{"id":31047,"date":"2018-11-30T03:40:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T11:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=31047"},"modified":"2018-11-29T23:54:22","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T07:54:22","slug":"unique-science-fiction-volume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/11\/30\/unique-science-fiction-volume\/","title":{"rendered":"Unique science fiction volume"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emanuel Lottem, left, and Sheldon Teitelbaum. (photo by Roni Sofer)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

After four years of hard work, Sheldon Teitelbaum and Emanuel Lottem have completed the first instalment of Zion\u2019s Fiction: A Treasure of Israeli Speculative Literature<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Today, Montreal-born Teitelbaum lives with his family in Los Angeles, but, before that, he lived in Israel for many years \u2013 starting with five years in the Israeli army, a period of service that included the 1982 Lebanon War.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lived to tell the tale and, when I came back, I received an offer from some local magazines and newspapers, including the Jewish Post & News<\/em> [in Winnipeg], to write pieces for them, which I accepted, in addition to working on the night desk as a sub-editor,\u201d Teitelbaum told the Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then, he was hired by the Weizmann Institute of Science as a writer, which he did for a couple of years before moving with his family to California. There, he began writing for the Los Angeles Times<\/em>, as well as writing a number of articles for the New York Times<\/em>, Wired<\/em>, Entertainment Weekly<\/em> and other publications, while also working at University of Southern California as a science writer.<\/p>\n

About Zion\u2019s Fiction<\/em>, Teitelbaum said, \u201cIt is not a book of my stories. I have absolutely no apparent talent in writing stories. But, I have been involved in Israeli science fiction and have been reading it for 40 years. And, it occurred to me at a certain point that the local (Israeli) fiction had reached a level of confidence that merited the attention of the world. As a result, I called up my partner, Emanuel Lottem, who is Israel\u2019s premier interpreter, translator actually, of science fiction \u2026 and, I Skyped him and said, \u2018You know, I just want to lay down two words to you \u2013 Zion\u2019s fiction.\u2019 Apparently, his jaw dropped. It just says the whole story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teitelbaum contacted science fiction grandmaster Robert Silverberg, who he has interviewed in the past, and pitched the idea. Silverberg was hooked and agreed to provide a foreword and to connect them with agent Eddie Schneider of JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, publishing houses were not interested and, if not for the last publishing house on their list, they would have had to wait even longer to see their idea in print.<\/p>\n

Once they had a publishing house, next came the difficult task of determining what would go into the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually had twice as many stories than we needed,\u201d said Teitelbaum. \u201cWe decided to save them for the next volume. However, we had a book launching at the Israeli Science Fiction convention in September, and we met with the head of the Israeli Society for Fantasy and Science Fiction. In conjunction with them, we\u2019d publish their newly released volume \u2013 a collection of the best of the best of the Geffen winners of the last 17 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

(The Geffen Awards are named after the late Amos Geffen, one of the first editors and translators of science fiction in Israel.)<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you might know,\u201d continued Teitelbaum, \u201ctranslation is a hideously expensive engagement. And they were gracious enough to take on the initial translation with Emanuel, and I was ready to hunker down with the actual line editing.\u201d<\/p>\n

All 16 stories that were selected for the first volume of Zion\u2019s Fiction<\/em> have received positive reviews worldwide. They are very different from the kind of speculative fiction people read in the West, according to Teitelbaum.<\/p>\n

For most Israelis, when it comes to science fiction, Teitelbaum said, \u201cIt\u2019s a thing that\u2019s extremely fragile \u2013 more fragile than you\u2019d find anywhere else in the world … because, when Hezbollah bombs starts flying, everyone\u2019s nose is to the ground … and there ain\u2019t no room for the fantasy.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot to mention that Israel is situated at a crossroads fortress called Megiddo, which the Greeks gave the name Armageddon, which is a lodestone for apocalyptic worry and fretting all over the world … and especially in Israel, [where] nobody does a better job of trying to put off disaster by writing about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Israeli science fiction that is broadly popular is that which deals with near-future developments in society, with specific connections to what is going on politically.<\/p>\n

In terms of readership, Teitelbaum feels Zion\u2019s Fiction<\/em> will appeal to academics, noting, \u201cThere are several Jewish studies programs in North America and Europe [interested]. As someone who volunteers at the local high school my kids went to, teaching science fiction as a course for senior English, I know that, if you want to get kids to read, this is one of the ways to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also know that Introduction to Science Fiction in undergraduate classes has upwards of 600 people, and I\u2019d hope this series would ultimately provide academics with a reason to fashion courses on the subject of the Israeli fantastique.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teitelbaum also thinks that Zion\u2019s Fiction<\/em> could serve as an excellent gift for anyone with a soft spot for Israel or an interest in Israeli writing, or for science fiction lovers wanting to explore a unique segment in the genre.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike American Jewish science fiction, which hits you over the head with issues of religion and intermarriage and, you know, all of the shtetl nonsense, Israeli science fiction is a lot more subtle,\u201d said Teitelbaum. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t deal with the Holocaust directly in most instances, although you can see that it\u2019s an underlying theme.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes place in the near future, rather than the far. It\u2019s a little more realistic than you would find in American science fiction. It doesn\u2019t concern itself with Jewish folklore from the old country. It wears its Israeliness easily. Its Israeli characters are identifiable as Israelis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zion\u2019s Fiction<\/em> is widely available and has already been translated for sale in countries such as Japan, Korea and Russia, with interest expressed in Turkey and Germany. For more information, visit zionsfiction.com. To order the book, go to amazon.com.<\/p>\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emanuel Lottem, left, and Sheldon Teitelbaum. (photo by Roni Sofer) After four years of hard work, Sheldon Teitelbaum and Emanuel Lottem have completed the first instalment of Zion\u2019s Fiction: A Treasure of Israeli Speculative Literature. Today, Montreal-born Teitelbaum lives with his family in Los Angeles, but, before that, he lived in Israel for many years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[8544,4330,5727,6383,8543],"class_list":["post-31047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-emanuel-lottem","tag-israel","tag-sci-fi","tag-science-fiction","tag-sheldon-teitelbaum"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}