By Dan Bloom
CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — Israel is the quintessential science fiction nation, according to Sheldon Teitelbaum and Emanuel Lottem, co-editors of of an anthology of 17 short stories in a new collection titled “Zion’s Fiction.”
Published by Mandel Vilar Press, the two editors hope the book will pry open the lid on a tiny, neglected, and seldom-viewed wellspring of Israeli sci-fi, a new literary genre they have dubbed ”Zi-fi.”
“We define this term as the speculative literature written by citizens and permanent residents of Israel — Jewish, Arab, or otherwise, whether living in Israel proper or abroad, writing in Hebrew, Arabic, English, Russian or any other language,” they note in the introduction to the book.
According to Jonathan Kirsch, a book critic for the Jewish Journal in New York who recently previewed the anthology, the introduction to “Zion’s Fiction” along with an introduction by Robert Silverberg, one of the living masters of the sci-fi genre, ”are admirable works of literary history and commentary in themselves, and they provide an illuminating context for the stories that follow.”
But the 17 short stories, Kirsch says, are the real attraction.
“Buried in these fascinating exercises in imaginative fiction are glimpses of the anxieties and aspirations of the real Israel,” he says.
One story is titled “The Smell of Orange Groves” and it comes from the pen of sci-fi writer Lavie Tidhar. The story imagines a future version of Israel as a poly-ethnic nation that includes not only Arabs and Jews but men and women whose ancestry reaches all the way to Mars, according to Kirsch.
In another story in the collection, titled “The Believers” and written by Nir Yaniv, readers are treated to ”the sudden appearance of G-d on Earth in the guise of a judge who inflicts sudden and gruesome death on anyone he judges and finds wanting.’
“I have always believed in G-d,” the narrator of the tale tells readers. “It’s about time that he started believing in me.”
“Death in Jerusalem” by Elana Gomel, begins as a simple and poignant boy-meets-girl story, but soon turns into something quite different as befits a good sci-fi story.
In “My Crappy Autumn” by Nitay Peretz, there’s a Yiddish-speaking and wisecracking donkey named Tony.
“Believe me, everyone’s an ass,” the donkey insists. “But at least this ass knows what he’s talking about.”
You’ll have to order the book and read these stories to see them up close and personal.
The world’s first English-language historical anthology of Israeli fantasy and science fiction, ”Zion’s Fiction” opens a door to a new way of seeing the world.
The 17 stories were originally written in Hebrew, Russian and English by a gallery of genre-savvy Israeli writers including, in addition to those already mentioned, Shimon Adaf, Pesakh (Pavel) Amnuel, Rottem Baruchin, Gail Hareven, Yael Furman, Guy Hasson, Keren Landsman, Mordechai Sasson, Nava Semel, and Eyal Teler.
The stories portray, according to the publisher, ”the hidden dreams and fears of a people whose literary imagination has been squeezed in a vise of threat and uncertainty – and conversely, untold possibilities.”
Subtitled ”A Treasury of Israeli Speculative Literature,” the anthology features an afterword by Aharon Hauptman, the founding editor of Fantasia 2000, Israel’s seminal SF/F magazine and illustrations for each story by award-winning American-born Israeli artist, Avi Katz.
In a blurb for the collection, sci-fi author David Brin says the book ”explores the unlimited dreams of a people who have learned to stand on shifting ground. To face a future filled with danger and hope, forging into territory that can only be surveyed with the lamp of imagination on our brows.”
”Zi-fi” has arrived.
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Bloom is a freelance writer and inveterate web surfer based in Chiayi City, Taiwan. He may be contacted via dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com
Thanks!
Volume II is in the making.
UPDATE: I have learned that the title of the story collection is a very interesting pun. Zion’s Fiction, say it fast three times. Zience fiction? Science fiction? Well done, book editors!