My Life and Thoughts

Let me begin by thanking Ryan for the link to the Roudinesco conference, which does indeed include such promising titles as: "‘In Pursuit of the Nazi Mind?’ The Deployment of Psychoanalysis in the Struggle against Fascism." I am also curious about who decides the ad placement in the LRB print edition. The last piece I wrote for them, on graphic novels, ran with an ad for Turkey: The Space of the Mind(d)Field, a special issue of the art journal Third Text, including articles like "Parrhesiastic Games in the Turkish Art Scene" (by Süreyyya Evren, who really spells it with 3 y’s, possibly to convey the eternal question of contemporary academic discourse: "Why? Why? Why?"), and: "Dear Europe, Dear Turkey: Why are You Making Us So Depressed [Why why why]?" (by Kevin Robins).

I remember when that LRB came out, a certain prominent YA author wrote to me that she was puzzled "by the decision to advertise Turkish language lessons (or was it Genghis Khan garden gnomes?) at the bottom of your first page."  and, although I initially thought "Genghis Khan garden gnomes" was really funny, I soon I realized it’s no laughing matter, because guess who introduced garden gnomes—in fact, "models of Central Asian dwarves that were kept as house pets by wealthy families during China’s glorious Tang Dynasty"—to the ignorant West?  That’s right… the Mongols!

This important discovery into the genealogy of garden gnomes (viz., they too are related to Genghis Khan) was made by Bu Congming, professor of archeology and finance at the Urumqi Institute of Desert Exploration and Real Estate Development, and his colleague Xuan Zhang, on the basis of "a letter written in Sogdian, an extinct Central Asia language, [discovered] in a garbage pit at Dunhuang":

The author of the letter, apparently one of the dwarves, praised the household that kept him for providing delicious scraps of food. But the dwarf complained that his masters laughed at his hat and beard, as well as his tiny legs. Sometimes he was so upset that he could not perform all of the circus stunts he had to perform for his keepers.

Dr. Bu says that the letter, along with many terra-cotta figures from the Tang Dynasty depicting such dwarves and other foreign peoples who came along the Silk Road, confirms the origin of the gnomic figures. But how did the figures go west? It is commonly thought that garden gnome figurines were first made in Germany in the 1800s as representations of trolls and other denizens of the demon-infested European woodlands to satisfy the vast Western demand for kitsch.

However, Dr. Bu suggests an alternative theory: the Mongols. The great armies of the Khans liberated most of Eurasia during the so-called Dark Middle Ages in Europe. Unfortunately they were unable to complete their “mission civilatrice” of spreading Asian values when they were suddenly recalled to their homeland following the death of one of the great Khans. They had to leave their dwarves behind in the forests. Over time, the superstitious Europeans incorporated the abandoned creatures into their folklore.

The letter from this poor gnome is a poignant illustration of the universal human truth that, in exchange for delicious scraps of food, one must often put up with upsetting people laughing at one’s hats.  I myself have had this experience more than once.  One is also fascinated to learn that the West apparently had such an insatiable thirst for kitch that not even the Germans could satisfy it—they had to outsource to China, thus entering a prophetic gray zone of IP law:

Officials in Beijing, while pleased about confirmation of yet another example of the reach of Chinese culture, have raised questions.“It is beyond dispute,” charges Madam Sun Wukong of the cultural department of the Chinese foreign ministry, “that the images were stolen by the agents of imperialism!” Mme. Sun threatens to take the matter up with the World Trade Organization as a “flagrant violation” of China’s intellectual property rights… Calls requesting comment to the Mongolian Department of Cultural Enlightenment in Ulan Bator, the World Trade Organization in Geneva and the German Embassy in Beijing were not returned.

Thanks also to BenjaminL for the super-helpful list of places to walk in LA, which I will certainly take into account the next time I get an important journalistic assignment in Hollywood. And speaking of ad placement, I will not be deterred by the "sponsored link" that Gmail attached to his comment:

$21000 off NEW Jaguar
OWN a Jaguar XJ8 and SAVE
While supplies last!
www.pnaaJaguarspecials.com

To Tara I will add that it is always interesting to learn of the different avenues by which we are all related to Genghis Khan.  Tara’s coworker Elif has my sympathies, although there are certainly worse things to be called than Elf—just ask those garden gnomes. Somewhat relatedly, I have an uncle called Ufuk, which is a lovely Turkish name meaning "horizon," but Americans would always call him "You fuck," so he changed his name to John.

Tags: book reviews, hats, Lauren Mechling, literary criticism, monuments, outsourcing, publications, Turkey

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 5:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.