>
>Your comments about romantic are confusing
>to me as an artist. Romanticism has a highly specific
>meaning to me. Emerson for example was a romantic,
>does that mean that his observations are untrue or
>untrustworthy? The root of the word in Art goes back
>to the Greek duality of Dionysus vs. Apollo.
>
Ray,
I do accept your point, but I was not concerned with the arts when I used
the term 'romanticize'. I simply meant that one must avoid portraying
aboriginal Americans, or any people, as having a special wisdom or
nobility -- as being "the noble savage". Like the rest of us, they are
flesh and blood and have their strengths and weaknesses, successes and
failures. At the time of contact with Europeans, they were living out their
own turbulent history. The turbulent history of Europe then intruded on
theirs and brought about enormous change in both histories. One has to look
at what happened, why it happened, and the end result factually (to the
extent this is possible), and not clothe the process in myth or mysticism.
That is all I meant.
Ed Weick
