Motto: “Bloggers have only interpreted the world in various ways, the point is to change it.”
With the death of Eva Balogh in late 2021, the rich years of her blog, Hungarian Spectrum, have come to a regrettable end. This has left a painful void for readers who counted on her priceless commentary and acute observations. A few of her readers came up with the challenging idea of recreating a Blog or a Site, in the English language, addressing a mix of Hungarian issues of general interest. We decided to respond to this interest, and to that end are launching a Blog: the Hungarian Perspective (HP).
We are in the process of recruiting contributors. Some may be professional journalists, savvy pundits, while others – perhaps most of them – will be simple Athenian craftsmen (line Bottom) and women (like Flute) who believe they are ready to perform a play or two on the stage of commentary.
Our aim is simple: we intend to offer reflections on Hungarian history, politics, business and culture, twice a week at the outset, authored by contributors who primarily live and work in Hungary. In this respect, we clearly differ from Éva’s inimitable adventure, inasmuch as HP will not be a one-person show. Eventually, we expect a group of twelve persons to offer contributions to the Blog. The contributors will write posts, reports or short essays in English, which is the second language for many of them. None of the initial authors have the wit of Master Shakespeare nor can they evoke the rhythm and all-too-many gray colors of James Joyce. This may change as we aspire to offer a platform for true masters of the English prose. What the less fortunate authors can offer, in good faith, is plain English and clear ideas about public affairs and cultural delicacies.
HP aims to be Hungarian not because Hungary is, in our perspective, the center of the universe, but rather, it will serve as a point of departure to better understand WHAT’S GOING ON in this new century of both unprecedented progress and retrogression. Hungary will not serve as metaphor for anything. Rather, we aim to explore, through this Blog, what goes on within and beyond the borders of this country.
Many folks in Hungary write sensible and informative blogs on contemporary issues. The attic is full with such blogs – as a modern Hungarian idiom coins the situation. The virtual bookshelf is full of good blogs. Ours will be in English to reach readers who, to their regret, have not yet mastered the Hungarian language. The audience of this Midsummer’s Night Dream cast, may be bilingual Hungarians, ordinary readers, journalists and public officials at Hungarian desks, and, hopefully, our neighbors in Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Croatia, with whom we can communicate only in English.
At the outset, HP will have a three-member editorial board and a handful of initial contributors. Members of the first editorial board (Janet Kerekes, Sándor Kerekes and András Hanák) will also take up their fair share of commentary. We welcome and will publish comments or posts as various publications do, but reserve the right to select and edit them. A more free-wheeling discussion might then move to other corners of public discourse.
When Charlotte Corday arrived to Paris, in her sedated state of mind, she repeatedly asked this question: What kind of city is this? No doubt this question of where we are and in what country we live, and equally pressingly who we are, will be asked frequently by our bloggers. And yes, we may eventually reach those very Hungarian-like questions as to What is (a or the) Hungarian? This week when we launch HP, I chose to select one of the truly bizarre things that tells us a lot about this country. This country is ruled by a Prime Minister or better said our Lord Protector who thinks or at least publicly says that only former President Donald Trump can save this world. If he does not, we are doomed. Unless our Lord Protector take this job on his shoulders. This Blog may thus partly revolve around the theme of how we have been or will be doomed.
Facts and opinions will form the content of our essays. Some of us are driven to write factual essays, while others are more inclined to be opinionated, and their articles will reflect that. We nonetheless hold these truths to be self-evident: that content represented as facts must be accurate, and comments are to be free. We shall sail through un-chartered waters. Whether or not our departure from our Ithaca harbor will be an Odyssey for contributors and readers alike depends on a number of factors. One component is clearly our talent, of feeling and reading the winds in good and bad times. A second component is a curious reader. We intend to produce readable material only – no outlets on YouTube, Instagram or Tic Tac. We believe that in order to grow up each generation, it must be exposed to the written word. Words only because they are the fabric that make this world go round.
András Hanák
You probably meant TikTok, unless it was an intended pun which I did not get. The world has many faces, it´s seen differently by a wasp with its multifaceted eye, differently by a fish, differently by me…- as Márai put it. Diversity makes the world an interesting place. Thank you for taking the time to show theses different faces.
Orsi, you are raising many good points. Stay tuned. The Tic Tac was first an intended pun, then it was corrected, and as it happens so many times, the old Tic Tac draft went to editing. And it escaped. Ther are other boo-boos in the text that eventually will be corrected. I am not proud of this, but let’s look forward. Author AH.