File puptcrit/puptcrit.0504, message 206


From: Christopher Hudert <heyhoot-AT-mindspring.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 16:28:22 -0400
To: puptcrit-driftline.org-AT-lists.driftline.org
Subject: [Puptcrit] Re: Soyinka's opinion


  I think Soyinka (see John Bell's post) was on the mark with some of 
his observations of this country, but off in others, and failed to make 
the same observation as true in more and more countries. IMHO, in truth 
people rarely know another culture or try to understand it on its own 
terms. It is a good part of why, world wide and throughout history, we 
want to change the other country. But it goes beyond that. People do it 
in every aspect of life - religion, diet, marriage, and so on. It seems 
that rarely do people want to change to be more like the other 
culture/religion/diet/spouse/etc. People don't want to be the "wrong" 
one, so it must be the other person/country that needs to change. 
Reality tells us that is not entirely true as many people seek to 
change for what they see as the better.
  However, the idea of false superiority did not originate with the 
Americans, nor does it reside only in America, and it is not even a 
recent thing. Read world history. One nation overtaking another all 
across the globe throughout recorded history and most likely even 
before. Doesn't look like that is going to change anytime soon.
As to America being insular. I would say Soyinka is partially right, 
but then the reality is that that is true for most people across the 
globe. Here we are able to be more insular on a larger scale due to the 
size, wealth, and power of the country. If he were to look at this 
situation from the perspective of travel within this country and 
compare it to most other countries there would be a striking contrast. 
In most of the world the states of the US are equivalent to different 
countries. To travel the same distance elsewhere as from Maine to 
Florida you would be exposed to many different cultures, languages, 
countries and so on. Here, for both good and bad, you pretty much get 
different shades of the same.  That makes it very easy to be insular 
and not understand other parts of the world and their people, and for 
them not to understand the U.S. and its people and problems.
  I could go on, but I won't.
  So how does this relate to puppetry? Beats me, other than puppetry 
often reflects life in many ways, including culture or lack there of.

Christopher

Christopher Hudert
Applause Unlimited
2824 Irisdale Avenue
Richmond, VA 23228
(804) 264-0299
www.applauseunlimited.com

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