What we have to say as Slavists

[Eliot Borenstein]

I had promised myself that I would not write in on this topic again,
especially since I now regret some of the harshness of the tone of my
previous posting on the topic (for which I would like to take the
opportunity to apologize).  But after reading all of the previous
postings (and yes, I suppose I could delete the  messages without
reading them, but I don't have that much self-control), I feel even
more strongly that this is really not a job for SEELANGS.

Kenneth Brostrom asks the question: "Do we, as Slavic specilaists,
have nothing to say?"  Well, maybe we do, but I can't help but feel
that anything we can say specifically as *Slavic* specialists is, at
least in the short term, largely irrelevant.  The point is that we
all have feelings about what happened, we all have opinions, but how
much of our thoughts and feelings have anything to do with being
Slavists?  Slavists come in all shapes and sizes, and certainly run
the gamut of contemporary politics:  there are Leftist Slavists and
neo-conservative Slavists, Zionist Slavists and Anti-Zionist
Slavists, and so many different worldviews and ideologies that even
naming any of them is a pointless exercise.  I suspect that each of
us understands the causes, significance, and repercussions of the
events based far more on our political views and personal temperament
than on the rather insignificant fact of our studying Slavic
languages, literatures, history, and culture.

I am approaching SEELANGS in a way that is obvious different from
that of some of the other posters:  I do not consider SEELANGS a
community.  I consider it a function.  No matter how irrelevant it
may seem to 99% of us, it is perfectly appropriate to ask the list
how to say "manure" in Russian or Bulgarian, precisely because there
is no other forum that comes to mind where one could expect an
accurate answer.  But when it comes to disasters that have probably
led to thousands of deaths, and that have no apparent direct
connection to things Slavic, there are so many other places to
discuss it that SEELANGS just seems like an odd venue.  There are
Slavists whom I want to talk to about it, but that is because I know
them, because they are my friends.  Not because they are Slavists.

But I admit that I have underestimated the apparent role of SEELANGS
for other subscribers: it is one thing not to feel a sense of
community or connection if you are fortunate enough to talk to people
who share your interests on a daily basis, but if you are the lone,
isolated Slavist in an area where no one understands why you devote
your professional life to these topics, I can see how this listserv
might become more important.  My point of view is only my point of
view, but to me, discussing these issues on SEELANGS, which I do see
as a narrow, specialized function, threatens to trivialize what
happens rather than to elevate SEELANGS to a new level of discourse.

Perhaps I can't see this as a Slavic issue because I see this as
ultimately a human issue.  And also, though no one can "own" a
tragedy like this, and nearly everyone across the country, if not the
world, is upset, I experience it first and foremost as a local issue.
I walk by the fire station down the block, and the firemen who
usually wave at my son and practically stand on their heads to make
him laugh are missing, probably dead.  Yes, maybe we do have to think
about the ways in which American policies may have contributed to the
events that led to what happened, but right now, I'm simply not ready
to hear it.

Eliot Borenstein
Associate Professor and Chair
Russian & Slavic Studies
New York Universitys

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