The Happiness Cipher- New serial in Binah by Etka G!

honeymoon

Tue, Feb 19 2019, 1:06 pm

"Beile, why oh why oh why??"

Miri1

Tue, Feb 19 2019, 1:25 pm

So I take it that Scotty was dropping hints by revealing Mr. and Mrs. Franklin's new and old Yiddish names - Heschel and Faige... and it rang a little bell in my head.
It wouldn't have occurred to me if not for Mr. Osborn's unexpected appearance in Shortchanged, but....could it be?
Scotty, is it possible that you have intertwined Heshy and Faige Himmelstein with Harry and Birdie Franklin ????
Is that even possible? Russia, England and South Africa, all ending up.... on the Lower East Side? (and that's putting aside that this would mean a marriage between two literary empires....!)

Still, those names....

(edited for spelling etc.)

Last edited by Miri1 on Tue, Feb 19 2019, 3:28 pm; edited 1 time in total

amother

Brunette

Tue, Feb 19 2019, 2:55 pm

What happened?!? I am lost...

amother

Royalblue

Wed, Mar 27 2019, 11:37 am

I seriously snorted to myself when I read about Fischel Kirschenbaum!

But this story is just getting better and better... so hard to wait until Monday!

amother

Gold

Wed, Mar 27 2019, 11:39 am

I am LOVING this story. The only problem is that back in the day people were not so in touch with their feelings.
Birdie is super in touch and I just feel like people weren't like that in those days.

seeker

Wed, Mar 27 2019, 12:20 pm

amother wrote:

I am LOVING this story. The only problem is that back in the day people were not so in touch with their feelings.
Birdie is super in touch and I just feel like people weren't like that in those days.

Yes, I keep thinking about that as well. I wonder if anyone would have come to the realizations she's having without having heard of them in pop psych first. It's a beautiful, deep story and I actually feel like it helps me with my own internal awareness, but now I really wonder what people's internal emotional world was like before it was something you'd talk about.

amother

Royalblue

Wed, Mar 27 2019, 12:29 pm

Why couldn't people back then be in touch with their feelings?
Just as a whole they generally didn't express it.

As you see in the story, they don't focus much on their past and what they went through.
I think that's part of the story line- the wonderment in which they discover that their feelings are real and can relate to others and share them with others. There's this sort of wonderment element in the story.

Just my thought!

seeker

Wed, Mar 27 2019, 2:14 pm

I never said they couldn't be in touch with their feelings. I said I wonder if they actually were. And whether they could come up with these insights while living in a world where these things were never discussed. Because she wasn't only "in touch with her feelings" she's having these huge self help breakthroughs... Whatever

Miri1

Wed, Mar 27 2019, 3:04 pm

Feelings aside.... there is a Bauer in there too - who would that be - someone from Shortchanged if I remember correctly?

amother

Gold

Wed, Mar 27 2019, 4:15 pm

seeker wrote:

Yes!! I suffer from anxiety and after reading last week's chapter I was totally using her train of thought to help me when my anxiety takes over!

Scotty

Wed, Mar 27 2019, 10:34 pm

WOW that is the biggest compliment and privilege EVER EVER tx for sharing :-)

actually I really worried about whether the emotional bit would be too improbable historically

But then remember - Birdie's only able to have this epiphanic (verb?) experience because she's gone through all this identity turmoil: uprooting the person she was to become 'Beile', then struggling to retain her sense of self within a new marriage (to a stranger) a new country and culture and new language (all of which can challenge someone's identity by themselves, never mind all at once). Then she pretty much has to build up her selfhood and identity from the bottom up as Birdie and Harry's wife - something she never would have done within her old life but is forced to confront (and finds herself WANTING to) in this (literally) new life. I kind of imagine it to be 'the first day of school/seminary/camp where no one knows me so I can reinvent myself' times, like, one billion and two. It's like every single thing (down to her preferences of tea sweetener) have to be reconsidered/challenged/decided - this rare opportunity to literally create herself according to who she wants to be. Of course this is mostly rather raw and somewhat unpleasant rather than flowers and happily leaping bunny rabbits with tinkly music in the background, but dem's the breaks! Once we were exploring identity issues I wanted to do it somewhat properly, which is why she thinks in a more modern framework - after all, we learn our best truths through fiction - but overall I don't think it's more impossible or stretches the limits of belief more than the actual story does. But that's just my two cents and of course readers are free (and WELCOME!) to have their own 'read' on it :-)

(sorry for the bad puns it's a little too late for optimal coherence)

Anyhow that was the way I charted it. (There are charts for literally every emotional pivot in this story it's become a bit insane - they've all got charts and charts and CHARTS of what they think and what triggers them and how they react and which/how other characters help them overcome those triggers and maladaptive thoughts and OMG PLEASE SEND HELP here because CHARTS CHARTS CHARTS)

I DID do research on whether ADHD (hello Harry) is a more recent condition or is just a human one (and therefore historically germane) that wasn't codified until recently. Anecdotal and unprofessional consensus seems to be that all those ADHD/ADD people were the leaders, explorers, frontiersmen and game-changers throughout history that then became town drunkards when all the land had been discovered and civilized. Which is kind of sad. Certainly it makes for interesting thinking.

Anyway THANK YOU THANK YOU for reading and posting and sharing and this response!!! It makes the journey so much more fun and worthwhile! Writing is such a solitary business and you start getting stuck in your head - comments like these make my day!

(sorry for the word vomit that I'm not even gonna beta because it's too late and I'm half asleep.)

Scotty

Wed, Mar 27 2019, 10:40 pm

Quote:

Feelings aside.... there is a Bauer in there too - who would that be - someone from Shortchanged if I remember correctly

Quote:

I seriously snorted to myself when I read about Fischel Kirschenbaum!

FIST PUMP
FIST BUMP

There are cameos from every single novel in there :-)
I was gonna leave out A Veiled Truth until a reader wrote to me about something related and while I was responding I was like, WHY NOT, we keep on naming generations after each other, so yay!

Ludwig ring a bell, anyone? He and Bauer will stick their heads in later for a bit.

Double fist bump for anyone who spotted the Great Detective cameo :-)

And loads of real-life people too :-) (Still trying to figure out how to shoehorn Mahatma Gandi in there)

Quote:

So I take it that Scotty was dropping hints by revealing Mr. and Mrs. Franklin's new and old Yiddish names - Heschel and Faige... and it rang a little bell in my head.
It wouldn't have occurred to me if not for Mr. Osborn's unexpected appearance in Shortchanged, but....could it be? Scotty, is it possible that you have intertwined Heshy and Faige Himmelstein with Harry and Birdie Franklin ???? Is that even possible? Russia, England and South Africa, all ending up.... on the Lower East Side? (and that's putting aside that this would mean a marriage between two literary empires....!)

OK BEST COMMENT EVER

Hmmmm giving me ideas... let's start the math... how many generations between 1892 and 1934...

it's totally not as impossible as you think
when you read about this period you're like OMG HOW DID YOU TRAVEL ALL OVER TEH WORLD AND SPLIT UP YOUR FAMILIES LIKE THAT AND TRY TRY TRY AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND KEEP MOVING WITH NO CELLPHONES OR FACETIME AND BARELY ANY MAIL AND STILL STAY SANE WHILE I'M CRYING BECAUSE I RAN OUT OF SOY MILK FOR MY COFFEE

Yeah, let's make this happen!!!!

Sunny Days

Wed, Mar 27 2019, 10:46 pm

Scotty you're awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I haven't gotten around to reading the binah in a few months (sadly) and in general been reading it very splintered. but omg! this serial is gevaldig!
Can't wait to catch up!

Keep it up!

Thank you so much!!

Scotty

Wed, Mar 27 2019, 10:48 pm

Quote:

How old is Harry now? Trying to figure it out.

23. He came to Cape Town when he was 14 in '83.

Quote:

How about "Beila"?

Oooh. Never ask a woman her age.

Sunny Days

Wed, Mar 27 2019, 10:50 pm

Scotty wrote:

Quote:

How old is Harry now? Trying to figure it out.

23. He came to Cape Town when he was 14 in '83.

Quote:

How about "Beila"?

Oooh. Never ask a woman her age.

She was an older single, wasn't she?
shiduch crisis back in the shtetl, huh?

NovelConcept

Thu, Mar 28 2019, 12:19 am

Okay, so I have to admit that I didn't read every comment on this thread, nor did I read every chapter of the serial in question, though I really do enjoy it every time I get the Binah.

Maybe it's been addressed already, but what's with Harry's way of talking?
Does he have a speech impediment that was simply never addressed by the therapists of his generation? (Ha! You have to wonder how long "therapist" is considered a legitimate profession...)
Is it lip-tie? Tongue-tie? (Did he nurse well???)
Is he missing teeth from lack of dental hygienists out there in the bush? Or was it a brawl?
Does his speech impediment show up in Yiddish, as well? Or only English?
Can he sing without dropping letters?

dietcokeaddict

Thu, Mar 28 2019, 12:56 am

NovelConcept wrote:

What impediment? He's an "Englisher!" His crazy accent reminds me of Manchester punk-talk...Also, it fits his personality perfectly, doesn't it? Smile

So Scotty what's the deal here with Harry's past sins? Is this a "Trust Snape" thing? Can we start a poll here to see who believes he's innocent? Or at least partially innocent? Me, I change my mind with each chapter. Wink

Also, is this Bauer character Uncle Max? He was rather tongue tied IIRC. Waiting for Adler's cameo; I miss that guy Smile

rdmom

Thu, Mar 28 2019, 1:08 am

That’s harrys way of talking. I am sure it gives the proofreaders nightmares.

Miri1

Thu, Mar 28 2019, 10:15 am

So Scotty, I'm sure this is all thoroughly researched and I'm so curious...
Which sector does Harry belong to? Being that he has a Yiddish name and speaks the language, would he have been of the poor immigrant Jews that arrived from the Pale of Settlement around 1880 (when he would have been about 10)?
Was he from the East End?
Do we know his name before it was Franklin?
I'd thought his accent was a good ole Cockney, but perhaps it is a Manchester accent?

Last edited by Miri1 on Thu, Mar 28 2019, 10:21 am; edited 1 time in total

NovelConcept

Thu, Mar 28 2019, 10:19 am

I guess I missed the chapter that said he was from England. Guess that makes sense.