“Where are the Hittites? Why does no one find it remarkable that in most world cities today there are Jews but not one single Hittite, even though the Hittites had a great flourishing civilization while the Jews nearby were a weak and obscure people? When one meets a Jew in New York or New Orleans or Paris or Melbourne, it is remarkable that no one considers the event remarkable. What are they doing here? But it is even more remarkable to wonder, if there are Jews here, why are there not Hittites here? Where are the Hittites? Show me one Hittite in New York City.”
Quote of the Day by Walker Percy
January 28, 2020 by prschroeder
My favorite author and one of my two favorite quotes (the other is from “The Moviegoer,” where the protagonist moans about all the people who are walking about dead without realizing they are dead). I should send you a copy of my unplublished short story, “The Last Hittite in New York City.” He’s a cabbie.
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Yes, John, please send a copy of your short story!
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Now I have to find a copy. When I do, I’ll send it.
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Thanks!
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Of course the Jews are God’s chosen survivors.
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Yes, I looked it up and the short answer is that, the Jews are God’s chosen people, which is more the point here.
The longer one is that their nation absorbed into Assyrians and surrounding peoples. King David had Uriah the Hittite put in front lines of battle, where he was killed. Then he married Bathsheeba. It tells me that Israel intermarried with the Hittites.
Archaeology by Germans is still being done; The capital, Hattia, probably the center of Turkey. (wikipedia)
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Indeed, all you say is true. The thesis of my short story, “The Last Hittite in New York City,” was simple: What, indeed, if there were just one Hittite left in NYC and he saw that he was the end of the line, and that his daughter was in love with a Jew? I wrote it while I was taking a creative writing master’s degree at Hollins College. The professor was rolling on the floor. But Uriah, the cabbie, did not like Jews, was offensively anti-Semitic, and for that, even back in 1999, I was excoriated and nearly blacklisted by all the Hollins coeds in the class who didn’t like all the mean and nasty things *I* said about Jews! “But I didn’t say anything about Jews!” I swore. “Uriah was saying those nasty things! IT’S FICTION!” So in case you ever wondered, there are indeed still moneyed, socially mobile, potentially intelligent people who cannot tell fact from fiction.
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