City of Strangers

The quest for the centre always starts with the demarcation of the peripheries, for no middle point can be found without first identifying and then measuring the margins. Borders uphold the centre, they give it a sense of gravity, keep it alive.

From the Prologue of VILNIUS: City of Strangers (2008, Baltas Lankos, Vilnius), by the Lithuanian-Canadian academic Laimonas Briedas, which I’m reviewing for work purposes and will also be delving into in depth for the Borders research. In the words of my friend Dovid Katz, who contributed to the blub on the back, ‘At long last, a book that does not seek to impose a politically correct, ultranationalistic, retrospective ‘Vilnius’ on the many centuries of Vilna, Vilne and Wilno.’

My sentiments exactly, as I hope my blog posts on the Borders theme over the previous few weeks bear witness. At last I can feel some momentum.


Now for some beer.