One of the many tragedies of the current strife in the Middle East is the way cultures there are demonized in the West. We should keep in mind that those cultures are the cradle of all civilization, including much of the Far East. We should not be misled by images of dusty roads and adobe huts and people dressed like "caricatures of Jesus" as we see on TV. Crazed terrorists aside, those folks have been among the smartest and most inventive, philosophical, and artistic people anywhere, anytime. Yet Western technology leads them now.
WC --- On Wed, 11/12/08, Michael Brady <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Michael Brady <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Beautiful and Intriguing Knickknacks > To: [email protected] > Date: Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 8:57 AM > On Nov 12, 2008, at 9:44 AM, William Conger wrote: > > > So what's your beef? The Persepolis Bull is > heavily restored and > > yet remains on view. > > I am impressed and intrigued when I see such restorations, > such as > pottery or in this case, a statue. I appreciate the ability > of the > restorers to figure out where the discontinuous pieces fit > in the > whole picture--which, to be sure, takes an imaginative > elasticity to > "see" the entire design or scene or figure only > from the fragments. > Equally impressive is the restoration of ancient written > texts, which > are carefully reassembled from the badly damaged originals. > (For a > contemporary parallel to this task, remember that when the > Iranian > students stormed the US embassy in 1978, the embassy staff > shredded > sensitive documents to prevent sensitive information from > being > disclosed. The students painstakingly reassembled the > shreds to reveal > many things the US didn't want revealed. And remember, > English was not > only a foreign language, but a foreign script to them. > > > | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | > Michael Brady > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
