Jan 15, 2015 11:37 PM
http://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2015/01/...-the-jews/
EXCERPT: Two centuries after the great composer’s birth, his anti-Semitism remains a bitterly contested issue. Perhaps that’s because neither his defenders nor his detractors have come to grips with its, or his, true nature.
[...] [Nathan] Shields leads us, carefully and methodically, into the heart of the matter—the metaphysics of anti-Semitism as heard in [Richard] Wagner’s music. But, at least as far as that music’s aftershocks are concerned, he seems to me overly generous; the historical connections between Wagner and German anti-Semitism are profound.
[...] the Judaic world view opposed by Wagner, and many others with all-engulfing visions, requires more examination and explication than Shields could have given. It is also far from monolithic, so a more thorough exploration would require its own qualifications. (I think, for example, that attitudes toward utopianism and messianism, which have varied over Jewish history, are involved.) But “Wagner and the Jews” reminds us of a too often forgotten fact: namely, that anti-Semitism has to be looked at as something more profound than prejudice or the mere dislike of Jews or Judaism. It is a metaphysical condition with a long and complex history. It is not affected by particulars; rather, it actually affects and shapes the way the world is perceived. And it can express itself in the most unexpected forms—even, as Nathan Shields shows, in the form of seemingly “pure” and abstract sound...
EXCERPT: Two centuries after the great composer’s birth, his anti-Semitism remains a bitterly contested issue. Perhaps that’s because neither his defenders nor his detractors have come to grips with its, or his, true nature.
[...] [Nathan] Shields leads us, carefully and methodically, into the heart of the matter—the metaphysics of anti-Semitism as heard in [Richard] Wagner’s music. But, at least as far as that music’s aftershocks are concerned, he seems to me overly generous; the historical connections between Wagner and German anti-Semitism are profound.
[...] the Judaic world view opposed by Wagner, and many others with all-engulfing visions, requires more examination and explication than Shields could have given. It is also far from monolithic, so a more thorough exploration would require its own qualifications. (I think, for example, that attitudes toward utopianism and messianism, which have varied over Jewish history, are involved.) But “Wagner and the Jews” reminds us of a too often forgotten fact: namely, that anti-Semitism has to be looked at as something more profound than prejudice or the mere dislike of Jews or Judaism. It is a metaphysical condition with a long and complex history. It is not affected by particulars; rather, it actually affects and shapes the way the world is perceived. And it can express itself in the most unexpected forms—even, as Nathan Shields shows, in the form of seemingly “pure” and abstract sound...