Comments on: Media Blackout

By: killian

killian — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:58:03 +0000

Re: gypsies–when i was very little, i remember the WORST thing my papou (greek who spoke turkish=cypriot/pogroms/escaped via xtianity to the states to marry my grandmother via missionary match-up) was “szhen-ge-neh” (sounds like??) which meant ‘gypsy.’
hmmmm. . . wonder what his experiences growing up were???
too bad he is not around to ask–but this will definitely spark a conversation with my mom, who did not fall far enough from the tree to be able to refrain from using the term as i went out the door in some of my more outre’ hippy couture back in the day!

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:57:07 +0000

Sandy- I agree with you about the importance and desirability of preserving dialects, but unfortunately I can’t agree with the “won’t go anywhere” part. I think we’ve already suffered a huge loss. As an example, thirty years ago or so I remember travelling in a rural county (Sampson) in eastern North Carolina with a friend who able to tell with ease not only whether people he spoke to were natives of the county but also what part of the county the natives came from. I gather that’s no longer possible and in my view it’s a matter for great regret.

However, it seems to me that this is primarily a consequence of increased travel (in the old days many country people spent their entire lives very close to where they were born) and the appearance of radio and television. It does not seem to me likely that the “supremacist role of the neutral accent” has much to do with it. Since World War II a number of U.S. Presidents (e.g. Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton) have spoken with accents that can hardly be described as neutral and that has not prevented their rise to the presidency. Similarly, in the UK it’s no longer politically advantageous to speak with received pronunciation; I notice that on the BBC it’s now quite rare.

Isabel Fonseca’s “Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey” is indeed of interest as an introduction to the topic but I wish she had more to say about places other than eastern Europe.

By: sandy

sandy — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:09:28 +0000

Bury Me Standing is a good intro to Roma culture. The PS section of my book has a bit about the Roma as they relate to the war in Kosovo and its aftermath, and The Roma Journeys by Joakim Eskildsen is a an interest photobook.

As to the political loadedness of American English, I’d say it is very loaded and your lid story gives some illumination on it. But it is tied deeply to issues of class, racism, and the normative, white supremecist role of the neutral accent. The emphasis on the value of unaccented, dialect free English is part of the nationalist process of erasing unique identities from the mainstream. Luckily, given the nature, these accents won’t go anywhere, but imagine a culture where they were valued rather than degraded or fetishized?

On a totally different note, check out the first chapter of Helen DeWitt’s Your Name Here in the current issue of N+1.

By: Craig

Craig — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:57:46 +0000

The Middle of the Journey
Lionel Trilling

By: drew

drew — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:36:00 +0000

you should have gone to school in attleboro. we had “history in reverse”. you need to know anything about the 1968 democratic national convention? i gots you.

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Sat, 31 May 2008 18:21:02 +0000

I will deliver you this “Naming Names!” I will also take you to the restaurant where Alger Hiss ate every Sunday. The pasta is more predictable than your broccoli rabe but it’s absolutely drowning in cheese and is delicious.

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:48:56 +0000

I remember the 50s vividly and bitterly; it was the last era in which America easily accepted the division of the world into good and evil. By the 60s and Vietnam, that was still official policy but a protest movement finally got rooted and although it was largely ineffectual in terms of foreign policy it led to great changes in our social policies. Until Stanley Fish gets around to it, read David Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest.

But the larger and, to me, fascinating question is how we negotiate the differences in our worldviews. Nico will never know my 40s, 50s, and 60s. I will never know his Iceland or have his exquisite ear. And yet I assume that his Britten and my Britten are the same, that the way I was moved by “It Remains to be Seen” corresponds roughly to the way he was moved to write it. This may not be the case at all, but I would be disappointed to learn that.

I am off to buy Fellow Travellers and Personal Days to take on my trip to the UK next week.

By: Bunny

Bunny — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:35:24 +0000

Dad and I recommend Bury me Standing by Isabela Fonseca.
Many types of fritters await in VT..see you Sunday

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 30 May 2008 21:18:20 +0000

Naming Names by Victor Navasky.

My father was a special agent in the FBI during the Rosenberg years. Ask and ye shall receive.

By: HeiLau

HeiLau — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:23:34 +0000

Regarding Gypsies, I recommend Willa Cather’s The Bohemian Girl. It’s a short story you can find complete online or published in most of her story collections. It’s a much better characterization than the typical Mediterranean stereotypes. On the other extreme are the gorgeous Andulusian and Corsican stories by Prosper Merimee: Carmen (which inspired the opera) and Colomba are the best. Colomba would make an amazing film…

By: Liner Notes Danny

Liner Notes Danny — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:10:22 +0000

Wait you were staying in Franco Battiato‘s house?? How was I not informed.