Home › Forums › Decaffeinated Coffee › The classics, Yidden, and the recent closed thread
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December 20, 2010 7:42 pm at 7:42 pm #593608gavra_at_workParticipant
I find it interesting that Mod29 decided to close the “shidduch” thread where myself, Popa & Wolf had all mentioned killing & eating excess girls as “novel ideas” to solve the shidduch crisis.
In Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”, (same guy who wrote Gulliver’s Travels), he suggests the same for Irish children to relieve overcrowding there. In “Soylent Green” (with Charlie Heston) which Wolf paraphrases, overcrowding has caused severe hunger, with the multinational suggesting “Soylent Green” as a new foodsource (which ends up being human flesh.
Strong satire is a well known literary form, and opens the mind. I am sorry that there are those who are upset about the very suggestion, but it brings out a strong point.
Each girl is a real person. When we generalize what should be done, we minimize that individualilty which is a great asset. We may as well be talking about commodities without souls. What is the objective? To “marry” every girl without care to their (and the boy’s) needs? We could use the Roman noblewoman’s method of lining them up and sending them to the Rabbi.
As per the thread title, I’m shocked that the mod at the very least did not get the references. But perhaps I should not be, as the classics that make you think have gone out of style (perhaps) in the yeshiva curriculum.
What do y’all think?
December 20, 2010 7:54 pm at 7:54 pm #719324SJSinNYCMemberHow many roads must a man walk down? 42.
December 20, 2010 7:55 pm at 7:55 pm #719325havesomeseichelMemberGAW- I thought it was crude but clever in the sense that it was obviously SATIRE. If you did not put the source on it, many may not have gotten the reference or would have thought you were serious. As I was reading it I thought to myself- I wonder if he read “A Modest Proposal”?
December 20, 2010 8:07 pm at 8:07 pm #719327WolfishMusingsParticipantTo be honest, I hadn’t even read the whole thread. I saw someone comment about eating people and that, of course, brought to mind Soylent Green. Putting it in Homer’s voice was just an added dimension.
I certainly didn’t mean to suggest that people should REALLY eat people.
The Wolf
December 20, 2010 8:11 pm at 8:11 pm #719328popa_bar_abbaParticipantAgreed.
And while I can’t say I had it that thought out when I posted, I was intending that if we are willing to impose policies on people in the name of solving the crisis, we may as well just kill a few and solve it that way.
December 20, 2010 8:13 pm at 8:13 pm #719329YW Moderator-77MemberGot the reference. It just got out of hand too quickly and went from satire to disgusting.
December 20, 2010 8:15 pm at 8:15 pm #719330gavra_at_workParticipanthavesomeseichel: I did specificly mention it (just “a modest proposal”) at the end of one of my posts, plus I quoted it in italics.
SJS: At first I thought you meant Frost (real classics), then Dylan, but then I got it (although I have never read it, but I really should).
December 20, 2010 8:17 pm at 8:17 pm #719331Feif UnParticipantSJSinNYC: Whichever road it is, make sure you bring a towel, and DON’T PANIC!
December 20, 2010 8:23 pm at 8:23 pm #719332WolfishMusingsParticipant42
Well, that’s the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything. 🙂
The Wolf
December 20, 2010 8:25 pm at 8:25 pm #719333tzippiMemberAnother suggestion, that I was just this side of suggesting, is the Carousel.
December 20, 2010 8:32 pm at 8:32 pm #719334SJSinNYCMemberGAW, its well worth it. I’m in middle of rereading it.
December 20, 2010 8:49 pm at 8:49 pm #719335havesomeseichelMemberWolf and Feif Un- you beat me to those comments! 😉
So long (for now) and thanks for all the fish! I try to follow the Guide and not Panic!
I didn’t think anyone else here would get the reference…. glad to meet fellow travelers… so is this then the diner at the end of the universe?
December 20, 2010 9:18 pm at 9:18 pm #719336gavra_at_workParticipantSJS: I’ll try to put it on my list.
December 20, 2010 9:24 pm at 9:24 pm #719337YW Moderator-80Memberi clearly saw that it was satire and saw the resemblance to swifts piece.
i thought it was quite funny and clever.
i also thought it was totally inappropriate for this website.
December 20, 2010 9:31 pm at 9:31 pm #719338gavra_at_workParticipantMod80:
Thanks, I think?
December 21, 2010 2:14 am at 2:14 am #719339metrodriverMemberGAW; I agree with Mods 29 & 80. While it is nice to know and quote the classics. And most of us knew what you were referring to and no one thought for a moment that you are seriously suggesting how to solve the problem. But, still. The “Etzem Zach” of uttering and posting those sentences, somehow, s’passt nisht far a ehrlicher, eideler Yid. It doesn’t ring proper. I have a serious way to solve the Shidduch crisis. In the chassidishe world, generally, the problem is opposite. There are fewer eligible girls than boys. As a consequence, some girls are very picky and dream of a perfect Chosson. MY humble suggestion is, that we should cross “Racial” lines, so to speak. That Chassidish and litvish families who have children that are eligible for Shidduchim should actively take interest in pursuing those shidduchim. We are all Yidden and in time everyone gets used to the habits of the other. This could be BE”H a solution to a crisis.
December 21, 2010 3:01 am at 3:01 am #719340NAG memberMemberyo, what does shiduchim have to do with eating people??///////?????/
December 21, 2010 5:27 am at 5:27 am #719341oomisParticipantSwift was funny and intelligent. But HIS modest proposal is very different from the type of proposal those girls are waiting for.
December 21, 2010 3:56 pm at 3:56 pm #719343popa_bar_abbaParticipantMsseeker: You really are a bigot. It is unbelievable. All are chassidim like this or only the rebels who hang out online.
December 21, 2010 4:08 pm at 4:08 pm #719344gavra_at_workParticipantNAG member:
If the girls are no longer on the board, they will balance out the boy/girl ratio. One possible method is the one suggested by Swift.
Metro, MS: Please place your thoughts in another thread. Besides, calling anyone “surplus” is also not good.
December 21, 2010 4:09 pm at 4:09 pm #719345gavra_at_workParticipantMsseeker: You really are a bigot. It is unbelievable. All are chassidim like this or only the rebels who hang out online.
Agreed. That is why I don’t pay attention to that poster.
December 21, 2010 4:14 pm at 4:14 pm #719346wanderingchanaParticipantI can’t believe NO ONE has brought up Wolf’s role in Little Red Riding Hood. Where do you think Wolf got the idea from??
December 21, 2010 4:20 pm at 4:20 pm #719347Trying my bestMemberThe way it was put was inelegant, but the underlying point is not an invalid one.
December 21, 2010 4:31 pm at 4:31 pm #719348TheGoqParticipantwith some fava beans and a nice chianti
December 21, 2010 4:34 pm at 4:34 pm #719349tzippiMembermsseeker, in your list of things girls will have to give up you forgot the internet.
December 21, 2010 4:43 pm at 4:43 pm #719350msseekerMemberOh my goodness, Popa, what do you mean? Bigoted against whom? I really don’t think Litvishe girls will, or should, give up their lifestyle for average or “baggaged” chassidishe boys. Do I respect their clothing etc.? Absolutely not. Do I respect them as yiddishe techter, bnos melochim? Absolutely yes. I’m in awe of the ahavas hatorah, openness, ehrlichkeit and brains in the Litvishe world, but in tznius and kedusha there’s unfortunately much to be desired. If this is called bigotry, so be it. If I offended anyone, I apologize. If I only made a liberal angry by saying the truth, I don’t.
December 21, 2010 4:47 pm at 4:47 pm #719351WolfishMusingsParticipantI can’t believe NO ONE has brought up Wolf’s role in Little Red Riding Hood. Where do you think Wolf got the idea from??
I want it stated for the record that that was a different Wolf. I NEVER eat little girls. Not even with fava beans and a nice chianti*.
The (other) Wolf
* I never saw that movie, but I am familiar with the line. 🙂
December 21, 2010 4:51 pm at 4:51 pm #719352gavra_at_workParticipantI can’t believe NO ONE has brought up Wolf’s role in Little Red Riding Hood. Where do you think Wolf got the idea from??
Why do you feel LRRH is one of the classics?
December 21, 2010 4:58 pm at 4:58 pm #719353wanderingchanaParticipantWolf: Do they have to be 12 or 18?
GAW: Work with me.
December 21, 2010 5:08 pm at 5:08 pm #719354SJSinNYCMemberWolf, its excellent.
December 21, 2010 5:09 pm at 5:09 pm #719355msseekerMemberUNFILTERED internet, tzippi. And they don’t HAVE to give it all up for a shidduch, neither will they, which is why this “intermarriage” idea is brilliant but impractical. That was my point. Sorry it came out sounding bigoted to some people. Critical, judgmental, perhaps. But bigoted? I don’t think so.
December 21, 2010 5:24 pm at 5:24 pm #719356WolfishMusingsParticipantWolf, its excellent.
What? The movie or the fava beans and a nice chianti? 🙂
The Wolf
December 21, 2010 8:50 pm at 8:50 pm #719357Midwest2ParticipantA totally immodest prediction about the “crisis.”
Why immodest? Well, I predicted the OTD crisis, and I predicted the shidduch crisis and I predicted the parnassah crisis. Not with nevi’ah, but with common sense and little knowledge of the social sciences. (Not that anyone listened to me.) And I wasn’t the only person predicting. I would name names but I wouldn’t want to offend anyone or reveal my true identity.
NEXT CRISIS: OTD older single girls. We teach our girls that the only worthwhile thing in life is children and marriage (in that order emotionally speaking, not temporally) then we make sure that a lot of them can’t achieve it. And we also have a society in which there is no place for single older women (or single older men, now that I come to think about it).
What’s going to happen when these girls, most of whom are now in mid to late twenties, hit their middle thirties and see their chances of having children closing off? Are they going to feel disillusioned? Desperate? Are they going to hang around to become “poor things” or are they going to go off the derech, maybe even marry that nice non-hareidi guy at work? OTD crisis? We ain’t seen nuttin’ yet.
December 21, 2010 9:06 pm at 9:06 pm #719358gavra_at_workParticipantMidwest2: See what I posted in the other thread; don’t steal this one 🙂
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