Hiromi_X

Hi Hiromi

"The book, while critical, doesn't really question the conceit of "Western Civilization."

Defining "western civilization" is an interesting one, although from my perspective of living in Taiwan for almost nine years, outside of "the West", I would say there very definitely is some kind of Western, or European, culture, even if just looked at in terms of shared history/mythology/thinking etc.

As an aside, Huntington's broad brush discription of world cultures I found way a/ rather simplistic and B/ too Ameri-centric, especially in his defining of "Hispanic" as being a distinct group from basically the entire rest of Europe, and in his view of a "clash". Also American thinkers have always found it difficult to place Russia in any of these kind of exercises. His view of Russia fairly directly follows from the earlier Cold War geo-strategic thinking much more clearly than any look at cultural divisions.

Can you draw a direct line from ancient Greece/Rome to The West, as he apparently does?

Yes, that is particularly interesting, are we (in the present day "West") really the heirs of Greece and Rome, or have we rather projected back and claimed their ideas after the fact as it were? If one reads about the "rediscovery of the classics" in Europe in the 16th century (courtesy of libraries in the Islamic world) one begins to wonder about the continuity of this history. In terms of Christianity at least much of the thinking comes from the MidEast rather than Greece and Rome, especially the Dualism and Monotheism. I have also read some interesting arguments that suggest American democracy was greatly influenced by the Iroquois federation for example, which needless to say is somewhat distant from Greece and Rome.

As an antidote to "Civilization" I'd suggest a read of John Ralston Saul's "Voltaire's Bastards", which is an amazing critique of Western thought. You will never think the same way about "the West" ever again. I'd also recommend his book "Siamese Twin" about Canada, which was very interesting, especially since he is basically out to refute the idea that Canada is simply the "not USA."

Enjoy the reading, it is a rare pleasure to be able to read and 'digest' at one's leisure.

regards,
John

You are my hero! I would love to be able to take some time off (like a month maybe) and do just what you are doing - reading, relaxing and exercising. Unfortunately, my mortgage and kids schools prevent me from doing just that. Actually, you probably should throw in there some J-A guilt as well...

HERE HERE! to your being Pleasantly Occupied (With Things Left Put Off Way Too Long)! How was Inside the Victorian Home? For the cookbook, I say hit your local bookstore and start browsing. Buy what looks good. ALSO! If you like the way a place does a certain thing, talk to the owner/manager/chef/chief of staff and see if you can get the 'secret'. Explain you're moving very very far away, would they be so kind...

How long has Catch-22 been sitting on your shelf? ;p

As you can imagine the western civilization thing is a Big Question in my field. I'd say yes, actually, there is definitely a western tradition- maybe that word "tradition" would be better. When I study 19th century French and German philosophers, I find I have to go back to the 18th century to see who they were reading, and then back to the 16th century... inevitably, I end up reading ancient Greek stuff. So, there definitely is a conversation going on for several centuries there. And I think you can see this in art, religion, literature, politics, etc.

The Huntington stuff unnecessarily politicizes it- he makes "western civilization" a club to beat other traditions (and liberals) with. And it's ridiculous anyway because there has always been cultural exchange between the "east" and the "west"- some of those philosophers were reading the Arabic commentaries on Plato, and Schopenhauer was reading Hindu texts, and Avicena wrote the best studies of Aristotle, and basically everyone feeds off everyone else. So, it's not hermetically sealed, and never has been, and ideally we need a multicultural canon to teach.

But, the problem is that the western tradition really is dead in the sense that most people have no connection with it whatsoever anymore. I would say that this society is not anti-western culture, but anti-any culture, or at least any tradition, at this point. The conservatives, moreover, need to admit something that Marx- that old cultural conservative- understood, which is that capitalism is actively hostile towards cultural traditions, for some reason.

So I definitely don't think we should surrender the western tradition to the Huntingtons of the world, or do like some of my colleagues do, which is to criticize it to death *out of hand*. I think we should widen the tradition- make it a global tradition- play Plato off of Mencius, and eastern harmonics off of Mozart. Treat it like a living thing.It should be critiqued, which is part of any living tradition, but it is also worth preserving and defending by anyone who recognizes culture as a means of transcendence.

Any Moosewood cookbook is a great vegetable cookbook, although I am partial to the original one. A bit hippy-dippy, but totally easy and yummy. The zucchini pancakes in that book (among other things) are to die for. (Here is a link to the "new" version of the "original "cookbook--apparently they've made "healthier" substitutions to the recipes. Boo, hiss! I recommend searching for the REAL original if you can find it.)

Also, though not strictly a vegetarian cookbook, Madhur Jaffrey's "Indian Cooking" has some of the tastiest vegetable recipes around. An old cookbook, but tried and true. Her "Lake Palace Hotel's Aubergine Cooked in the Pickling Style" wins not only for longest recipe name ever, but best fucking eggplant recipe in the world. I've converted even non-indian food lovers with it. (BTW, they appear to only sell it new in HC now, but you can buy a paperback "new and used" for like $6 here. This is the version I have, bought in 1989, and the cover is falling off and all the pages are splattered, but I love it like a treasured child and refuse to upgrade.)

Hard cover.

heh-heh. I said hard. And cover.

The last paragraph of this post is right on the money! I was thinking to myself, "How is practicing one's butterfly stroke at all like a sloth!?!!!"

Enjoy yourself beautiful woman.

Hello again,

I'll second the recommendation of the Moosewood cookbook, and Mahdur Jaffrey's book too, they are both great. Among my vegetarian friends the Moosewood is the "cooking bible" :-)

Yeah it is hard avoiding "industrial food", New Zealand is a net food exporter (mainly dairy products) yet almost 50% of what is on our supermarket shelves is imported because one of the two chains is Australian owned.

Thanks Rufus, "tradition" is the term I was looking for. Your critique of Huntington was good too. An intercultural exchange of traditions is a great concept, although considering say Meiji Japan and Republican China and all the concepts taken into the Japanese and Chinese languages then, I'd say that at the moment the "East" has the upperhand translation wise.

"Isn't that one of the perennial debates on global capitalism? Does it lead to homogenization or do locales retain their cultural distinctiveness?"

Absolutely, and I don't know what the answer is. I'm astounded by how alive the past and cultural traditions are in France- the "patrimony" is perhaps more important than current events here. And, 'quasi-socialist' or not, there's certainly plenty of capitalism to go around. But they seem to exist in separate realms. People want to shop and buy junk, but would be horrified at the idea of anybody forgetting Molière.

On the other hand, the French government spends a tremendous amount of money to keep the patrimony alive and in the public discourse. It doesn't come cheap. Perhaps, what we could do is convince all of the nationalists who are worried that "illegals" are going to "destroy our culture" to give us money to keep great American artists and writers in print and in the public discourse. And then just not tell them how many of those writers and artists were immigrants and expats.