Tomenko Attempts Formula of Ukrainian Love
What do most political analysts usually write about? Political parties, opinion polls, social studies, forecasts, and so on, especially as the election draws closer. Mykola Tomenko, however, embarked on a different course. Rather than deal with the usual subject, he suddenly came out with a book under the intriguing title The Theory of Ukrainian Love. Actually, the title alone caused a small sensation, as though it were a sequel to Oksana Zabuzhko’s Field Research on Ukrainian Sex.
As for the presentation of the book, the author handled it as a true political analyst (meaning a well planned and placed effect), timing it to St. Valentine’s Day.
The gilded hall of the Writers’ House was filled with an atmosphere befitting the lovers’ holiday and the creation of the director of the Institute of Politics – how playful.
Tomenko’s book was presented by Angelica Rudnytska sporting a sailor’s striped vest a la Odesa of the Russian revolution period, with a sensually bare shoulder. The revolutionary Aphrodite said that it there was alternatively hail and sun, the day marked by a weather as unpredictable as love; just as it was unpredictable to see a noted political scientist “give himself over to the realm of love, theoretically at first and then in practice. He has shown himself a scholar and a real man.”
Angelica’s romantic introduction was followed by Volodymyr Yavorivsky who said, “I’d never expect any of us to live to see this! A celebrated political scientist leaving his constituency in Halychyna, now that the campaign is going at full speed, to present a book about love. Well, we’ll surely find out what Ukrainian love is all about. God willing, he will live up to the celebrated image of Ukraine’s number one lover!”
Mykola Tomenko kept smiling bashfully and finally said he was more on the theoretical side in his book.
The book has two parts. In the first the author shares his own ideas about Ukrainian love; in the second he quotes from the Ukrainian classics. “My opinion could be disputed and criticized,” Mr. Tomenko declared, “but it’s best accepted and used as a set of quotations... One day of love is too little, the number should be increased to 365 days a year. Perhaps this is an overstatement, but we should try to reach the number.”
When asked questions, he declined comment and said in conclusion, “Our meeting will be brief, because things like love cannot be discussed for long, unless in a book perhaps.” Brevity being the soul of wit, it is certainly closely related to Mykola Tomenko. The press conference lasted twenty minutes.
As for the book, I leafed through it and realized that the author tries to use others’ examples (albeit all Ukrainian) to explain what Ukrainian love actually means, to introduce a kind of clich П or standard notion. There are clich П s like French, English, Georgian love, etc. Unlike the conference, the book treats the subject of love very seriously. No mention of personal experiences, so those looking forward to sensual confessions ought to look for different publications. What remains puzzling is the fact that this small book (fifty pages of the author’s text) took ten years (as stated in the afterword). Probably because unraveling political intrigues took most of his time, leaving little for love experiences (albeit theoretical). Yet the work is quite interesting on the whole.
