The Trousers: Parables for the 21st Century

Title

en_US The Trousers: Parables for the 21st Century

Description

en_US Shlomo Kalo; English translation by Philip Simpson

Creator

en_US Kalo, Shlomo See all items with this value

Contributor

en_US Delacroix, Michael

Date

2016-01-25T20:12:04Z

en_US 2011-12

en_US 2010

Date Available

2016-01-25T20:12:04Z

Date Issued

en_US 2010

Abstract

en_US Here are twenty-five short narratives. I have read several, including the key stories pointed out by the author: The Trousers and The Hump. As the publisher's letter to me suggests, these two stories offer the situation and a possible solution. The Trousers portrays people in the grip of a serious malady asking God for help. God offers help in the form of a humanly clad angel who announces that he is there to save them. Nobody pays attention. Why? One of the townsfolk tells him that his trousers are outmoded. So he gets stylish trousers and again announces salvation. Again, no one responds. Why? Because, he learns, people do not trust someone is such stylish trousers. The angel says to God that they do not want to be saved, and he is removed from the scene. The malady only gets worse, people stop praying and do not even believe in God. In The Hump, a generous boy protects and loves a girl mocked for her hump. One day he gets the offer to receive her hump for one day. He bears it well, but she becomes self-centered and rejects him coldly. When the switch is made back, he gets a chance to trade again, but this time he gets to specify the time, even up to forever. He chooses to take on the hump forever, but she will not let him. As she says to him, I have learned from you what love is. In that moment the hump leaves her. In other stories, a man fleeing a tiger finally turns and confronts it, only to learn that it is a harmless cat. The one man with courage to brave a river full of monsters to marry the princess finds out that the monsters are lifeless, and he achieves his goal. These are stories of a true believer. They do reach as parables beyond themselves to suggest a whole approach to life. Is there a reason why the engaging cover-picture is presented with the writing mirror-backwards?

Identifier

en_US 7872 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/83123

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US D.A.T. Publications

en_US Jaffa, Israel

Subject

en_US PJ5054.K32 T76 2010 See all items with this value

en_US Shlomo Kalo See all items with this value

en_US Title Page Scanned See all items with this value

Type

en_US Book, Whole