A decade ago I posted about Eliot Borenstein’s decision to blog his new book, and I took great pleasure in reading the preliminary versions of Plots against Russia and his later Soviet Self-Hatred and Unstuck in Time. Then, alas, he quit:
This was for a number of reasons, but two of them stand out: first, I don’t think many people were actually reading the blogs, and, more important, I didn’t need the publication schedule to force me to write. Plus I was able to skip around from chapter to chapter, the way normal people do.
But now he’s back!
But I’m not ecstatic over my current writing situation. I’ve still been writing, but so sporadically that I find myself having to reread what I wrote in order to figure out what I’m doing. All I really want is to just keep these projects alive in my head, and move them forward at whatever pace ends up working.
Here’s where it gets ridiculous: I’ve written pretty significant chunks of three different book projects. This was the sort of thing that used to work really well for me, but now is a challenge. Still, I don’t want to give any of them up. So I’ve decided not to.
The plan is to serialize all three projects on a weekly basis. This isn’t as bad as it sounds, since, again, I have a backlog. And once I have to start writing new stuff rather than cleaning up old stuff, I have no doubt that my pace will fall back significantly. Which, again, is fine. I’ll put the posts up on my blog (eliotborenstein.net) and link to them on Facebook. At this point, all of these projects feel much more raw than their predecessors. If I get feedback, this will be extremely helpful, but I don’t have any illusions about getting a large readership. All I have to do is pretend that I have a readership.
On Mondays he’ll be posting Marvel Comics in the 1980s, on Wednesdays Unidentified Russian Objects: On Soviet Melancholy (the third and final installment in Russia’s Alien Nations, in case anyone besides me is keeping track), and on Fridays Reading the Superhero: Ethics, Crises, and Superboy Punches; if you have any interest in any of these topics, follow along (and maybe leave the occasional comment to let him know he does have a readership). As I said in a comment to that post: “I, of course, am looking forward to Unidentified Russian Objects. Soviet melancholy is the best melancholy!”
Unrelated, but I ran across an odd old Russian word алатырь (alatyr′); there are both Russian and English Wikipedia articles, and the latter explains:
The Alatyr is a sacred stone in Russian folklore. It is the “father to all stones”, the navel of the earth, containing sacred letters and endowed with healing properties. Although the name Alatyr appears only in East Slavic sources, the awareness of the existence of such a stone exists in various parts of the Slavdom. It is often mentioned in stories and referred to in love spells as “a mighty force that has no end.”
Vasmer doesn’t find any convincing etymology; you can see various attempts at Wikipedia.
It is the “father to all stones”, the navel of the earth
Belly-buttons are nothing like fathers. The image is sad and cringe.
Thank you, language hat!
Think nothing of it, ElBor!
Soviet melancholy, if you can stand it.
I could only take a minute or so of the Буковинский соловей.
As the saying goes, “Comic books are comic books, but the history of comic books is scholarship.”