The National Intellectual Daddy Bears (NIDB) Blues

You must be thinking: "This UberKritik guy really exaggerates. Why, we have Gigi Becali growing in polls like a tumor, we have OTV and DDTV and everybody they dig out, we have so many hacks in politics, and there he is, complaining about the few people in our public arena who are just... well, maybe not perfect."

It's true, it may look like perfectionism from that perspective. But think of it this way: I have nobody in my entourage who admires Becali or would join his party. And there are sufficient voices in Romanian media arguing about OTV and "manele" and other annoying populist private media catering. As to politics, surely no additional analysts are required.

But the Plesu & Liiceanu (+ Patapievici) - P&L(+P) cult strikes close to home. I have friends who swear by them, I get emails with quotes from or links to articles they wrote, I get asked whether I've watched the latest P&L show, I have family members who step into "Humanitas" libraries as if they were temples of wisdom and who regard the "H" logo as a token of value bestowed upon authors and the "H" books as compulsory reading. For some lazy intellectuals, the "H" is almost the equivalent of a literary prize, not just the result of a publishing decision by a private enterprise that has to survive in a market system.

Liiceanu and Plesu are very charming people and sometimes their words fall upon this nation like drops of nectar. Liiceanu is an outstanding writer, and Romanian fiction has lost a great voice to... I can't say "philosophy", to "non-fiction". They deserve admiration. Any country could take pride in them. However, they'd be two of many comparable figures in France, or Germany, or the United States, to name but a few places where cultural life is, well, normal. But in Romania they are some kind of "godfathers" and their long term hegemony is upsetting, while the general regard they have been enjoying for over 20 years is way, way exaggerated. Someone argued that it's not their fault if people need to look up to some fatherly figures to that degree. But I say these two are too intelligent to not have seen this cult of personalities happening and, instead of stepping back, they quite aggressively went on promoting themselves and their clique -- which is damaging to Romanian culture in the long run.

(Patapievici, their first protégé, the "Romanian Kierkegaard" according to Liiceanu, I never even liked. But most of my friends just accepted him, 'cuz highly recommended, and nowadays he's enjoying comparable demi-god status on even less merit than P&L, and he can also "show them the money" -- as head of the Romanian Cultural Institute. Convenient.)

I wonder how many of my otherwise intelligent and educated friends bothered to open the file of the "Humanitas" editorial choices throughout the years and analyze them. Liiceanu and his editorial team did a below average job selecting whom to project first on the Romanian readers' mind screens, after all those communist years of restricted reading. They had the world of literature wide open to them, and they came back with such slim pickings!

Of course there were some "restitutions" to do, but they left the rest of the field wide open for Polirom and the other publishing houses to actually take over and do the job (although it wasn't precisely the same "job", as they didn't enjoy the influential clout of the "H"). So, despite the initial departure advantage given by the infusion of assets from the state and Liiceanu's fame on the intellectual arena, or should I say his "already made cultural brand", their mission failed, I think. It must have been hubris. They were never big on literature, and I doubt they bothered to seek sufficient counseling at this level, quite crucial to any publishing house.

I have no idea whether the Humanitas Publishing House is at least blossoming financially. The Humanitas libraries now carry other publishers' books, so those must be doing well -- and in a way, it was a good thing to allow the "H" temples to be permeated by the market offer, what a relief! They have a faithful following, they did populist moves, such as publishing Paolo Coelho. Although Liiceanu, in virtue of his own cultural brand and mission accepted from the state -- when offered the assets of the former Political Publishing House -- is the last publisher in Romania who should have endorsed Coelho. He may have done it for survival, but I say it would have been less "damaging", from an educational point of view, if big "H" chose instead to make money by publishing someone like Stephen King or John Grisham. These guys sell like hot cakes and they don't provide the pretense of "elevated reading"; just honest, skillfully built thrills, sometimes with anti-establishment undertones. No pseudo-culture, just entertainment.

And I'm not even beginning to discuss the "serious fiction" books that "H" missed. Or the Romanian major authors whom they never promoted. Or the debuts they never encouraged.

As a result, I don't have a basis of discussion with my friends who pick their books following the "H" trail. And the most sickening part of it is that, whenever I try to talk to them about these things, the look in their eyes softens me up and I end up changing the subject, like a wuss. Their list of undisputed national pride items runs so short that taking away Plesu and Liiceanu from them is as cruel as taking away a kid's teddy bear. But it's precisely this fixation that prevents them from accepting other values and expanding their horizons, even in terms of national pride! It's "Plesu forever!" while they have no clue as to who's the Romanian who got the Médicis prize this year...

But there comes a time in a child's development when they say a parent should do exactly that, hide away the teddy bear from their own toddler if he/she is hooked to it to the point of obsession. A friend of mine pretended to have lost his daughter's teddy bear recently. She was sad for a few days, but now I don't think she even remembers that cute little thing. They're meant to be outgrown.

The only problem is that you guys are adults and I'm not your daddy. Chances are, your precious national intellectual "teddy bears" are "your daddies" - they walk, talk, wear cute neck accoutrements, maintain brands that look very patriarchal and are in your face constantly. So, I dunno. Run away from home, culturally speaking, hide in the thick net woods, read reviews on Amazon.com and choose your books carefully... And whenever a "daddy bear" shows up in your range, turn your inner critic "on", set it on "highest expectations", then set the comparison scale to "international", and see what gives. I occasionally take virtual shots at them, but hey, you don't have to.

Let the NIDB sirens blare, looking for your precious ratings. If you're smart enough, you can always watch them from a safe distance, enjoy their bearish charm, but stay free and demanding, out of their reach.