Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Gypsies as Cultural Fodder - A Collection of Literary References As They Come

Some attitudes are conveyed as normal just because they are interjected so casually in other things. We absorb. For example, Gypsies as culturally expendable, of no intrinsic worth, so much "other" as to be easily trod under, without consequence. Fodder. See Hello, Fodder. On Typecasting and Choice: Fodder Role.

1. Novel. "The Archivist's Story," by Travis Holland, Dial Press 2007, at page 157. The place is a dacha, or woodsy vacation house, outside Moscow, about 1939, in the middle of Stalin's purges of authors, novelists, poets - imprisonment, death. The main character is an archivist, Pavel, whose work is to sort through and catalogue works of literary prisoners, those works destined ultimately for the incinerator, and the prisoners also probably to death. We join him with friends on a small holiday. A Moscovite with seniority as to position and privilege arrives, and jokes about a disagreement with his wife on the way: Fair use quote

" 'She thinks I ran a family of Gypsies off the road on purpose. She accuses me of hating Gypsies, which is a lie of course. It's just that I'm not the best driver." Maxim Andrevich slaps the countertop, 'Glasses, if you please, ' he tells Victor (not the main character here). 'Well, where shall we start, gentlemen? Whisky? Vodka?'"

No comments: