Hogan/Golem/FistofFury

Today I read the first fifty pages of Linda Hogan's 1990 novel Mean Spirit. Hogan is a Chickasaw writer who was known mainly for her poetry for the first part of her career. Mean Spirit, which was her first novel, tells the story of the persecution of Oklahoma Indians in the 1920s. The basis of the persecution is the fact that the Indians live on oil-rich land and the background of Hogan’s story involves the mysterious deaths of a number of local Indian residents. The main focus of this first section of the novel is the murder of Grace Blanket and the impact of that murder on her family and friends. Although Mean Spirit could be classified as a mystery novel, Hogan invests most of her time recreating the culture and lifeways of the Indian characters in the novel, drawing contrasts not only between full-bloods and mixed-bloods, but also between the ‘Hill People,’ who have deliberately resisted the ways of white people, and those Indians who live in and around the small town of Watona, where the action of the novel takes place. One thing is immediately clear in the aftermath of Grace’s murder—her daughter, Nola, will inherit her mother’s oil-based wealth. Consequently, if her mother’s murder was indeed motivated by the desire to acquire her land, Nola is now in danger.

I also read the next fifty pages of The Golem Redux: From Prague to Post-Holocaust Fiction. This is easily my favorite section of the book so far, partly because Baer discusses the relationship between comics and the Golem figure, a relationship that she tracks through a wide variety of texts, including a Marvel Comics strip featuring the Golem, James Sturm’s graphic novel The Golem's Mighty Swing  (2001), and novels by Pete Hamill and Michael Chabon. Baer not only tracks the crucial Jewish contribution to comics and the graphic novel, but also argues for the superhero (beginning with Superman) as a kind of golem figure: “He defends the innocent and the unfairly persecuted, he has superhuman size and strength, and he believes in the possibility of tikkun olam, repair of the world.” Apart from the interesting texts she discusses, however, this section of Baer’s book is also strong because she is so much more open-minded in her approach to the changes these texts make to the legend of the golem than she was in her earlier discussion of golem films. She lets go of the requirement that all intertextual appropriations should be ‘faithful,’ and in doing so she is able to both appreciate and convey the creativity with which the golem figure’s relation to the comics genre has been treated by a variety of writers.

Sometimes, only a martial arts movie will do, so today I watched Bruce Lee in his second major film role, Fist of Fury (1972). Directed by Lo Wei (who also appears in the film as a police officer), Fist stars Lee as Chen Zhen, a martial arts student who seeks revenge when his teacher is murdered. The film is set in early twentieth century Shanghai and, like many of Lee’s other films, addresses the context of imperialism both explicitly and thoughtfully, with Lee’s character defending the honor of the Chinese against the evil Japanese villains. Lee’s charisma and his incredible fighting skills are both on full display here, but you may be surprised by his abilities as an actor. The scene where he cons his way into the Japanese dojo by disguising himself as a mild-mannered and harmless telephone repairman is absolutely charming. You can find an excellent essay by Keziah Wallis on Bruce Lee as the masculine embodiment of Chinese nationalism in Fist here.