Idle thoughts, to those to whom they're not gobbledegook...

[lethargic_man]

What would you think a novel by the title of Last Days of the Galut would be about, and would you want to read it? And would your answer differ if it were Last Days of the Golus?

Comments

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

One called Last Days of the Golus would be preferable, since it would hopefully indicate either that those people are dying off, or else that they're all safely tucked away in Israel where they aren't going to bother me.

[liv]

I agree with blackherring, the Ashkenazis version sounds much better. Because the main connotations of Galut are Israeli political ones. A novel with your first title would probably be rabid Zionist propaganda about how there's no future outside Israel and we should all make aliyah Right Now.

The second one has broader possibilities. My first guess would be something vaguely apocalyptic; Last Days already implies that. I'd expect it to be somewhat mystical, probably a bit grim for most of it, and generally undermine people's Christian-influenced perceptions of the Messiah to replace them with some of the weirder Jewish legends.

Also, I'm not at all sure about the definite article. Obviously there's a problem with mixing languages in a phrase, but to me Last Days of Golus sounds better.

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

Last Days of Golus would be a personal narrative account, prior to someone's making aliya, probably to hang out with their rebbe. Last Days of the Golus would be more sweeping, I fancy. Somewhat messianic/apocalyptic, as you say. But perhaps not messianic at all, and just an account of how Diaspora Jewry is shooting itself in its collective feet, probably by intermarrying and assimilating.

Again, Last Days of Galut would be someone's life story, culminating successfully and visionarily in Israel, whereas the Galut could either be about how we should all make aliyah and end the misery that is living in the Diaspora (Israeli Zionists cling to this idea; I'm perfectly happy in the Diaspora myself and detest Israel as a domicile, but never mind that now), or it could be a historical novel about 1948, but still ending with exhortations to make aliyah, or at the very least send vast amounts of money to Israel so that it will prevail.