Re: _My name is Red_ by Orhan Pamuk


Phyllis Chamberlain wrote:
> "Marko Amnell" <marko_amnell@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1136210070.257796.252680@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> > Sayan Bhattacharyya wrote:
> >> Marko Amnell <marko_amnell@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >Sayan Bhattacharyya wrote:
>
> > I think your experience of living in the United States prevents
> > you from understanding the European situation. The US is
> > a melting pot, with immigrants from many nations around
> > the world arriving over a very long period of time. Europe
> > does not have that history, and the majority of the people
> > of the member states don't perceive their societies to be
> > multicultural. As Pfaff said, "Europe is what it is, and well-
> > intentioned meddling with the values, perceptions and
> > assumptions responsible for a society's deep sense of
> > individual and national identity is very dangerous."
> >
>
> I'm in the midst of reading the work of Ivo Andric, novels about the Ottoman
> occupation of Europe, with its clash of Catholics and Muslims (and
> animists). Tragedies result in the villages, especially from love/lust
> across cultural lines. I think Fido's suggestion of Mango's histories and
> commentaries sounds like the way to go to think clearly about the issue of
> EU membership.
>
> From another point of view, of course, these conflicts are absurd. The
> study of historical geology corrects the limited thinking that some or other
> piece of land "belongs" to a culture. All life forms are transitory. Here
> today; gone tomorrow. If I fit myself into a time span of millions or
> billions of years, I become less than a puff of smoke, and my fate a
> non-event. The same with political demarcations between nations. They mean
> nothing in the history of the earth. I'm sick of hearing about the Arabs,
> the "Palestinians" (a made-up category if there ever was one), and, in the
> case of the EU, the "Europeans" as an interest group.

"Men grow tired of love, singing and dancing sooner than war."
-- Homer

> We'd be better off,
> world-wide, all becoming Zen Buddhists, practicing attention to the present
> moment and caring for our family members -- spouses, children, parents.

.

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