A Guide to the Perplexed
Encyclopedia
A Guide to the Perplexed (originally in Hebrew
) is a novel written by Israeli-born British musician and Anti-Zionist political activist Gilad Atzmon
in 2001.
is dismantled and replaced with a State of Palestine
. The novel excoriates what it calls exploitation of The Holocaust
for propaganda purposes designed to shield Israel from scrutiny for its "transgressions" against the Palestinians. The perplexed are defined as "the unthinking chosen" who "cling to clods of earth that don't belong to them". The original Hebrew version of the novel was nominated for Israel's 2003 Geffen Award
for science fiction.
translation by Philip Simpson was published by Serpent's Tail.
The Spanish
translation La Guia de Perplejos was published by Emece Editores.
It has also been translated into German
by Gabriela Hegedus as Anleitung für Zweifelnde.
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
) is a novel written by Israeli-born British musician and Anti-Zionist political activist Gilad Atzmon
Gilad Atzmon
Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli-born British jazz saxophonist, novelist, political activist and writer.Atzmon's album Exile was BBC jazz album of the year in 2003. Playing over 100 dates a year, he has been called "surely the hardest-gigging man in British jazz." His albums, of which he has recorded...
in 2001.
Synopsis
It is presented in the form of unfinished memoirs of one Professor Gunther Wünker, born in Ramat Gan, Israel in the 1960s, an anti-Zionist and the founder of the philosophical school of 'Peeoplogy' (the science of peep-show voyeurism). The novel takes place in a fictitious near future period, some 40 years after the State of IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
is dismantled and replaced with a State of Palestine
State of Palestine
Palestine , officially declared as the State of Palestine , is a state that was proclaimed in exile in Algiers on 15 November 1988, when the Palestine Liberation Organization's National Council adopted the unilateral Palestinian Declaration of Independence...
. The novel excoriates what it calls exploitation of The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
for propaganda purposes designed to shield Israel from scrutiny for its "transgressions" against the Palestinians. The perplexed are defined as "the unthinking chosen" who "cling to clods of earth that don't belong to them". The original Hebrew version of the novel was nominated for Israel's 2003 Geffen Award
Geffen Award
The Geffen Award is an annual literary award given by the Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy since 1999, and presented at the Annual Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention, ICon Festival...
for science fiction.
Translations
The EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
translation by Philip Simpson was published by Serpent's Tail.
The Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
translation La Guia de Perplejos was published by Emece Editores.
It has also been translated into German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
by Gabriela Hegedus as Anleitung für Zweifelnde.
External references
Review by Rosanne Rabinowitz in The New ReviewSee also
- The 12th century book The Guide for the Perplexed
- The 1977 book A Guide for the PerplexedA Guide for the PerplexedA Guide for the Perplexed is a short book by E. F. Schumacher, published in 1977. The title is a reference to Maimonides's The Guide for the Perplexed...
by economist E. F. SchumacherE. F. SchumacherErnst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher was an internationally influential economic thinker, statistician and economist in Britain, serving as Chief Economic Advisor to the UK National Coal Board for two decades. His ideas became popularized in much of the English-speaking world during the 1970s...