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I just posted about some concerns of mine over at the Roundtable (here is the link http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=284632), and gothicangel helpfully pointed me towards this sub-forum - I hope you can give me some advice and prevent me from making blunders!
I'm writing a fantasy mystery about near immortals. My MC is a 15th-century Spanish Jew, who after his inexplicable survival from a massacre (which seems like a dream and is actually a resurrection) fears that he is the Wandering Jew. He is extremely traumatized, scared, and not very stable, and being the Wandering Jew seems like a probable explanation. When the Inquisition arrives, it triggers certain memories and he steps forward to confess that he is, indeed, the Wandering Jew. It ends badly for him and the people who have sheltered him.
I've just realized that I don't know what a 15th-century Spanish Jew would have thought about the tale of the Wandering Jew. I assume he would have been familiar with it, but I don't know how likely it is that he would have chosen that Christian tale as an explanation for what happened to him; I do want to point out, however, that the MC is not doing well at all and he is grasping at straws.
Afterwards he denies his heritage and his Jewish background for a couple of centuries, until the mid-20th century and certain events in his personal life shake him up enough to get perspective and acknowledge his past.
All this is mostly my MC's backstory. The main story takes place in 21st-century Holland, and early on another character uses the MC's Wandering Jew confession to wound him as bad as he can - it's a painful and shameful memory for the MC, and this other character knows it.
I'm not Jewish, and I'm a bit apprehensive that I'll somehow botch this despite my every intention to write this story with respect and integrity.
What do you think about all this? Do you see problems here?
I'm writing a fantasy mystery about near immortals. My MC is a 15th-century Spanish Jew, who after his inexplicable survival from a massacre (which seems like a dream and is actually a resurrection) fears that he is the Wandering Jew. He is extremely traumatized, scared, and not very stable, and being the Wandering Jew seems like a probable explanation. When the Inquisition arrives, it triggers certain memories and he steps forward to confess that he is, indeed, the Wandering Jew. It ends badly for him and the people who have sheltered him.
I've just realized that I don't know what a 15th-century Spanish Jew would have thought about the tale of the Wandering Jew. I assume he would have been familiar with it, but I don't know how likely it is that he would have chosen that Christian tale as an explanation for what happened to him; I do want to point out, however, that the MC is not doing well at all and he is grasping at straws.
Afterwards he denies his heritage and his Jewish background for a couple of centuries, until the mid-20th century and certain events in his personal life shake him up enough to get perspective and acknowledge his past.
All this is mostly my MC's backstory. The main story takes place in 21st-century Holland, and early on another character uses the MC's Wandering Jew confession to wound him as bad as he can - it's a painful and shameful memory for the MC, and this other character knows it.
I'm not Jewish, and I'm a bit apprehensive that I'll somehow botch this despite my every intention to write this story with respect and integrity.
What do you think about all this? Do you see problems here?