I like that Marsha, As an aside, I'm re-reading T E Lawrence Seven Pillars of Wisdom at the moment, and it is full of descriptions of the common traits and differences of peoples in all those regions (except Libya) pre-dating many of the national boundaries.
But you highlight the main point in that final sentence, one I often rant myself. "Too many people are still trapped by the idea of .... definition ..." Ian On 2/8/07, MarshaV <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Greetings, > > A while back I was trying to explain that I thought interpreting the > Social & Intellectual Levels was so confusing because we are immersed > in them. Here is a far better description of what I was trying to > explain, but pertaining to art. > > "On the other hand, all attempts to discover the essential properties > of art have been carried out through a search for common denominators > within art itself. However,when looking for the especially large > patterns of a particular territory it is sometimes necessary to climb > to heights much greater than the mountaintops in that > territory. Thus, for instance, if we seek to find the common > denominator of Libya, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey, the > intuitive reply is, "Trouble." But if this region is viewed from a > height of several dozen kilometers, it is easily seen that all these > nations have a common coastline. > > Similarly, it is possible that the answer to the questions, "What is > the common denominator of works of art?" is not so evident at the > level of the works themselves; instead, we can discover it more > easily if we look for it from a height that allows us to see art as a > special case of a broader pattern that includes the other areas of > culture. Too many people are still trapped by the idea of the > importance of the definition of art, ..." > (Avital, 'ART versus NONART', p. 258) > > > The last sentence seems very relevant. > > But this is just a reflection of my own confusion. > > m > > > > > moq_discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
