The first real edition, ft. Andor
This is about a television show and also about choices
The first real edition! That’s exciting. And now, to begin the most exciting way possible: with a quick housekeeping note.
Thank you so much to those of you who signed up! For now, all content is free but commenting is reserved for paid subscribers. (At some point, there will be other #content for paid subscribers, too, I promise.)
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And now, onto news, views, and Jews:
THE NEWS
This section will hopefully be an offering of writing that I put out elsewhere and/or original reporting but I found out a few days ago that my position at work is being eliminated (it’s fine, I’m fine, I’ll maybe write about processing it at some point) and so I have been making like Robyn and getting myself together and do not have such material for you this week. But I do have news items that I think are worth watching! They are:
The Guardian reports that Indian industrialist (and ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi) Gautam Adani is poised to take over NDTV, known as one of the last remaining independent journalism outlets in India.
The LA Times breaks the news that ICE accidentally released the identities of over 6000 immigrants who came to the United State seeking protection, potentially exposing them to retaliation.
German parliament called the Holodomor famine a genocide and then Russia condemned German parliament.
And the one link of my own I do have for you this week is this week’s episode of the World Review, in which my colleagues and I talked about protests in China, French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit, and attacks on LGBTQ people — and specifically anti-trans legislation and rhetoric — in the United States.
MY VIEWS ON…
Andor!
Yes, that’s right, we’re kicking this section off with television criticism. This isn’t really criticism, though. It’s praise for my favorite show this year, Andor, and an attempt to articulate what I love about it. (I have tried to write it without spoilers, because I hope that you will read this and then watch the show.)
Andor is a prequel to the Star Wars movie Rogue One, which I liked a lot (I know this is divisive among Star Wars fans, some of whom found it to have a lack of character development, but I disagree with these people). But you don’t need to have seen Rogue One to enjoy Andor. You barely need to have seen anything related to Star Wars at all. There are no jedi. There’s no use of the force. There’s only one cute little droid and there are hardly any aliens. What there is instead is an increasingly fascistic empire and some people who are trying to figure out whether to do anything about it, and if so, what. Is it completely wild that Disney, of all companies, made a show — a really good show — about imperialism/fascism set in space and tied to a beloved children’s franchise? Yes. Moving on.
Andor is focused on Cassian Andor. When we meet him, he’s a ne'er do well discontent. Over the next 12 episodes, we see him (spoiler) turn that discontent into something purposeful.
Andor the character — played masterfully, quietly, like a tight fist slowly realizing it can open up, by Diego Luna — is the starring role, but one of the things I like about Andor the show is that there’s no real small part. Every character feels fully fleshed out, and that’s at least as true as those working for or sympathetic to the empire as it is those deeply committed to rebellion.
And it’s because of that that we get to see what I think is the best part of the show: how people choose to act in a system that presents itself as having no choices.
I am not the first person to observe the centrality of choice in this show (Adam Serwer’s Atlantic essay and Dave Klion’s New Republic piece, both of which are lovely, touch on the same). But what I want to say about it is that, about a decade ago, I was studying Soviet and Eastern Bloc dissidence and came across a passage — I can’t remember where — that offered a description of East Germany. It outlined what I think is sometimes understood but not so plainly stated about East Germany and similar societies: that control was so all encompassing that things that would not necessarily been seen as dissent or political elsewhere became perceived as just that. One wrong outfit or remark or move could be perceived as breaking the law. And in a system like that, it becomes very important to just try to do exactly what the system would have you do. You are made to believe that you don’t have any other choice.
Except that when every action becomes political, at some point, people are turned into political actors even if they don’t want to be. Pawning spare parts becomes a crime against the empire. Walking carelessly can, too. And what then? Do you just try to be a little more in line, hoping the ever-expanding net doesn’t catch you? Or do you start to ask whether, if every action is political, you might as well make yours count?
Of course, it’s not as simple as that. That choice will lead to other choices. How do you make yours in practice? Do you live a double life? Do you put yourself and those you love at risk? Do you break away from the people you love, becoming unlovable, or at least unlikable, in the process?
And while we all still have choices, always, they are not equally easy or difficult. A rich senator’s choices are not the same as a person whose land has been taken from him; a lieutenant’s choices are not the same as a prisoner’s. The show makes that clear, too.
That’s not all that makes the show, of course. I doubt I’d be writing about this show if it were just a manifesto. The music is incredible (Niamos, song of the galaxy!) It’s beautifully shot. There’s a scene in the finale where we see a security officer in darkened profile, her lips spitting out some bone chilling order softly, carefully, cruelly. It’s not even an important scene, really, but it stuck out and stuck with me because of how carefully that small moment was presented. Different places are colored differently — Andor’s planet of origin is a lush green, the place where he grew up is covered in dusty reds and browns, the centre of the empire is bathed in blue — but subtly so. What I’m trying to say is that it’s a well made show.
But it’s the theme of choice, I think, that makes it more than that, and that elevates it to something special. It comes back, over and over again, to this question: When you’re made to believe you have no choice, what do you choose?
At one point, one character says to another something along the lines of, “We made a choice. We chose to make something of our lives,” and I started to cry because I was happy for them, in a way. What greater gift is there than remembering that no matter how bad or bleak things look, and are, that you still get to choose?
AND SOME STUFF ABOUT JEWS
My mom brought latkes to school for our classmates every Chanukah when we were growing up. There were not many other Jewish kids in our school, and it was a fun way to introduce them to a different culture’s holiday. Also, everybody loves latkes. And so I was sad to see this story out of Florida in which a mom who had regularly come to her kid’s school to teach a lesson on Chanukah (ft. latkes) was told that she couldn’t under the state’s new parental rights law. That law is actually only about gender identity and sexual orientation, but, as the mother explained on the news, it seems to be having a more general chilling effect because teachers are afraid of introducing kids to something “new and different” and receiving parental backlash.
I am sure, if you have found your way to this newsletter, that you’ve already seen it, but if not: You should read this Isaac Chotiner on Mort Klein interview. The whole thing thing is worth reading but I will just pull out this part:
"IC: Do you think that there could be people who, for whatever reason, have sympathies with Israel but don’t like Jews much?
MK: I think it’s highly unlikely. If you like Israel, which is the Jewish state filled with Jews, how can you hate Jews?"
Relatedly, kind of: If you are in New York, which I know some of you are, I hope you’ll consider coming to the New York Jewish Book Fest on Sunday, December 11. You have to register to attend but it’s free. I’ll be in conversation with Mark Oppenheimer from 1:15 to 2:15 to discuss my book and the concept of Bad Jews in American Jewish history and non-fiction. Hope to see you there.
And hope to see you back here soon.
-ET