At this very moment a raging argument is going on on a Macedonian blog between nationalist Bulgarians and nationalist Macedonians - about these posts of mine. I have no idea what is going on but everyone is obviously VERY angry, with many ALL CAPITAL LETTER SENTENCES and many exclamation points!!!! The Macedonians appear to feel vindicated - because I kind of take their side (although I'm not blinded to their faults) - and the Bulgarians are in a rage about this. It's kind of an uncomfortable feeling to have a bunch of rage-filled Bulgarians screaming about you in the Cyrillic alphabet. I am just sitting back and watching the fur fly, cringing a little bit at the brou-haha, feeling a wee bit ashamed that my own armchair-fascination with Macedonia (I thought that nobody read those posts but CW - and I'm so glad I wrote them all - because somehow, it brought CW to my blog, and he's an awesome guy) has somehow reached the Balkans themselves, and crowds of angry Macedonians and Bulgarians are shouting at each other filled with their ancient hatreds over a couple of stupid posts I wrote in my living room in New Jersey. Good lord. At least it's all happening on a blog, and they aren't stabbing each other to death on some Ottoman battlefield. That's a hopeful sign. But still. People are obviously SCREAMING about me in another language, and my horrible assumptions about Bulgaria, and how dare I take Macedonia's side ... and I'm a little bit scared. But excited too.
Posted by sheilaI hope one of your readers can understand Bulgarian, because I can only get a general gist of the "conversation". The post started out trying to make the case that Bulgarian nation is nothing more than a collection of Slavic-speaking Huns and Mongols (complete with asiatic looking historical depictions). It gave me a slightly racist flavor, but I may be reading too much into what I could understand. Then the comments degenerated into a poo-flinging contest between the groups calling each other Commies, Turks, Serbs, and Albanians (all descriptions being pejorative).
Your essays got dredged up late in the game.
Posted by: John at July 12, 2006 9:30 PMIf this flairs up into a shooting war you will have to change you name to Helen of Troy ;) You never know wars have been fought over far dumber things than anything you could have possiably written.
Or an even better new name, "Red the Winged angel of Death" now there is a graphic novel I would race to the comic book store to buy ;)
Posted by: Chris at July 12, 2006 9:32 PMYeah - a guy from Macedonia wrote to me asking if he could link to my posts in the conversation. I said sure.
John - you're so reliable. :) I just knew you would show up. :)
Off topic: just started a book about Rasputin. This Radzinsky guy is one of my new favorite authors. His book on Stalin was great - and I'm already hooked on his Rasputin book.
Posted by: red at July 12, 2006 9:33 PMChris - hahahaha Yeah, I was like:
Uhm ... those angry Bulgarians are in Bulgaria, right?? They aren't like, right down the street from me, are they??
Posted by: red at July 12, 2006 9:34 PMOh, and John - I asked my Macedonian correspondent for a little re-cap of what was going on ,if he had the time. I'll update the post when I hear back from him.
Posted by: red at July 12, 2006 9:35 PMYou better watch them angry Bulgarians. They're already mad because your team beat theirs in the Quiditch World Cup...
Posted by: Frankie at July 12, 2006 11:15 PMYou stirred this up on purpose, like a red-headed version of Peter Falk in Tune In Tommorrow. He figured you have to tick somebody off, like Albanians, in order to get people to tune in. In your case, their neighbors, Bulgarians!
Posted by: Scotter at July 12, 2006 11:28 PMThis is absolute genius, and I don't even know what you're talking about.
Posted by: Alex at July 13, 2006 12:37 AMalex - hahahahahahahahahaha
Posted by: red at July 13, 2006 6:22 AMAnd some folks say the technology of the internet is alienting people from each other. Here's the proof that you're wrong. First you start a socialist internet revolution against George Lucas and now you've gone and kicked off a civil war.
Posted by: Emily at July 13, 2006 10:46 AMhahahahahahaha
No!! No civil war because of my stupid posts about a country I've never even BEEN TO!!!
Posted by: red at July 13, 2006 10:56 AMIt's kind of exciting to know somebody who is in the center of an international fued. : )
Posted by: RTG at July 13, 2006 5:37 PM"I've asked you to help me start a war. It's a respected profession, with a long and noble history."
Posted by: Nightfly at July 13, 2006 9:28 PM