This evening ARCS hosted their annual Eugene Schuyler Lecture. The guest speaker was former US Ambassador to Bulgaria James Pardew. The title of his talk was 'The Breakup ofYugoslavia'. It was about 40 minutes and then he took about 20 minutes of questions. It was standard fare. He used the “carrot and the stick” analogy. He didn’t say anything that I hadn’t heard before.
After the talk, Denver hosted a huge reception with waiters; small fancy food on trays. I met an Italian web-journalist, living and working in Sofia. He was young and married with fraternal five-years old twins. He loved Herodotus and gets all kinds of editions whenever he can of the text. He was surprised and delighted when I told him of the Landmark Herodotus with maps and notes and such.
Long story short… The Italian, born and raised just outside of Rome, loves Sofia and Bulgaria and Bulgarians. Everything that I love about Italy: the quick bars for coffee, siestas, the ancient history, the warmth and boldness of their people (they always say what’s on their mind)- he found oppressive and stagnant.
Sofia is finding itself, he says, the whole Baltic region really. There is an antiquity but the modern era is all about struggle, sacrifice, and victory. It is all so exciting! He rarely goes back to Italy. He never misses it. He said that Bulgarians have a big heart but hold it away so not to get hurt. They reserve it. Italians throw their hearts all over the place, so that it means almost nothing.
I asked him how he liked Ambassador Pardew's talk and he said that there was an American movie called The Karate Kid. I told him I had heard of it. Then he quoted that speech of Mr. Miyagi about how walking on either side of the road is fine but walking in the middle gets you squished. And so karate yes, ok karate no, ok but karate guess so, squish!
I had no idea what he was talking about or how that was an apt analogy to Serbia, Kosovo, ethnic cleansing, war, NATO or the EU. I was still getting over loving Bulgaria(ns).
He loves Herodotus, but had never heard of the Landmark Herodotus? The quote about Bulgarians and their hearts was nice. Reminds me of someone.... Sigh.
ReplyDeleteWell, he was an armchair classicists. But I am fairly sure that he thinks my dissertation is just a rehashing of Herodotus' love of all things Scythian. He said he had pursued his now wife for over a year. It seems like such a headache.
ReplyDelete