Ever since I first read Marvel’s short-lived Golem series in Strange Tales, golems have fascinated me. I’m not sure what intrigued me about them, though it definitely wasn’t the series’ storytelling (see the link for details). Perhaps simply that the golem is much more obscure than, say, Greek myth so knowing about them seemed more special.
Either way, when author/editor Valerie Frankel announced she was looking for writers to contribute to an anthology on Jewish themes in speculative fiction, I offered to do golems, focusing specifically on print rather than movies (The Golem, It, etc.). Jews In Popular Science Fiction is now out and I’m Chapter Two, “Destroyer, Defender, AI, Lover: The Golem in Speculative Fiction.”
As you’ll gather from the title, my approach was to look at the various ways the golem is portrayed in fiction. Not that any given golem is all one thing or the other: Marvel’s golem is primarily a protector but it’s implied he’s capable of overkill when he’s defending his charges. The golem in DC’s Monolith is a terrifying, destructive monster but he’s also protective. And so on.
This turned out to be a much bigger assignment than I wanted. I thought I was up on golems in print fiction but there was way more material to write about than I realized, even without covering all the golem stories available. Indeed, Adam Kirsch at Slate wonders whether the golem’s trendy appeal — it plays into contemporary concerns such as artificial intelligence, plus classic themes about man-made monsters — isn’t draining the concept of whatever strength it has. He may have a point: golems turn up in fiction with no ties to Judaism, such as Dungeons and Dragons’ steel golems, flesh golems, stone golems, etc. The term has become generic.
Still, I’m happy to have written about them myself. You can get an idea of the book’s other topics below.
I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but soon.
#SFWApro. Covers by Ernie Chan (top) and Phil Winslade.
Congratulations on the book chapter.
On the golem specifically, I never gave it much thought, but the point about it becoming a generic character/monster may be valid. It’s certainly true that Marvel’s swing at it was unremarkable (as I noted in my comment to that earlier post of yours).
I think the problem with Marvel’s Golem was that the writers weren’t steeped in the lore and made as good use of them as they could. Roy, a Gentile, also introduced a Golem, in The Invaders, though as a sort of surrogate Hulk, for a couple of issues. Keith Giffen made more us of the lore in the revived Ragman mini- where he tied the previous character more to the lore than the original Ragman.
One of my favorite uses of golems was in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, where they kind of break programming and become free individuals, with the Golems then working for pay and using the funds to but the freedom of other Golems and so on. Pratchett was always great at entertaining you and making you laugh, then slipping in deep ideas, while you caught your breath and catch your brain at the right moment to contemplate them.
I think Len Wein knew enough to do a passable job on the first issue of the Golem, but after that no. Giffen and Fleming knew a lot more when they worked on Ragman. The Invaders’ version was an odd take but it worked for me (lord knows I’ve seen worse).
Roy also did an earlier story in which the Hulk defends some Eastern European Jews and they identify him with the golem. This has led some sources who didn’t read the issue to assume it’s the same Golem as in Strange Tales.
Pratchett’s Feat of Clay did some very good things with golems.
The first thing that popped into my head reading the article was that early 90’s Ragman story. As a teen of Jewish descent I thought it meant a lot to have a superhero story that explicitly utilized the character’s Jewish descent.
I’ll definitely have to get a copy of the book.
Giffen’s Ragman was a huge improvement on the 1970s version. Which specifically rejected any possibility Rory Regan was Jewish.