As a Driven Leaf

Milton Steinberg

Published in 1939, the novel was written by a conservative Jewish Rabbi. It is written as a novel, but based on the idea of a historical figure Elisha ben Abuyah, of whom there is not actually very much known. The novel is set in the 1st century, moving between Palestine and Antioch (Syria), both under Roman rule. The protagonist Elisha was born to a landowner father who studied Greek philosophy as well as Jewish theology, and as a result, had greek tutors growing up. On his fathers death, he is put in the care of his uncle, and trained in the traditional Jewish scholarship, which eventually leads him to ordination as a Rabbi and as a member of the Sanhedrin. After a time, Elisha then leaves the faith to pursue a course of study in Greek philosophy, with the goal of creating a system of reason and logic that proves from unassailable axioms the existence of God.

The novel is fascinating on many levels. Steinberg paints a picture of 1st century life in two different worlds, the Jewish Palestine and the pagan Antioch. For each of these, he is able to demonstrate the idealism of the world as well as illuminating the underbelly. But this is not a historical narrative, so the idealism and the underbelly are all discovered in the midst of life experience, as each character develops over the course of their lives. Also fascinating is the metaphysical/theological conflict that is the center of Elisha's struggle: "What is the basis of faith?". Approached from the greek philosopher point of view as well as from the Rabbinical tradition, the implications of this study have real world impacts on people. In this world, metaphysical questions have physical realities. Also fascinating is the relationship between mainstream Judaism and the cults of Christianity and Gnosticism that are growing in prevalence. I think the western, christian ethnocentrism often thinks of 1st century as predominately christian. After the first easter, the world was taken over by a tidal wave of belief and conversion. More realistically perhaps, Steinberg shows how fledgling Christianity really is in the grand world of Pax Romana. Also interesting is how Pax Romana, the peace of Empire, is really what allowed this fledgling cult to survive, what allowed the relatively free development and flow of new ideas. So we must ask about the net benefit/cost of the Empire. And we must, of course, extrapolate to benefit/cost analysis of our current Empire.

The list of fascinating things could go on. Loved this novel.
Read

Unsouled

Neal Shusterman

The third in the trilogy (Unwind, Unwholly), Unsouled picks up with the AWOL unwinds scattered around after their hideout is discovered and destroyed by the Juvenile Authority. Shusterman proceeds to spend the entire novel connecting the pieces of all the major characters. Unfortunately, he also decides to reconnect story-lines with minor characters. The storyline feels like he is trying to weave together an extremely complex plot into a clever and deep conclusion. In fact, a complex plot is not necessary (and comes out as manufactured complexity). Instead, since he has such great material in the unwind and rewind ideas, we should be watching the characters grow into their understanding of the implications of these ideas and alternatives. We get glimpses of the question of whether the Composite has a soul. But Shusterman never lets the characters explore this (and by extension, we don't get to explore it). In the end, I will recommend this only as a means to complete the series. It doesn't really provide the metaphysical substance that was promised in the first two volumes and it leaves too many loose ends (even though it seems his goal is to wrap all loose ends).

Wait

Unwholly

Neal Shusterman

In the follow up to Unwind, Shusterman continues with his story of teens who are scheduled to be Unwound (have 99.44% or more of their body transplanted). The interest for me in these stories are looking at questions of identity and soul. Questions where the science of biology meet up with the religion of biology. Shusterman pushes the envelope here by introducing Cam, the first ever fully composite human. This leaps past the ethical issues of cloning or abortion or genetic modification. To assemble a functional person from "organ donors". As in Unwind, the premise is so far out that we can ignore the practicality (as all good science fiction draws us to) and jump straight to the immanent moral/ethical/personal catastrophe that is unfolding. Does the composite have a soul? Does an unwound person die? Presumably no, so where is their soul? On a larger scale, we are also beginning to explore how a society/culture gets to a place where the status quo might be crazy. And how do you expose the craziness or begin to move a society/culture beyond to a better place? And can you do this only via violence? Shusterman sets up a third novel in this series to be able to look closely at these questions. Looking forward to it.

Read