Rootless cosmopolitan (shopping)
The other day I was having lunch with someone who complimented me on my shoes. "They're cute," she said, "where did you get them?" I looked down and realized that everything I was wearing had a distinct provenance - from bottom up, I had bought the: shoes in Poland, pants in Berkeley, tank top in Chicago, sleeveless shirt in Turkey, earrings in LA (that past weekend), and heading inwards, bra in New York and underpants in Russia. Phew! This mini-survey told me two things: 1) I kinda get around (sadly, not so much in a slutty way), and 2) I think I must go shopping everywhere I go.
I had this in mind last week when I went to the last event in this literary series I had been subscribed to this year - a talk, Q&A, and book signing by this (quasi-famous?) Latin American writer. Heading on into the talk, I was feeling all kinds of nostalgic, because his course on Latin American Literature was the last class of my undergraduate career. In the talk, based in great part on his 1998 memoir (about bilingualism, no less), he spoke about his cosmopolitan upbringing (Buenos Aries, New York, Santiago), which mostly had been cosmopolitan because of moves predicated by anti-Semitism (well, and once, McCarthysim, not like it's totally separatable). Which brought to mind of course, "rootless cosmopolitan", the Stalin-era Soviet euphemism for Jews used during his really pretty brutal post-war anti-Semitic campaign. (Because the war hadn't been quite bad enough for everyone.) It made me feel lucky that my own cosmopolitanism, which has felt kind of rootless for the last few years, has come from privilege and intellectual inquiry (or membership in the "cultural elite", to return to a Quayle-era euphemism for us Jewy types). And apparently a desire for international material acquisition.
Anyway, I chatted with the author for a while after the talk, covering gossip about my former professors/his current colleagues, uses of memoirs and testimonials in classes on bilingualism, and writing about language for the media. And then he signed my book thusly, and the thing of it is, I can't tell what the hell the second-to-last word is. I actually ran into my landlord in the Metro station on the way home, and he read this and said:
"It looks like it says 'For Pangea, with thanks for your Ovaltine existence..." Thoughts? Anyone?
I had this in mind last week when I went to the last event in this literary series I had been subscribed to this year - a talk, Q&A, and book signing by this (quasi-famous?) Latin American writer. Heading on into the talk, I was feeling all kinds of nostalgic, because his course on Latin American Literature was the last class of my undergraduate career. In the talk, based in great part on his 1998 memoir (about bilingualism, no less), he spoke about his cosmopolitan upbringing (Buenos Aries, New York, Santiago), which mostly had been cosmopolitan because of moves predicated by anti-Semitism (well, and once, McCarthysim, not like it's totally separatable). Which brought to mind of course, "rootless cosmopolitan", the Stalin-era Soviet euphemism for Jews used during his really pretty brutal post-war anti-Semitic campaign. (Because the war hadn't been quite bad enough for everyone.) It made me feel lucky that my own cosmopolitanism, which has felt kind of rootless for the last few years, has come from privilege and intellectual inquiry (or membership in the "cultural elite", to return to a Quayle-era euphemism for us Jewy types). And apparently a desire for international material acquisition.
Anyway, I chatted with the author for a while after the talk, covering gossip about my former professors/his current colleagues, uses of memoirs and testimonials in classes on bilingualism, and writing about language for the media. And then he signed my book thusly, and the thing of it is, I can't tell what the hell the second-to-last word is. I actually ran into my landlord in the Metro station on the way home, and he read this and said:
"It looks like it says 'For Pangea, with thanks for your Ovaltine existence..." Thoughts? Anyone?
posted by Pangea at 10:23 PM
2 Comments:
Bravissima?
bulimia?
Post a Comment
<< Home