Re: Susan Sontag and the Rape of American Thinking.

["Cinder" <spectra@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello, Mark (and all)
There must be some confusion with the postings and, importantly, the post
where you clarify your position is missing. I would hate to jump in on
deductions, so if it's not too much trouble, could you explain once again
what stand do you take re: NATO intervention on the Balkans?
Unless I've misunderstood Katha's point: she was cautioning against
depicting Serbs as fallen angels, or, maybe more precisely, against bringing
Serbian sexism into the analysis - this, in itself, would be "inverted"
sexism, I think. Ethnisising rape, just as ethnisising social conflicts on
the Balkans can
serve only one purpose - to legitimate NATO's actions. Katha didn't say that
they had to be bombed because they are sexist. Or did she?

Surely the role of the intellectuals can be examined as it must have played
a major role in demonising the Balkans (not just the Serbs) but shouldn't
this rape talk be left for what it is: media trump card in modelling
convenient images, and isn't this nitpicking over Susan Sonntag & Co
obscuring the larger picture: what the heck has NATO done and is still doing
on the Balkans? This Natoshevich operation looks more and more like a
trade-off between bullies, rather than like the noble act (insert hiccup) it
was declared to be.

I don't know what to think ab J. Israel: he seems to be after
unsubstantiated sensations for some purpose of his own. Btw, after
Blagovesta Doncheva (the virtual activist from BG) made the NYT headlines,
we tried to contact Jared Israel but he never answered. Alain Kessi, who's
in Sofia, tried to meet her but was also refused. So this case of
www-dissident is still unsolved; and the Open Letter to Serb Opposition
(part of which was reprinted as In Her Own Words in NYT) was pathetic, to
say the least.
Looking forward to hearing what you guys think

(hoped to be able to lurk cosily...)