Speaking of elections (ish), I’ve been doing a lot of research on diplomacy in WWI as background for my article, since, I think, one of the most striking features of personal narrative of British women in Serbia, especially in 1915, to *gasp* critcise British policy! I know that doesn’t sound too amazing in this day and age, but these women were intensely patriotic. Their main goal and hope was to serve their own [British] men—largely denied to them because of the misogynistic attitude of the War Office… but that’s a story for another time. Anyway, I am slowly discovering that the British were quite bastardly in their foreign policy for Serbia, and the women had quite good reason to be critical. It’s like uncovering… a dinosaur fossil, or something. Thesis material, anyone? Whooo.
So back to how elections tie into the story. There seems to be a bit of divergence about the importance of the Balkan campaign in the different histories. But one thing is pretty clear: both the Entente and the Central Powers were aching to get the smaller Balkan states. In the scenario where this is actually important in deciding the fate of the war (and I certainly think it could have been, and even was, to some extent), I compared Bulgaria and Romania to swing states: they aren’t as big as say, Germany and France (Texas and New York), but since those powers even out, one has to get as many of the little countries on one’s side as possible, in hopes of tipping the scales and breaking the stalemate. It might have been 2000! I told this theory to Stacy, who added that the Bolshevik revolution in Russia was the equivalent of California going to Bush. In order to balance it out, the US would need to absorb Canada as a state (= US entering the war). It almost works, as a metaphor.
More funny things were said, which I meant to write about, but can’t remember. Especially with Becca—but I think I wrote that down. Later. There was a Call For Papers announced yesterday for a conference on WWI and popular culture. Stacy and I are aching to go. It would be really fun to do portrayals of WWI in romantic fiction; can anyone think of any romance novels set in WWI? It would also be really fun and relatively easy to do Depictions of a Mutually Adoring relationship between British women (esp ambulance drivers) and Serbia soldiers in Personal Narratives. The only problems: it’s in Newcastle. Which, incidentally, is where the Gertrude Bell archives are, and is also, incidentally, an expensive plan flight away. Since I’m not a grad student, I bet I wouldn’t be able to apply for any grants, and who knows if they would take my abstracts seriously, or even look at them. Woe.
Fri May 06 2005 19:13 PST If there were a contest for nerdiest 22-year-old, I'd totally win. :
Shala. In a very good mood. Congrats to Tony Blair on his third term. I must admit I was rather torn about this election, as well as anxious about the outcome. While it is no secret that I am a fan of Tony Blair and most of his policies, his stance on the US-led Iraq war, as we all know, has caused quite a scandal, and while I understand his reasoning, I also very much understand not voting for him on an emotional level. So… Labour is still in power, but has lost a lot of its majority. What will happen? We shall see.