Caldecott Monday: Golem
Oct. 2nd, 2017 08:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerDavid Wisniewski's Golem won the Caldecott award in 1997, and its art is on point It's made with cut paper and it's delicate, lacy, cut with exquisite precision, and layered together it can create a fairy-tale cityscape, an elegant interior - or the fiery mass of a mob.
The mob is at the gates of the Jewish ghetto in Prague. The Christians, riled up by tales of blood libel, are baying for blood, and Rabbi Loew is powerless to protect his people.
Or... not so much! He builds a golem out of clay, brings him to life using the power of the Cabala (this is how it's spelled in the book), after which point the Golem sets to work protecting the ghetto and also pausing in his labors to gaze at the sky and say things like, "The sun is rising," said Golem. "The sky changes from black to blue. It is very beautiful."
I am not sure that "humans might be better if we were all made out of clay" is the message Wisniewski was going for, but I definitely got that vibe from Golem. (It occurs to me that Golems in Discworld also have this vibe. Possibly this is an inherent part of Golemness?)
Eventually the mob breaks down the gate, Golem defeats them by beating them up with their own battering ram, at which point the emperor - concerned lest Rabbi Loew send Golem on a rampage of conquest - guarantees the safety of the Jews; and then Rabbi Loew turns Golem back into clay.
...I realize that just letting Golem go would probably create some kind of Frankenstein's monster situation where the inhuman creature with highly developed aesthetic sensibilities goes on a killing spree after suffering rejection from humans who just can't see past his terrifying outward appearance, but ON THE OTHER HAND Golem knows that Rabbi Loew is going to re-clayify him and tries to get away and cannot escape his never-seeing-the-sunrise-again fate and that's just super sad.
The mob is at the gates of the Jewish ghetto in Prague. The Christians, riled up by tales of blood libel, are baying for blood, and Rabbi Loew is powerless to protect his people.
Or... not so much! He builds a golem out of clay, brings him to life using the power of the Cabala (this is how it's spelled in the book), after which point the Golem sets to work protecting the ghetto and also pausing in his labors to gaze at the sky and say things like, "The sun is rising," said Golem. "The sky changes from black to blue. It is very beautiful."
I am not sure that "humans might be better if we were all made out of clay" is the message Wisniewski was going for, but I definitely got that vibe from Golem. (It occurs to me that Golems in Discworld also have this vibe. Possibly this is an inherent part of Golemness?)
Eventually the mob breaks down the gate, Golem defeats them by beating them up with their own battering ram, at which point the emperor - concerned lest Rabbi Loew send Golem on a rampage of conquest - guarantees the safety of the Jews; and then Rabbi Loew turns Golem back into clay.
...I realize that just letting Golem go would probably create some kind of Frankenstein's monster situation where the inhuman creature with highly developed aesthetic sensibilities goes on a killing spree after suffering rejection from humans who just can't see past his terrifying outward appearance, but ON THE OTHER HAND Golem knows that Rabbi Loew is going to re-clayify him and tries to get away and cannot escape his never-seeing-the-sunrise-again fate and that's just super sad.
no subject
Date: 2017-10-03 01:35 am (UTC)I adore the art of this version even if it is not necessarily my favorite retelling. You can see the magic smoking out of the air.
but ON THE OTHER HAND Golem knows that Rabbi Loew is going to re-clayify him and tries to get away and cannot escape his never-seeing-the-sunrise-again fate and that's just super sad.
I have a contemporary golem story which is not online, although it looks like Google Books will let you read the first chunk: "Clay Lies Still." I am rather obviously in the not-turning-back-to-clay camp.
no subject
Date: 2017-10-03 08:17 am (UTC)Ooh, yes, that's a very striking style! Very good. (Not the kind of style I enjoyed as a child, but very effective and really well done in the images I can get up.)
no subject
Date: 2017-10-03 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-10-03 04:20 pm (UTC)And, hey, I used to be a children's librarian and would test out books on them! Not ones I thought were disturbing with five year olds, but I used to have a lot of fun with showing 9-11s (who believed they'd gone beyond picture books), The Shape Game or The Wolves in the Walls and things. :-)