I have an older relative, a second cousin, who was diagnosed in the 1960s as paranoid schizophrenic, and during my most recent visit with him in NW Arkansas a couple of weeks ago, he told me about the malice god. This has something to do with Jesus being sexually molested by the Romans. (My cousin was sexually molested by a neighborhood kid when he was young.) What the connection is with God and the Devil, I don't know, but in my cousin's mind, the malice god has something to do with why he is mistreated and conspired against by other people--they are operating under the orders of the malice god.
The subject came up because we were talking about the recent amputation of my cousin's left foot, and the effort by those responsible for his medical care to prevent amputation of his right foot. He has numerous health problems and adult diabetes is now added to the list. He didn't seek treatment for the problems he was having with his left foot until it was too late, and now he blames the attempted treatment to save his foot for actually causing the foot to have to be amputated. So he wanted a wound on his right foot to be left untreated. It took an appearance in court before a judge to get the wound treated without his, my cousin's, consent. When I visited him in the Senior Care section of Sparks Medical Center in Fort Smith, the wound was dressed and he was not in a bad mood, considering. But he did in passing mention the malice god.
Which naturally lead me, later on, to think that the malice god is the one calling the shots--you might call them pot shots--taken at Professor Larry Gopnick in A Serious Man. And you might call the enjoyment of the movie by people like me schadenfreude. But you'd be missing the intended intellectual slapstick aspect of the movie if you did that.
The end of the movie leaves two questions hovering: is there something really wrong with Larry's x-rays or has the doctor got them mixed up with someone else's (the doctor, not a technician, took the x-rays, which seems odd even for 1967), and will Danny and his fellow students make it into the basement of the synagogue (will the teacher find the right key) before the arrival of the tornado?
I watched Then She Found Me again, and added it to my list of favorite movies. So much good dialogue is in there! That includes this exchange between April (adopted) and her brother (not adopted), although don't quote me on the exact dialogue:
"Trust me, you have no idea what it's like to be adopted."
"And you have no idea what it's like to not be adopted. Right?"
"So, what's it like?"
(there's a brief pause before he answers)
(there's a brief pause before he answers)
"It was exhausting. It was embarassing, sometimes."
Oh, yeh, and one more thing about A Serious Man, from the shtetl scene at the beginning. The dybbuk?, upon entering the home of Dora and Velvel, after Velvel, standing at the door, tells him he's welcome there, says: "You're too kind, Velvel, too kind." Apparently so! And that might be seen to apply to Larry also.
