The latest New Yorker has some great writing. David Sedaris gives us “Leviathan,” an ode to hosting extended family at the beach. The topics covered are small but the writing is big. If you insist on something weightier, “A Century of Silence” has a good history of the Armenian experience in Turkey.
2 thoughts on “Latest New Yorker: getting together with family at the beach and Armenians in Turkey”
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Great reads, both of them but especially the second. As part of the Armenian diaspora, a couple of generations removed, I find it interesting to see the way the Kurds are presented as being remorseful for what happened in light of how they were in turn treated by the Turks. I wonder if the story would be the same had that not happened.
What I find most interesting though is that when I forwarded “A Century of Silence” to a couple of people when it was first published, the article was titled “Atoning for a Genocide” which seems much more appropriate.
In any case as the 100th anniversary approaches this gives me hope that there can be some real healing. Personally I’d be happy if we were able to move on, not forget, but move on so that the event stops being the defining narrative for a whole group of people. I say that especially that the members of the newest generation of our family are being born.
Chris, I think that healing depends a lot on the attitude of the perpetrator group. As a Jew and son of Holocaust survivors, I bear no ill will to the current generation of Germans. No young German in his right mind (aside from a handful of skinhead losers) still considers Nazis to be role models and in general the attitude is one of contrition for the shameful acts that were committed. However, if we look at, for example, Ukraine and Hungary, within the realm of (the right side of) mainstream public opinion, there are odious figures who are still considered national heroes and there is a lot of denial about the extent of the local collaboration with (even spontaneous native enthusiasm for) genocide. Jews are confounded with Soviets (ironic in light of the Soviet’s own anti-semitism) and so these figures are considered heroes of anti-Soviet resistance. So I find it harder to extend forgiveness to those people.