Date: Sat, 16 May 2009 09:03:39 -0400
From: Hobey Ford <hobeyone-AT-gmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] puptcrit Digest, Vol 55, Issue 15


I too loved your thoughts on how East and West relate to shadow
puppetry.  In the East  it seems that puppetry borders on sacred and
in the West it's "whos that man behind the curtain" an illusion to be
mistrusted, a cliche, the sterotype of "evil Puppeteer or puppet", or
endless comparisons to politicians. (not to paint too dark a picture)
So too with the concept of magic, circus and the itinerant entertainer
as someone questionable.  I suppose when puppets were carried out of
Asia into the west, that the "context" did't make the trip or if it
did it was not understood.  Puppets arrived as a parlor trick or
novelty.  So too with the Shaman's use of puppetry as a sacred
illusion to open up the psyche of the patient to create "belief" in
the cure.  I think that many in the west have recaptured that aspect
of puppetry as a window into the great mystery.  Every night on
Broadway an audience watching the opening of Lion King tears up to the
 pantheon of animistic beings,  They are moved to tears inexplicably,
reconnected to the spirit world they have been cut off from.


On Sat, May 16, 2009 at 7:43 AM,  <puppetpro-AT-aol.com> wrote:
> Thank you for this, Kathy. It makes so much sense.
>
>
>
> I think of the shadow plays in South India where they go on even though there might not be an audience...the community all feels it's important that it happen, kind of like a cleansing/healing ritual. A connection to "truth"?
>
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> How did we in the west end up losing this connection and considering performers so suspect?
>
>
>
>
> Rolande
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>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kathy Foley <kfoley-AT-ucsc.edu>
> To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
> Sent: Fri, 15 May 2009 3:44 pm
> Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] puptcrit Digest, Vol 55, Issue 15
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Re: Plato
>
> The allegory of the cave is related to Pythagian ideas which
> themselves are related to a wider scope of thinking which may
> originate in Asia and find articulation in Hinduism and Buddhism. In
> these forms there is mistrust of what is perceived by the
> "unenlightened" person and a feeling that the true thinker has to get
> outside of the seeming forms toward an essence of things. =A0The
> metaphor interestingly served in the west which has grown into a more
> materialist base to denigrate performance (as we see in the Republic
> and to an extent in this tale of the cave). In India and areas of Asia
> affected by Buddhism however it has served to make performance more
> important. =A0For in Asia the idea of puppet play is used to move viewer
> from audience member to performer. The performer (who realizes that
> all the things we make and do in this wor
> ld are ultimately illusions/
> shadows is an image of the enlightened one0 and is smashing through
> illusion =A0the puppetmaster is now enlightened/divine (or should be!).
> In much of early buddhism we find the cave life and shadow puppetry
> may be intelinked. A similar metaphor goes with Sufi performance. Why
> does the west turn it into a thumbs down on performance/puppetry that
> the show is an illusion? Perhaps that the borders between humanity and
> divinity are closed. =A0Plato's person can only go out and "see" the sun/
> lamp, he can't become as Asian traditions theorize become the sun
> (usually right eye) and moon (left eye) and all the other visual/
> metaphoric imagery of transformation from a nobody into understanding
> of potential divinity. This explains why puppetry in Asia and
> performance in general gets more respect in some strands of religion
> and culture and why Western artists are always having a hard time
> sneaking into the Republic.
>
> best,
>
> KF
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