her to an unexpected ending that delights the class—the same story, but different...
...He announces that he has been asked to write a Passover story for a New York newspaper...
...Don't be a sociologist...
...When I was a boy they used to call me a liar...
...But, he supposes wistfully, that doesn't matter too much anymore...
...But the Jewish population is dwindling into oblivion...
...Who will be left to care...
...And go on with your writing...
...As if honored that we would come for eight weeks to hear him, he says with an inflection of the Yiddish in which he thinks and writes, "I don't know why they choose me to lecture to a university English class...
...He thanked me with, "Already I have gotten something from you...
...And to entertain...
...I am not so worried...
...It really is about how if a man eats matzah before the seder, the thrill is gone...
...It makes a story interesting...
...We find allegory and symbolism...
...Nothing can be worse than the way human beings behave...
...I have no doubt that Judaism will survive...
...Give us tension, fright, excitement...
...As a young boy I became so excited about the women, about relations between men and women in the Gemara, I couldn't wait to write my own stories," he says...
...Singer interrupts with "Louder and stronger...
...He asks what motivated the author to tell that particular story and, based on her motive, suggests another tack...
...Do I know someone who can do that...
...Playfully, he continues, "Like when the groom sleeps with the bride before the wedding night...
...He recalls that he lived austerely until he became accepted, but living frugally was a way of life among his comrades...
...After a few minutes of chitchat, I asked, "How do you account for the popularity of your writing on such esoteric themes as the Jewish ghettos of Poland...
...Read the good writers and you'll learn...
...Sit the ghost down next to you and tell him to stay there...
...Looking like the hobgoblin character of his works, he answers with mock defensiveness, eyes electrified...
...Tell a good story with a beginning, a middle and an end...
...He was excited, like a child receiving a gift when it's not his birthday...
...Singer invites comments from students, nodding his head attentively...
...It's easy for him to say...
...What is he striving for...
...He speaks of his struggle to be published, and his gradual discovery that a writer can't make judgments about the quality of his own work...
...More intimate now, he speaks of his thoughts on aging...
...He draws a long sip from his drink and answers: "Recognize that it's where he lives...
...Ifirst met Singer in 1986...
...I called him at home...
...On the other hand, Singer says: "Make the reader work a little...
...Sometimes I get farblundget, just like my characters...
...The writer's role is to describe the surprising complexities of the human condition...
...Ah," he smiles...
...Good writing cannot be taught...
...I write about Jewish life because the whole world considers us an enigma...
...Through the promise of wonder and strangeness, the writer creates the basic conflict and, in resolution, one character gets an education...
...He mused, as if this were his first consideration of the question...
...Each week he calls, "Where is that lady who knows the engineering of this...
...I wondered if this hope gave Singer his unique perspective...
...How many times can you be excited about the same thing...
...During the 15-minute break Singer extricates a box of cranberry juice from the innards of his ever-present little carrying bag, and befuddled, asks for help in opening it...
...He tells her to read slowly and loudly, with respect for the written word...
...With a nip here and a tuck there, the tale comes to life...
...Have a plan to know where you are going in the story...
...If one character says blandly, 'Good morning,' the other character must say, 'Drop dead.' Let your imagination go...
...His . tie is neatly knotted...
...The Torah teaches that man is born to constantly strive for better, even if we know the world is evil and we will only encounter troubles...
...Be convincing more than clever...
...They see our different performance on the outside and want to know what we're made of inside...
...You must allow the reader to connect with your story, he says...
...Now they call me a writer...
...He unfolds his theme of the family cat that is not allowed to walk into the home after the chometz (non-Passover food) has been removed, lest his fur hold crumbs of chometz...
...don't be subtle...
...When his grilled cheese sandwich and my English muffin were served he liked the look of mine and we negotiated sharing...
...In a magazine for men, the central male character must be successful, especially in sex...
...He tipped his hat to the counterman, the cashier and a customer as we entered...
...Despite the expression she gives to reading it, her story falls flat...
...While I'm opening the container and inserting the straw, he confesses, "Sometimes we get a little farblundget (confused...
...I explain that I write in English, and he apologizes...
...From his Avon Calling tote bag he draws a banana and eats it, a sprightly figure suggesting a Bosch painting— or a Singer story...
...If someone is entertained for a while by something I've written, I'm pleased...
...He looks forward to coming to this class although the 35-mile trip is taxing...
...I told him that my grandson, a sabra, was learning Yiddish in Israel...
...He still writes in his native Yiddish and allows a translator to edit...
...He wants to be with us because he loves to talk about writing...
...For readers of Ms...
...A student challenges his treatment of women as objects and he defends his views, arguing that although he has only been married twice, he has known and loved many women...
...He was hired by The Jewish Forward, for which he continues to freelance...
...The first student to read her own story rises, trembling a bit...
...He chortles with remembered joys, prompting accusations from the class that he is a male chauvinist...
...You have no right to question the goblins I associate with and about whom I write...
...He conveyed the notion that we are being watched over, that God, in whom he expresses deep faith, will ultimately tack a happy ending to the often tragic real-life story of humanity...
...A student asks, "What makes you such a great writer...
...About what else should I talk...
...He explains that he grew up in a home where learning was revered and his fantasies encouraged...
...When I was a boy they used to call me a liar...
...I had recently returned from Kaifeng, China (where there is a small community of Jews) with a Chinese translation of In My Father's Court...
...If you chase him out the window, he'll fly back in through the door...
...With a secret wink he adds, "Thanks for the Chinese book...
...Just enjoy...
...If Yiddish is a dead language, that's what my angels and dybbuks speak...
...The story must offer startling revelation...
...We turn to Singer's story, "The Interview...
...He smiles with a roguish grin to one side of his face, pink cheeks and blue mischievous eyes lighting up...
...He reminisces about his early education in cheder, and his awe of the biblical tales...
...It's more comfortable that way...
...Now they call me a writer...
...Still we have to reach...
...He is sure about preordination, that somewhere is written the number of his days...
...Don't read too much into it," Singer admonishes...
...Singer settles back to listen, and at the end of a passage asks the class, "Now isn't that better...
...Shy at first about venturing an opinion in the presence of the renowned author, we are soon engaged in a heated discussion of the story...
...He's learning how to read properly...
...Don't use artificial styles and distortions of the way life is...
...The lions are not so strong...
...It is as if we were in the presence of one of Singer's mystical characters—the imp, perhaps...
...Don't worry," he says, "Either we will like your story and you will become famous or such a pretty young girl like you will get married and raise children...
...He surprises the class by telling us that he still receives rejection slips, even after the Nobel Prize...
Vol. 14 • January 1989 • No. 1
