Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 14, 1993 TAG: 9309140040
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
The first issue of "geoGraffity," a quarterly magazine exploring physical, cultural and intellectual landscapes from a Russian viewpoint, will go to subscribers this month from the McDonald & Woodward Publishing Co.
The publishing company was started by Jerry McDonald and Susan Woodward about six years ago to publish and distribute books on natural and cultural history, but "geoGraffity" represents a major step for them.
"We hope it'll be marketed throughout the world," McDonald said. "I'm sure the reality is it's going to be easier to market here in the United States."
Megan L. Berkey is coordinating the marketing effort. She has been contacting review sources with an interest in Russia not only in this country but internationally. McDonald & Woodward has 22 sales representatives in five regions for its various publications.
"It's actually the brainchild of a bunch of geographers in Russia," McDonald said. "It's a vehicle that allows the Russians to say something the way the Russians want to say it."
With the fall of communism in the Soviet Union, there is much speculation about the Westernization of Russia. But McDonald maintains that there is a core of philosophical thought that is Russian and not Western in character.
Part of the magazine's concept is to be a vehicle to show the rest of the world there are still good, qualified scholars in Russia, he said. It will carry the cutting edge of young thoughts just now becoming assertive in "wanting to re-examine and resynthesize a national identity."
Information was so controlled during the Communist regime that there was no opportunity for such a publication, he said. Now these young scholars are unraveling information unavailable for three or four generations.
"Now, for the first time in 70 or 80 years, they have a chance to synthesize a national identity," McDonald said. "It is either the highest quality of the new publications coming out of Russia, or it's up there in that set."
If the magazine has a theme, it is one of space - not outer space, but physical space. The word has shades of meaning in Russian not found in its English equivalent, according to Sergei S. Krotov, editorial board chairman.
"The Russian concept of space unites the universally accepted meaning of one of the fundamental philosophical categories with the characteristically Russian romantic conceptions of expanse, distance and breadth - of looking out onto and over horizons," Krotov writes in the introduction to the first issue.
"Russia's geographical position, astride the border of Europe and Asia, has been a constant spur to an eternal search for her place in the world, for her identity," Krotov says. "We are certain that the conception of space - the way it is perceived, experienced, and lived - can unite the artist with the geologist, the traveler with the film director, and the architect with the philosopher."
The colorfully illustrated first issue includes articles on global space, cultural landscapes, comments on postmodernity, looks at the Crimea and Russian cities and more. Its 88 pages are contained in 8 1/2-by-11-inch slick covers highlighting its themes.
"It's being sold throughout the country right now," McDonald said. "I think the response is going to be very good, once we get to that right group."
How does it happen that a Blacksburg publisher is producing a prestigious Russian journal?
"These things happen by accident," McDonald said. This one happened in the summer of 1991, when Alexei Novikov, who is the journal's editor, happened to visit a colleague at Radford University while he was in the United States seeking a publisher.
The colleague worked in the same department as Woodward, a professor of geography at Radford. Nine months later, Woodward and McDonald were in Moscow working out the details.
The first issue carries a January date, but translations and computer glitches as material went from one country to another delayed it until now.
"It is very much a scholarly publication, but it has been edited so that it will be appealing to a broader public," McDonald said. There are four levels of editing "so that it reads well in American English," he said. "It doesn't read like a translation."
It is translated in Russia, goes to Great Britain for further translation refinement, and then McDonald & Woodward get two cuts at it. The material then goes to a broker in Kentucky, who packages it for printing in Hong Kong.
A year's subscription for the first four issues will be $30, or $12.95 for an individual issue. Subscription prices will increase for the next four issues.
It will be available to bookstores, but the company is relying on subscriptions to make it a paying venture.
It is also significant "because this could lead to other publishing projects as well," McDonald said. "We're also going to be carrying other books that are produced in Russia or produced over here covering Russian themes."
Further information is available from McDonald & Woodward at P.O. Box 10308, Blacksburg, Va. 24062 (telephone 951-9465 or 1-800-233-8787).
by CNB