Golem, and: Mike Abrams at 95

Abstract

Golem, and: Mike Abrams at 95 Daniel R. Schwarz (bio) Golem The Maharal of Prague,Rabbi Loew,created golem out of clayby means of cabalistic riteto protect Jewish ghettofrom siege. If potter's wheel could make afigure to keep our hurts at bay,if only we couldbreathe life into clay to:keep safe illusionsshield our childrenward off wounds andprotect feelings from injury. Yet we need rememberthat nothing is simple.When his golem ran amuckthe Maharal had it destroyed. [End Page 125] Mike Abrams at 95 "It will never be satisfied, the mind, never" (Wallace Stevens, "The Well Dressed Man With a Beard") The wonder of it:Natural Supernaturalism.At ninety-five walking erectif slowly, drivinghis own car, drawinghundreds to his lectures.Totally in commandof self and subject,grey-hair combed back asit has been since I methim forty years ago. He embodies realityof gracious aging,smiling affably, listening—albeit with hearing aid—attentively but always withstandards of steel. Generousto colleagues, vastly read,disciplined, controlled,keenly aware of howhis time is measured,divided. Never showingpain and strain of his belovedwife's decade longdrift into Alzheimerdarkness. Never allowinganyone to glimpse behindmasque of certainty orlamp of inspiraton.Speaking graciously, even humbly,knowing Nortons and Glossary—accomplishmentsthat outdistance old age—will defy mortality, bemirror of what he is. [End Page 126] Daniel R. Schwarz Daniel R. Schwarz is Frederic J. Whiton Professor of English Literature and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell University, where he has taught since 1968. In 1998 he received Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences Russell award for distinguished teaching. His recent books include In Defense of Reading: Teaching Literature in the Twenty-First Century (2008), Reading the Modern British and Irish Novel, 1890–1930 (2004), Broadway Boogie Woogie: Damon Runyon and the Making of New York City Culture, and Imagining the Holocaust (1999). He has edited Joyce's The Dead (1994) and Conrad's The Secret Sharer (1997), co-edited Narrative and Culture (1994), and served as consulting editor of the six-volume edition of the Early Novels of Benjamin Disraeli (2004) and general editor of the seven-volume Reading the American and British Novel. He also has published over 70 poems, some of which are available on his web page (http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/drs6/), and a little fiction. He has also lectured widely in the U.S. and abroad. Copyright © 2009 Purdue University