skygiants

I saw cahn write up Lion Feuchtwanger's the Josephus trilogy last month and immediately put the first book, Josephus: A Historical Romance on my library pull list, because "dramatic historical epic in which controversial Romano-Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus is the sexy Romantic protagonist" is something I never knew I'd wanted until it was presented to me.

Despite the fact that cahn was very clear about the context, I somehow failed to take into account that reading a book about the Roman wars against the Jews and destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, written by a German Jew in 1932, would in fact be an experience that generated a certain number of emotions ... fascinating! complicated! at times extremely rough!

The book begins with youthful Joseph's journey to Rome, on a journey that is equal amounts altruism and self-aggrandizement, to make his reputation by getting three elderly Jewish priests pardoned for having been caught up in protests against the Romans; he's successful, but the various politics involved around the project start a chain of dominos that eventually lead to the siege of Jerusalem with all its attendant horrors. It's a fairly clear-cut tragedy, in the classical sense -- Josephus' own actions lead to the loss of everything he values the most -- but also a really interesting and complex exploration of the period and the various kinds of Jewish existence within the Roman Empire, from the knife-edge multiculturalism of Jews living in Rome and Alexandria to the destructive nationalism of the zealots in Jerusalem. One of the major thematic plot points focuses on a successful Jewish actor in Rome who has embarked on a project to reclaim a popular Jewish stereotype as a role onstage -- it felt to me very clearly parallel to a Jewish actor deciding to play Shylock -- which terrifies Josephus simply because there is absolutely no knowing what the fallout will be; it could be a wildly successful opportunity to humanize Jews in the eyes of the Romans! or they could easily just ignore all the nuance and have a great time laughing at a Jew making himself ridiculous and double down on every negative opinion they have! who could say!!

Feuchtwanger also does an extremely good job of showing the various pressures acting on his historical figures and humanizing them as people. One of my favorite moments is when two Zealot leaders are facing defeat, and one of them is doomed to die and the other one isn't, and the doomed one is like "I think if we had done [x] we might have won," and the other one is like "well. This is our last moment. I will let him think he is right. Even though I know his idea is stupid." I don't care for most of the actions of these men and neither does the book, but that's human love!

Speaking of love: Joseph also has a rival named Justus, a cool-headed moderate who is constantly making unpopularly rational arguments, in opposition to Josephus who is constantly flinging himself into big causes and making extremely wild swings. Over the course of the book, Joseph has the following thoughts about Justus:

- "[Reginus] gazed at Joseph's lean pale brown face, and then at Justus's lean golden brown face. "Do you know, my friends," he said, "that you are very like each other?" They were both taken aback. They scrutinized each other: the jeweller was right. They hated each other."
- "Joseph's knees trembled. Suddenly the opinion of all Rome seemed to him unimportant as compared to that of this countryman of his, Justus of Tiberias."
- "[Joseph] sat in Justus' tent, stared at the sick man, and went over all the conversations he had had with him. The great discourse was not ended yet. Justus must not die."
- "Sleep would not have refreshed him, food would not have given him any pleasure, nor books knowledge, nor success contentment, if this Justus had been dead or had remained lost to him. He would have found no happiness in love; he would have written his book without any sense of satisfaction. But now he had found the man to measure himself against; the only man who was his equal."

The Great Discourse is not yet ended!! There will be NO HAPPINESS unless the callout posts CONTINUE. This is after Joseph has ( major and extremely dramatic book spoilers! )

The flip side of this is that Feuchtwanger does not do very well by his women, who are few in number and mostly exist to fall in desperate and ill-advised love, be symbolically raped, or both. Princess Berenice is the most interesting and nuanced as a dramatic parallel to Joseph who's caught between cultures on the various points of loyalty, principle, and ambition in a similar way and makes different but related choices, but the pattern nonetheless remains the pattern.

A final note: is also very fun to read a book set in 68-70 AD in which the topic of the Messiah frequently comes up but Jesus never does because he simply is not yet relevant to anybody there. My understanding is that this will eventually change but for now I'm having a great time with it. I did scream out loud with horrorlaughter when Joseph, caught in a tight How's Joseph Going To Get Out Of This One spot, confidently rolled a d20 on bullshit and declared proto-Emperor Vespasian the Messiah, and then screamed again when I checked Wikipedia and found out this was in fact a historical thing that really happened and a major cornerstone of Josephus' writings. MY GUY.

I am definitely going to read the rest of the trilogy, and probably more Feuchtwanger after that; however I am also definitely going to take a little break in between to build up my fortitude as this was certainly A Lot.