After the Manifesto

E(i)ditorial — November 2016

Donna Zuckerberg
EIDOLON

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Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, “A Reading from Homer” (1885)

Last week we published a manifesto I wrote urging classicists to take seriously the Alt-Right’s interest in Greek and Roman antiquity. I wanted the discipline to know that these men, these horrible bigoted men, want to claim ownership of the material we study and twist it for their ends.

The response was overwhelmingly positive. “How to Be a Good Classicist Under a Bad Emperor” is now Eidolon’s most-read article, and most of those readers seemed to share my fears and concerns.

A few pointed out issues I could have stated more clearly, or just differently. I should have been more precise when talking about race in the ancient world instead of rhetorically retrojecting the idea of “whiteness” that the Alt-Right so values onto a society where it had little meaning.

I also was not, as some people thought, trying to shame classicists who study “dead white men.” As I mentioned in one comment, most of my own work is about Euripides and Ovid — canonical, often misogynistic authors. When I encouraged people to “focus on the parts of antiquity that aren’t elite white men,” my aim was to offer one suggestion for how to resist. It is, of course, entirely possible to resist while still studying elite male authors. Both approaches are important and necessary. I feel much more strongly about the sentences that came after that one: “Read and cite the work of scholars who write about race, gender, and class in the ancient world. Be open about the marginalization and bias that exists within our discipline.”

Finally, if I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn’t say that considering Classics “the foundation of Western civilization and culture” is “a slippery slope to white supremacy.” Most “slippery slope” arguments are weak, and this one is no exception — what I should have said was that while it is absolutely true that ancient Greece and Rome are foundational to our culture, we need to take care not to glorify that debt as the white supremacists do. We can acknowledge that influence and celebrate it while recognizing how problematic it is.

But in addition to those incisive criticisms, I received a great deal of abuse.

Eidolon’s comment policy is based on the wishes of the article’s author. We encourage authors to engage with readers who offer respectful critique, but when the comments verge on harassment or abuse, we give the author the option to leave them be or delete and report them.

As the author of this article, I deleted some comments and kept others, and I want to share a few here. These tweets and responses perfectly illustrate the point I was trying to make in the first place. I’m aware that some within our field thought my original piece was alarmist, but there could be no better proof that my fears were well-founded than the fact that so many people responded with hatred and flagrant anti-Semitism.

The triple parentheses used by ‘Scrooge McCuck’ (I’ll withhold comment on that) around my last name there are meant to signify that I’m Jewish. It’s called “echoes” — hence its use here in response to the question “is there an echo in here?” If you’re curious about this stomach-turning anti-Semitic dog-whistle, I recommend this explanation from Mic.

Still Jewish.

Well, these two think that I’m a “cultural Marxist” and would still like to remind you that I’m Jewish, but at least they acknowledge my degree by enclosing the honorific “Dr” in the echoes.

I’ll leave the reader to decide whether my work on this journal for the past eighteen months constitutes “trying [my] best to kill” classics. Or perhaps I’m trying to “destroy” it?

“Jewess.” Oh, and please don’t forget that I’m related to famous people:

I’ll admit: I’m curious as to how one would brazenly display a last name. Perhaps I should be going by a pseudonym, like “Scrooge McCuck”? I might want to hide my identity, if I had the views he does:

“kys,” for those unaware, is short for “kill yourself.” I deleted this horrifying comment and reported it, so it is no longer visible on the main page.

I’d be lying if I said these (and the many other similar) comments didn’t have any effect on me. But I’m also grateful to these men for providing material in support of my claim that bigots are deeply invested in the classical tradition. We have a lot of work to do, but it’s heartening to see that most of us can now acknowledge that we have a serious problem.

In November, Eidolon published seven articles:

Johanna Hanink offered hard-earned wisdom on how to succeed in Classics graduate programs in Don’t Eat the Cubed Cheese (and Other Advice for Classics Graduate Students)
Caroline Bishop reimagined Plato’s Phaedrus as a dialogue between Socrates and Harry Potter about love in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phaedrus
Ayelet Haimson Lushkov explained why How I Met Your Mother’s Barney Stinson is a latter-day Aeneas in Legendary! The Aeneid’s Tapestry of Lies
Stephanie McCarter explored the reception of the Aeneid in the Neapolitan novels in Elena Ferrante’s Vergil
I called upon classicists to fight back against the Alt-Right’s appropriation of the legacy of antiquity in How to Be a Good Classicist Under a Bad Emperor
Ben Thomas examined the differences between culinary exoticism today and in the Roman Empire in Edō Ergo Sum: Foodie Hipsterism in the Roman Empire
Charlotte Northrop explained the artistic process behind the making of her graphic novel in Ovid’s Metamorphoses: The Comic!

Next month’s content will include an exciting announcement from the Paideia Institute. I’m also very pleased to announce a special event: a two-week “issue” of Eidolon in which several writers will explore childbirth in antiquity through the lens of ancient medicine, demographics, and literature.

Thank you to all of those who read and share for your support!

Donna Zuckerberg is the Editor-in-Chief of Eidolon. She received her PhD in Classics from Princeton and teaches for Stanford Continuing Studies and the Paideia Institute. Her book Not All Dead White Men, a study of the reception of Classics in Red Pill communities, is under contract with Harvard University Press. Read more of her work here.

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