The issue at stake, to me, isn't whether we decide to sue somebody for making a finger-painting of the Mona Lisa, but that we should try to curb the 'dumbing-down' process of understanding other people, places, historical events, and particularly artistic works with specific cultural values that they push just as hard as the 'representations' we see every day. How many children that saw Disney's Hunchback do you think know that Hugo's novels actually embody a fairly radical political viewpoint that's not close to mainstream even in this day and age, and that it's not a love story about an unfortunate fellow and a girl, but a tale of obsession and how a twisted body ultimately reflects a twisted soul. In these very important aspects, disney's creation bears NO resemblance to the original whatsoever. They've used the images and the name-recognition of an old story and used it to sell their agenda, as another reader so excellently pointed out. Is one incident like this enough to get upset about? Of course not. But when this sort of thing starts to pervade our media culture as much as it has, you really need to be careful about what you let be represented by whom, because our children (and many of our adults, if you're talking about the US) aren't aware enough of who is doing the talking. Most of them don't start to understand that the voice of the media isn't the voice of objective fact until they're in high school, or later, and by then it's too late. You've lost something significant.
Remember, this isn't something that requires legal action, but I do applaud the Maori (or some of them, or some of their lawyers) for being careful, and aware, of these issues.
Taketoshi
-lit geek on the loose.
It's all iffy territory, really. There are folks in the US who get pissed because Disney commodifies traditional western cultural symbols, fairy tales, and works of art (Hercules, Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre-Dame), and I know I'm one of them.
They don't necessarily blatantly misrepresent something of cultural significance, but they remove many of the 'difficult points' to make it more accessible. Unfortunately, when you do that you often remove a lot of the very subtle but highly important elements of it that you've overlooked in your 'popularization.'
Remember, culture IS what it seems to be. Children are growing up right around us without a clear sense of history because of all the 'tales for children' that exist to make learning easier. We don't pass along cultural identity to our descendants by showing them finger-paintings of the Mona Lisa (well, not usually). Why should we be bothered that the Maori would like to prevent that from happening to them?
-lit geek on the loose
Seriously, though. With all the hype over highly-advanced uses for tools like these, it makes you wonder if they've considered using them closer to home.
Imagine how useful plants like that would be if they were engineered to produce light at any point in a photosynthetic lull...Truly efficient solar-powered lights! Try easing the energy crunch on the West Coast and slow the wrecking of this planet before you jump off to prepare another one, bozos.
Boing!
Slashdot Mirror
The issue at stake, to me, isn't whether we decide to sue somebody for making a finger-painting of the Mona Lisa, but that we should try to curb the 'dumbing-down' process of understanding other people, places, historical events, and particularly artistic works with specific cultural values that they push just as hard as the 'representations' we see every day. How many children that saw Disney's Hunchback do you think know that Hugo's novels actually embody a fairly radical political viewpoint that's not close to mainstream even in this day and age, and that it's not a love story about an unfortunate fellow and a girl, but a tale of obsession and how a twisted body ultimately reflects a twisted soul. In these very important aspects, disney's creation bears NO resemblance to the original whatsoever. They've used the images and the name-recognition of an old story and used it to sell their agenda, as another reader so excellently pointed out. Is one incident like this enough to get upset about? Of course not. But when this sort of thing starts to pervade our media culture as much as it has, you really need to be careful about what you let be represented by whom, because our children (and many of our adults, if you're talking about the US) aren't aware enough of who is doing the talking. Most of them don't start to understand that the voice of the media isn't the voice of objective fact until they're in high school, or later, and by then it's too late. You've lost something significant. Remember, this isn't something that requires legal action, but I do applaud the Maori (or some of them, or some of their lawyers) for being careful, and aware, of these issues. Taketoshi -lit geek on the loose.
It's all iffy territory, really. There are folks in the US who get pissed because Disney commodifies traditional western cultural symbols, fairy tales, and works of art (Hercules, Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre-Dame), and I know I'm one of them. They don't necessarily blatantly misrepresent something of cultural significance, but they remove many of the 'difficult points' to make it more accessible. Unfortunately, when you do that you often remove a lot of the very subtle but highly important elements of it that you've overlooked in your 'popularization.' Remember, culture IS what it seems to be. Children are growing up right around us without a clear sense of history because of all the 'tales for children' that exist to make learning easier. We don't pass along cultural identity to our descendants by showing them finger-paintings of the Mona Lisa (well, not usually). Why should we be bothered that the Maori would like to prevent that from happening to them? -lit geek on the loose
Seriously, though. With all the hype over highly-advanced uses for tools like these, it makes you wonder if they've considered using them closer to home. Imagine how useful plants like that would be if they were engineered to produce light at any point in a photosynthetic lull...Truly efficient solar-powered lights! Try easing the energy crunch on the West Coast and slow the wrecking of this planet before you jump off to prepare another one, bozos. Boing!