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 _______________________________________________ List address: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org Admin interface: http://lists.driftline.org/listinfo.cgi/puptcrit-driftline.org Archives: http://www.driftline.org
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