Nemesis (Roth novel)

Nemesis is a novel by Philip Roth published on 5 October 2010, by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. It is Roth's 31st book, "a work of fiction set in the summer of 1944 that tells of a polio epidemic and its effects on a closely knit Newark community and its children." In 2012, Philip Roth told an interviewer that Nemesis would be his last novel.

Plot

Nemesis explores the effect of a 1944 polio epidemic on a closely knit, family-oriented Newark Jewish community of Weequahic neighborhood. The children are threatened with maiming, paralysis, lifelong disability, and death.

At the center of Nemesis is a vigorous, dutiful, 23-year-old teacher and playground director Bucky Cantor, a javelin thrower and weightlifter, who is devoted to his charges. Bucky feels guilty because his weak eyes have excluded him from serving in the war alongside his close friends and contemporaries. Focusing on Cantor's dilemmas as polio begins to ravage his playground, Roth examines some of the central themes of pestilence: fear, panic, anger, guilt, bewilderment, suffering, and pain. Cantor also faces a spiritual crisis, asking himself why God would allow innocent children to die of polio. Finally, Cantor faces a romantic crisis, becoming engaged to his beloved girlfriend (a fellow teacher who is working as a counselor at a Jewish summer camp). Fearing that Cantor will get polio if he remains in Newark during the summer, she implores him to quit his job in Newark and to join her at her polio-free summer camp. He wants to be with his fiancee, but leaving the children of Newark adds to his feelings of guilt.

Nemesis (Star Trek: Voyager)

"Nemesis" is the 72nd episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the fourth episode of the fourth season. In it, Chakotay helps a race of aliens wage a war.

Plot

Chakotay's shuttle has been shot down, leaving him stranded alone on a jungle planet. He is captured by troops of the humanoid Vori species, led by Brone (Michael Mahonen), but they appear to release him when they determine he is not of the "nemesis." Chakotay tries to find his shuttle the next day, and encounters one of these "nemesis" - known as the Kradin, who are fierce and non-human in appearance. Chakotay's shuttle is gone so he returns to the Vori. He bonds with them and immediately understands what they are up against. As he joins the Vori in the struggle against the Kradin, he sees evidence of the evil of the nemesis: they mock the Vori's religious rituals and send a peaceful Vori village to death camps.

Ifrit

Ifrit, efreet, efrite, ifreet, afreet, afrite and afrit (Arabic: ʻIfrīt: عفريت, pl ʻAfārīt: عفاريت) are supernatural creatures in some Middle Eastern stories.

Description

The Ifrits are in a class of infernal Jinn noted for their strength and cunning. An ifrit is an enormous winged creature of fire, either male or female, who lives underground and frequents ruins. Ifrits live in a society structured along ancient Arab tribal lines, complete with kings, tribes and clans. They generally marry one another, but they can also marry humans.

While ordinary weapons and forces have no power over them, they are susceptible to magic, which humans can use to kill them or to capture and enslave them. As with the jinn, an ifrit may be either a believer or an unbeliever, good or evil, but it is most often depicted as a wicked and ruthless being.

Etymology

Traditionally, Arab philologists derive it from عفر afara "to rub with dust". Some Western philologists, such as Johann Jakob Hess and Karl Vollers, attribute the word to Middle Persian afritan which corresponds to Modern Persian آفريدن ("to create"). However, in medieval Iranian literature, the word ifrit often denotes Black Africans, rather than any supernatural creatures.

Ifrit (disambiguation)

Ifrit is a supernatural creature in Arabic and Islamic cultures.

Ifrit may refer to: