[lbo-talk] eXile

dredmond at efn.org dredmond at efn.org
Fri Feb 26 21:00:57 PST 2010


On Fri, February 26, 2010 8:08 pm, Joanna wrote:


> I agree about Taibbi's jockitis; still, he's awfully fun to read. And
> sharp. Very sharp.

One of the real achievements the eXile(d) -- and I wouldn't want to pick favorites as far as past and present writers go, because they're all wonderfully talented in their own unique ways -- is that it is one of the few English-language publications to tap into Russia's postcolonial sense of humor. It's something faintly visible in all those famous Soviet jokes about the dysfunctionality of the system -- the awareness that Stalinism was a weird kind of self-colonization, an Empire which exploited its center to urbanize its peripheries. That humor has interesting affinities to the postcolonial wit found in the literature and films from Latin America, Africa and Asia: Soyinka and Borges are mordantly funny, Sembene and Ghatak are mercilessly comic. It's the kind of laughter which acknowledges the abyssal pain of colonialism/primitive accumulation, and thereby helps you to survive.

-- DRR



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