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Mikhail Romm on Directors (Translated from Russian)

Some time ago I published here extract from the book by Mikhail Romm, on different types of cinematic shots. A few of you wondered where I got the English version; alas, there is no such (yet). I though it would be interesting to you to read Romm’s views on the director’s job, especially in what concerns the quality of work. Below is my translation from Russian of an extract on this very subject. 

Romm: Indeed, if it is so difficult to make a film, then why is a director’s waste so rare? For, usually, once the film is started being made, then it will, in one way or another, appear on screen, no matter how helpless, professionally weak, or barely gifted director was making it? What is the explanation of this persistent miracle?

You see, when I speak of the difficult work of a film director, I mean the work on a good, expressive film, on a work of art. As for mediocre work, anyone can make it, using the standard filming methods.

It’s not difficult to rehearse and satisfactorily film a short 10-20 sec. long extracts of a script instead of establishing the rhythm, movement, and the sense of a larger scene. Working on a shot, a director who doesn’t pursue lofty goals, only cares for the spectacle to be true to life and natural, that all actors are visible, that the main character is in the foreground, that all lines are pronounced in the established order, etc. It’s not at all difficult to rehearse the simplest, primitive movement in such short space of a film. Should later there be troubles gluing together these single shots, pieces of a bigger film, an editor will come to the rescue, cut something out, maybe there will be some additional filming or ever re-filming, various close-ups will be added, and, provided there was a decent script, the film will come together in general terms. This is the first circumstance that helps an average, weak director.

The fact that the film takes place not only on the set, but also outside the studio, in the exact living conditions, is hard to deal with, if you pursue the lofty goal of achieving a unique style, profound meaning, and originality of perception. A not-so-serious a director is helped by exactly the same means: Nature, trees, sky, landscapes, and vividness.

Indeed, cinema is a very young art, and it still possesses the pristine magic of the moving picture. A spectator still likes seeing the beautiful landscapes, sea, the clouds, the horse races, temperamental runs, etc.

The same magic applies to scenes with actors. If actors are good and interesting, they will attract spectators, regardless of the director’s mistakes. An expressive person appearing on the screen has an incredible power of attraction, and often actors help to gloss over many directorial faults.

Finally, there is one more circumstance that saves the director, and it is the cost of making a film. The material’s low quality becomes clear not instantly but, say, towards the middle of filming process. By this time the picture has already cost the State hundreds of thousand rubles, if not more. And so the help arrives in the guise of the entire studio mechanism, and countless advisers, consultants, and artistic directors start sorting out the mess. All together, they push the film forward – not unlike how in the past the soldiers en mass pushed the cannon out of the marsh.

So, the director’s job is both difficult and easy. It is difficult if we mean true art, and it’s fairly easy if we speak of the average cinema production that debuts on the screen and vanishes without a trace in a few days.

Had it not been the money question, then, between us, all this average cinema production should not have seen the daylight at all. And I am sure that under the Communism when the monetary system becomes obsolete, there will be no bad films. When they see that the film is about to be bad, they will politely but firmly hand the material back to its author to keep for “good memory”.

Question: Can one become a director without graduating from a special institute?

Romm: Yes, he can. Most of the world’s directors, including Russian directors of the older generation, did not graduated from any institute. Eisenstein came to the cinema from theatre, Pudovkin used to be an actor, Dovzhenko was a painter and teacher, Pyriev and Alexandrov were actors, Yutkevich was a painter, Raizman was a director’s assistant with no formal education, Ermler was a political correspondent at the frontline before coming to cinema, and I used to be a sculptor.

Question: Is it true that directors are very conceited?

Romm: There is such sin… There are modest people among film directors, just as in any other profession, but, between us, the malady of conceit does exist.

Say, an ordinary modest student graduates from the Cinematography Institute and finally gets his first film to make. The moment it happens, you see a beret on his head and a pipe in his mouth, although prior to this he was wearing a cap and smoked normal cigarettes. The beret and the pipe seem to him the indispensable attributes of this “free occupation” person, a unique artist, someone special, different from ordinary mortals.

It should be said that after some 10-15 days of filming, having experienced the brutal reality of cinematographic problems, he leaves behind both beret and pipe and behaves himself like the simplest, if somewhat embarrased and scared, worker. Towards the end of filming he usually seems to be the humblest person on Earth.

But then the film is released, and if it gets reviews or, God forbid, is sent to an international festival, – again you see a beret on his head and the stamp of genius on his face.

Guillaume Apollinaire – Toujours/Forever

Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire

Toujours

À Madame Faure-Favier

Toujours
Nous irons plus loin sans avancer jamais

Et de planète en planète
De nébuleuse en nébuleuse
Le don Juan des mille et trois comètes
Même sans bouger de la terre
Cherche les forces neuves
Et prend au sérieux les fantômes

Et tant d’univers s’oublient
Quels sont les grands oublieurs
Qui donc saura nous faire oublier telle ou telle partie du monde
Où est le Christophe Colomb à qui l’on devra l’oubli d’un continent

Perdre
Mais perdre vraiment
Pour laisser place à la trouvaille
Perdre
La vie pour trouver la Victoire

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880 – 1918)

Forever

for Mm Faure-Faviere

Forever

We shall be going farther

And never advance anywhere

And moving between the planets
And constellations
The Don Juan of a thousand-and-three comets
Without ever leaving the Earth
Seeks the new powers
And seriously takes the phantoms

So many worlds lose themselves in oblivion
So oblivious they are
Who then will make us forget this or that part of the world
Where is Columbus who will lose a continent of our memory in oblivion

We need to lose
To really lose
So as to leave the room for a rediscovery
We need to lose
Life to find the Victory

Julia Shuvalova © 2011

Всегда

мадам Фор-Фавье

Всегда
Мы будем все дальше идти,
Не продвигаясь вперед никогда.

И от планеты к планете,
И от созвездий к созвездиям,
Даже не покидая земли,
Дон Жуан двух тысяч комет
Ищет новые скрытые силы
И мираж всерьез принимает.

Сколько Вселенных себя навсегда забывает!
О как велика их забывчивость!
Кто же самих нас заставит забыть
Ту или эту часть света?
Где тот Колумб,
Что сумеет в памяти нашей
Закрыть континент.

Потерять,
Но потерять до конца,
Чтобы оставить открытию место.
Жизнь потерять,
Чтоб Победу найти.

© М. Kudinov.

Sergei Esenin Vagankovo Monument and Final Poem Translation

Esenin Memorial in Vagankovo
Esenin Monument in Ivanovo

I had a long walk in Vagankovo Cemetery today, the place where a lot of celebrated Russians were laid to rest. Among them is Sergei Esenin, famous for his village-inspired poetry, a romance with Isadora Duncan, and untimely suicide-murder in Astoria Hotel in St. Petersburg at the age of 30. Back in 2006, on a chilly autumn evening I translated his final poem that he scribbled in blood on a piece of paper.

Farewell, my friend, farewell to thou.
You’ll remain forever in my heart.
We shall meet again one day from now,
And for that we have been meant to part.
Farewell, my friend, see you in time.
Don’t frown in sadness or in grief.
There is nothing new about dying
In this life, like it’s not new to live.

© Julia Shuvalova 2006

Original Russian text: 

До свиданья, друг мой, до свиданья.
Милый мой, ты у меня в груди.
Предназначенное расставанье
Обещает встречу впереди.

До свиданья, друг мой, ни руки, ни слова.
Не грусти и не печаль бровей.
В этой жизни умирать не ново,
Да и жить, конечно, не новей.

1928 г.

What Russian Girls Give Up for ‘Their’ Politicians

Some 20 years ago one Soviet woman publicly claimed that ‘there is no sex in the USSR‘.

Fast forward 20 years: there is no USSR, there is surely enough sex happening, but most importantly, Russian girls are ready to strut their stuff for the most noble reason. If we consider politics noble, of course.

In the autumn of 2010, several female students of the Faculty of Journalism at the Lomonosov Moscow State University presented 50 thousand copies of a 2011 calendar, printed “especially for Mr. Putin”. Wannabe journalists, scantily dressed, in sultry poses, with hungry eyes, were throwing provocative phrases at “their president”. 2010 was the year of devastating forest fires, hence one girl’s declaration was saying: ‘The forests are fine, but I am still on fire‘. Another was asking: ‘Mr. Putin, what about the third time?‘ The Faculty’s dean was kind of unimpressed and deemed the calendar and the entire action as ‘of bad taste’.

You see, there are already speculations as to exactly who – Mr. Putin or Mr. Medvedev – are going to put their names forward in the upcoming presidential elections. Some say they both will nominate themselves, some say it will be one or another. One thing is clear: the competition runs undercurrent, and strangely enough, it takes the form of a competition between fans, rather than politicians.

Only two weeks ago President Medvedev has signed what can be called a new “dry law”. According to it, beer is now considered an alcoholic drink, like vodka, and its sale from the shops will be prohibited between 11pm and 8am. Furthermore, it is only licensed shops and stalls that will be able to sell beer, and drinking in the streets, in the parks and other public places will be subject to a fine. The law will fully come into force on January 1, 2013.

Beer being one of the favourite drinks in Russia (as elsewhere these days), such law is unlikely to be popular. It may be necessary, though, in order to somehow alleviate the problem of alcohol abuse, for which Russia has been notorious. And so “girl power” got turned on.

This Thursday several girls, all members of a group “Medvedev Girls”, took to a Moscow street where they vowed to strip down to their bikinis, if the guys around would empty their beer cans and bottles. There were enough guys to challenge the girls: 6 litres of beer were emptied into the bucket. The girls took their clothes off.

“Medvedev Girls” consider themselves the direct opponents of the “Putin Army” and say they will not vote for Putin at the elections. Although the action was not authorised, the police did not find the gut to take girls off the street.

If one looks at how various societal groups express themselves in Russia, one thing becomes obvious. It seems to be OK, even from the police’ point of view, to dress down to one’s bikinis in support of the law against beer, yet to march fully clothed for the equal rights of sexual minorities is a definitive no-no. And while many would love to find a logical, coherent explanation to the above ambiguity, a Nikita Mikhalkov film, “The Barber of Siberia” comes to mind. Relating to the film’s protagonist, the slogan said: ‘He is Russian. This explains a lot‘.

Apparently, it still does – even where girls are concerned. One is left wondering as to what other “support actions” we will witness in the elections’ build-up.

5 Unusual Museums to Visit in Moscow

Moscow is not just about Kremlin, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, and a handful of other well-known tourist attractions. Delve deeper into the unusual world of Moscow museums, starting with this selection of 5 awe-inspiring or downright weird places.

By Julia Shuvalova

As the capital city of Russia, Moscow has a plenty to offer to a traveller. And whether you are travelling in summer or in winter, there are many museums to provide shelter and food – for thought, as well as body. You have heard about the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the State Historical Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery, and the Kremlin. But if you want to further explore Moscow, you must visit the following 5 places, located within the easy reach from the city centre.

1. The State Museum of Armed Forces.

Located towards the north of Moscow, the museum offers a fascinating and disturbing insight into the history of the Russian Army. Think of it as the U.K.’s Imperial War Museum, with a few gruesome artefacts. One part of the regular exhibition studies and celebrates the development of weapons and technical equipment. Another part of exhibition traces the wartime effort of the Russian people, the hardships and atrocities of the Great Patriotic War against fascism. Several halls are currently on reconstruction. However, the museum also has an outdoor exhibition where you can see the tanks and airplanes. There is also a chance to visit museum’s special exhibitions featuring the study of Marshal Georgy Zhukov and the Joseph Stalin’s bunker. Both exhibitions are based in separate buildings elsewhere in Moscow.

2. The G Spot Museum of Erotica

Finally, after years marked by the stigma of “no sex in the USSR”, it turns out that some like it hot – at least in Moscow. The erotic museum, G Spot, that has only recently opened in the capital, is the one to check out. It is located near Novy Arbat St, in the city centre, and has dutifully acquired a wide-spread publicity. Over 3000 exhibits include Indian erotic sculptures, installations, paintings, dolls, and adult toys. The world’s most expensive “Real Doll” is also there. Art meets sex at museum’s every corner, including a museum cafe, and if this is not enough, there is a non-stop screening of the film, “Sex in the USSR”. Needless to say, kids are not allowed, and teens must be accompanied by parents.

3. Alexander Bakhrushin Theatre Museum

Located a stone-throw away from the Paveletskaya underground station and the eponymous railroad terminal, this is a destination for all who appreciate the Russian drama and the work of Stanislavsky, Nemirovich-Danchenko, and Schepkin. The bulk of the collection on display traces the development of the Russian theatre, from the imperial court drama, through the foundation of the Maly Theatre, to the Parisian Russian Seasons and the beginnings of the Soviet theatre. Exhibits include stage and costume sketches and posters by the likes of Alexander Benoit and Leo Bakst, costumes, props and accessories donated to the museum by theatres and collectors.

4. Yuri Detochkin Carlift Museum

Yes, you can have a second glance at the name of the museum: it will not change. The museum opened its doors to the visitors in 2002; the name commemorates one of the best-known Soviet films, Beware of a Car (starring Innokenty Smoktunovsky) about a young car thief. A collection, lovingly amassed by the owner of a car salon, consists of an impressive array of tools and criminal evidence left by, or confiscated from, car thieves. As one could expect it in Russia, nothing is done half-heartedly: a car owner usually fights for his car, while the thief fights with the owner, sometimes using axes, hammers, and harpoons. Other exhibits include examples of the car theft left-overs, like destroyed sirens, fake documents, forged car plates, and even maps of Moscow districts most prone for car theft. In short, if you have always wanted to get a glimpse of the brutal world of Russian criminals, the Carlift Museum’s exposition awaits.

5. The Space Memorial Museum.

This museum is situated in the north of Moscow, a short walk away from the VDNKh (All-Russia Exhibition Centre) and the underground station under the same name. It is located in the basement of the magnificent Monument to the Conquerors of the Space, erected after the design by Sergei Korolev in 1964. The museum has been open to the public since 1981; 2011 was its 30th anniversary. The collection painstakingly documents the development of the Russian space science and space exploration, thus including not only research papers, photographic evidence, machines and equipment, but also space-inspired memorabilia. This is a spell-binding experience for all fans of sci-fi and cosmic stories, as well as a fascinating story of one of the seminal Russian breakthroughs of the 20th century.

 

Polling Results, and Special Projects Page

It’s time to tell you what happened to those two polls I threw at you in April-May.

First, countries you thought I would visit in 2011. Most of you thought I’d go to Ukraine; the second place is divided between Italy and Israel; the third place goes to France, Belarus, and The Netherlands. I’m really grateful, as it does actually give me a focus in planning my trips for the rest of the year.

As far as wine poll goes, although the margins are very small, most of those who voted love dry red wine; this is followed by rose; which is followed by dry white wine. Well… I love rose, and I guess I shall have to like dry wines more.

Among the changes I made to the blog recently, is the page dedicated to the Russian-Italy cross-cultural year, with a calendar of events. Another page presents some of the available interviews that I made and special projects in which I took part since 2005. I thought I’d better display all that wealth of files and links on a separate page than on the main page. The page will be updated, as there are more files to display, and many more will still appear this year.

Who’s on Top? A New Look at the Body Politic

I wrote the essay below in the early 2006 when I worked as a researcher for one British company. While I’m thinking of the different ways to “add value” to the text, I wanted to share what I’ve written all those years ago. Commissions are welcome; criticism is even more so, as I’m sure I’ve missed some aspects of contemplating the ever-lasting connection between politics and sex. However, even though I was thinking of sharing the text for a long time, I was practically compelled to do this after I found out that somebody was searching for ‘burlesconi‘. Given that in the text below I also had to consider the impact of burlesque performers on the modern attitudes, I thought it was a calling… you know what I mean.

A small note: I’ve just realised the text is heavily marked by Italian connections. In the BBC series mentioned below Lady Thatcher was played by Greta Scacchi, an Italian-Australian actress born in Milan. Oh Italia, amore! 

The Body Politique. 

Image courtesy: The Mirror

On 1 December, 2002, the BBC1 screened a drama Jeffrey Archer: The Truth. It was a fictional rendering of the ‘real’ story behind Archer’s perjury case. According to the plot, Archer first claimed that he spent a night with Baroness Thatcher (still the Prime Minister when Archer’s case broke out), but then changed it to a far-fetched tale of a love affair with Princess Diana, all to provide himself with an alibi for the time he spent with a prostitute. The Western Mail, published in Cardiff, gave out a few details to its readers shortly before the premiere. It said that Thatcher would seduce Archer by performing a striptease on the desk in her cabinet, and that she would also have her hip adorned with a heart tattoo with the letters JA. As the film’s director, Guy Jenkin explained, “…the whole piece is a joke about Jeffrey Archer’s tendency for inaccurate precis”.

So, this would-be obnoxious romp turned out to be a political satire. The BBC used the archaic expression ‘political body’ literally, and admittedly, Archer’s body did not behave ‘politically correctly’ when he was committing adultery. It must yet be noted that in the film Archer did not deny the fact of cheating; he denied the fact of cheating with a prostitute. Bearing in mind that the PM was wearing a tattoo and performed a striptease, one certainly have to ask, exactly what the difference was between her and the prostitute on that occasion. Such confusion shows that today a human body and politics become increasingly intertwined as both can be engaged in “dirty” activity. To treat this as a novelty would be a mistake. One only has to look back at the burlesque tradition in the United States or at the cabaret tradition in Europe, to see the roots of political humiliation through the use of overtly sexual imagery. Overall, however, today notices the tendency to reject the outdated (?) cultural values and identities and to substitute these with the fleeting virtual identities and values, to the extent when politics begins to be perceived as an irrational activity. Let us consider various examples how watching or displaying bodies can in fact be a manifestation of a political stance.

Horrible Prettiness: Social Hierarchy, Burlesque and the Body Politics.

The trait of being ethically rigid is attributed to the English society during so-called Victorian times, but in fact it was never a typically English or a typically Victorian trait. What is interesting, however, is that in the 19th c. across the Continent and across America a sterile mainstream morality co-existed with what Richard Grant White called “the defiance of a system”. The burlesque culture in America represented such defiance. A burlesque performer was a construction of what was called the “low other”: “something that is reviled by and excluded from the dominant social order as debased, dirty, and unworthy, but that is simultaneously the object of desire and/or fascination”.

It can be argued that main political issues of the turn of the 19th and 20th c. were not those related to geopolitics, but those gender-related. Woman was revered and despised at once, and it was arguably down to the artistic movements of the time to support this duality in attitudes. Katie Chopin, an American writer, in the novel The Awakening depicted a sexual self-discovery of a female protagonist, which put her in a strong opposition to the social norms. One of the iconic representatives of the art nouveau, Aubrey Beardsley, illustrated Oscar Wilde’s Salome, showing the reader a horribly beautiful woman who through her outstanding performance murdered the prophet. It is noticeable that these women did not survive the end of the books that told their stories. But it is also evident that women were gradually being invested with power either to define their lives, or to define the lives of the others. The image and story of Salome can be regarded as the best historical example and perhaps an inspiration to the entire culture of female performance that ensued. At any event, the turn of the centuries saw the beginning of power-struggle between men and women. And while it is correct to say that in the English political context the decisive victory came with the right to vote for women, culturally, women found themselves ‘on top’ of men in many continental cabarets and American clubs that offered ‘exotic dancing’.

It is significant that the burlesque culture succeeded in establishing female power through stripping women of their femininity. But although, as Allen tells us, such well-known traits of burlesque as strippers, runways and candybutchers did not appear until 1920s, burlesque and cabaret accentuated the way women could rule men – through offering them satisfaction to their sexual needs. Dance was the ultimate expression on this occasion, as watching it gave both aesthetic and sexual pleasure to the male viewer.

Burlesque is important all the more because it was the arena of acting out the persistent cultural contradiction: women were often mistreated, but without them men would be left unfulfilled. The question “What it means to be a woman?” amply defined the popular objectification of woman as a sexual object that contradicted a common-place hierarchy.

One cannot fail noticing that the burlesque culture at the beginning of its existence did not imbue the same strength of sexual energy, as it came to do at the later stage. What stands out is that these early performers were professional entertainers. However, it is perhaps the later burlesque that shows how feminism would eventually come into being. Whereas before the clubs and cabarets a woman was suppressed as a man’s household ‘slave’, the erotic performance enslaved her sexually. On the other hand, erotic performance in the form of striptease also enslaved men who began to be increasingly regarded as sex-driven creatures, as portrayed with disgust by Valerie Solanas.

Nevertheless, at the beginning the exotic performance was the defiance of an emotionally repressed and hypocrite system, and as such it was effective in attaining a goal that was largely political. At the very least, burlesque performers succeeded in gradually making the society gender-oriented, rather than sex-oriented. It contributed to the fact that today none of the spheres of life is possible without equality in gender representation, which also includes politics.

A Porn Star in Parliament: A Descent in Values or a Political Advance?

In 1987 a Hungarian-born Ilona Staller, aka Cicciolina, was elected to the Italian Parliament, as a Radical Party candidate. While one may have had a vague idea of Ilona, they would definitely know who Cicciolina was, – one of the leading Italian porn actresses of the 1970s and 1980s. Cicciolina has been an amazingly active politician: “she campaigns for a safe future without nuclear energy and with absolute sexual freedom including the right to sex in prisons. She is against all forms of violence including the death penalty and the use of animals for fur or scientific experimentation. She is for the decriminalization of drugs, against censorship of any kind, in favour of sex education in schools, and for objective information about AIDS. She has proposed a tax on automobiles to reduce the damages of smog and fund the defence of nature”. Her recent intention was to run for a post of mayor of Milan in the 2006 elections. When she announced her plans in 2004, she was going to rekindle the city’s economy by opening a casino in a medieval palace in the city centre – despite the fact that the palace is a regular cultural venue.

While an MP, Cicciolina made history by baring her left breast or performing a striptease during press-conferences. A conclusion about her as one of the highly controversial ‘political bodies’ would be an obvious one, but Cicciolina was virtually eager to use her body in the strictly political means: to stop Saddam Hussein, for example, during the Gulf War. It is certainly significant that she was reluctant to use her real name and referred to a better-known stage-name, albeit notorious. And in spite of her ongoing political engagements and a long-ended film career, Cicciolina maintains the website, with zones of explicit content, available to members only.

The question that rises from this sketch is – how should one regard the fact that a hardcore porn actress not only entered the Parliament, but was re-elected despite her explicitly indecent behaviour? Should this point out to the descent in moral values, or is this in fact the proof of political tolerance? The answer will be ambivalent. One can remember Mata Hari, an erotic dancer, who was later convicted as a spy, in which case Cicciolina’s example can be examined from the same perspective. On the other hand, one can remember Madonna’s videoclip on her song American Dream, which was an open critique of the Bush government and the protest against the war in Iraq. As Mrs Ritchie constantly reminds us these days, one of her ambitions was to prove that a woman can be beautiful, sexy and clever all at once. Such view does not exclude a possible involvement in political activity, and Cicciolina is therefore the proof of the society’s recognition of a political potential of a woman.

If we get back to our discussion of how burlesque contributed to the social and political emancipation of a woman, we will notice that it was largely nonsensical. The viewer was never told what he has to make from watching the performer. But what he was expected to do is to throw away any conventionality, because this was the purpose of burlesque: to break social and cultural convention. This is no wonder, for example, that in today’s irreligious or religiously apathetic society a burlesque performer can appear in the nun’s dress only to reveal a heavily tattooed torso. Another example is a performer who swallowed a neon sword. Sword-swallowing is a popular form of entertainment, but it was normally a male prerogative. On this occasion, however, both ‘masculinity’ and seriousness of such performance are mocked, because the sword is not made of steel.

Therefore, one may conclude that when Cicciolina bared her breasts naked, she did not mean to inflict anger – she simply bared her breasts, without any compelling reason or perhaps because she was proud of her previous job, or of her own body. As she said on one occasion, her breasts did the world less harm than Bin Laden’s terrorism. What is indubitable is that through this act she was defying a ‘regular’ image of female politicians, and that she was quite explicitly demonstrating the fact that a half-naked woman can also be a successful and active politician.

Conclusion

Observing these examples, makes one think exactly how we perceive politics and those engaged in it. First of all, it seems that in a democracy where the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of expression are vigilantly monitored by watchdogs and the public alike, it is difficult to reserve a ‘political space’ for politics and politicians, i.e. such space in the social or cultural discourse where politics can be unapproachable. The problem, obviously, is not whether Mrs Thatcher ever had a tattoo or performed a striptease; it is whether the public can or should see a politician’s body bared naked, even in a fictional story. It is also significant that while before it was largely men who were committing adulteries or were engaged in illicit behaviour, women now take an equal share in such activities.

This means not only that everyone can now discuss politics from whatever point of view, but also that everyone can take part in it. Eventually, political ‘wisdom’ that used to be mandatory for any kind of politician in the past is gradually being substituted by ‘common sense’, which opens the doors into politics for representatives of popular culture. What tends to happen, however, is that the public does not want to let go of the traits it cherished in these representatives, and so it wishes the showmen-turned-politicians to preserve these traits, despite the fact that they contradict the ‘serious’ nature of politics. But then, is it not the favourite popular challenge to the ‘old’ culture – to strip it off conventions? If so, then it means that probably politics is no longer serious, – or perhaps that sex no longer matters.

In the beginning….

What to write in your first blog post may baffle the author. As a writer, I wanted to compare publishing a post instantly to labourig over a piece of paper.

As I was thinking of what to write in the very first post in this first blog of mine, I suddenly realised that you’re probably more compelled to produce something when you stare at the screen rather than when you’re falling short of breaking a pencil because nothing ‘worthwhile’ comes to mind. I guess in my case it had to do with the nature of the blog: once you finish typing  and click “Publish”, your musings will appear in the space where they can be read virtually by anybody, from a college student through a BBC broadcaster to a pensioner. I don’t know yet if the understanding of this may put any pressure on what and how you write. One thing I know for sure: when I was publishing articles online or ‘making’ a website with AOL Homepages, I didn’t have this feeling of being obliged to write something as quickly as possible. In part, I felt so because I wanted to begin to publish other stuff, but in part it was because an empty blog – my blog – looked terrible, so I needed to fill it with something, to write that notorious first blog post… and what could be a better filler than an introduction? 
 
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