Loretta

In one of my classes that I teach, Asia studies, we examine the same issue that you raise here. It is amazing how there are certian images that stick out or that Hollywood wants to perpetuate because they are all about selling the film and the film paraphenalia. There are some films that are great for discussion and also, if there is a background about a certain topic and you can see a film that either reinforces or triggers some intelligent conversations about film and propaganda, that is helpful. I am fascinated by the new surge in Indian films. I would like to see how a traditionally Hindu culture bridges what is acceptable and what is not. there was an article in time last week about India as the world's fastest growing democracy....haven't had a chance to catch that one yet. Maybe some 4th of July reading.....

Amanda

I am curious about your statement "It is impossible to single out a specific book that influenced me, as most of the cultural fiction I have read has influenced me in some way."

On the one hand, I understand it in the sense that we are influenced by a variety of experiences (in this case cultural imaginings in film and/or myth and/or literature). In some ways, I hope that is a given for most of us.

On the other hand, I know I push for specific examples (just as you gave some in your post here) because without them, I feel lost. It is as though I am being asked to make up what it is that you know--which is what dominate cultures have done historically.

A major post-colonial experience for west cultures has been the realization that not all non-western cultures are the same. Researchers like Claude Levi-Straus argued that because many cultures from the Norse to the Northwest natives have similar mythical characters (a creator, a trickster, etc.) that we all think the same, have the same conceptions of culture, time, earth, etc. But a closer examination (a post-structuralist one) reveals some really imporant things, like there are major differences in the creation stories (some creators are female, some male, some ambiguous) and these stories offer very different relationships to the land.

So there is something to be said for giving each its own due attention, singling different cultures out, treating them as unique, novel, special, not simply saying there are some many that have influenced world history. The same is true of saying that there are particluar texts that have had singular influences for us. They change over time, to be sure. In one moment or context, it might be one text, in another moment or later in life, it might be another. That doesn't diminish the value of one that has not yet had its full influence on you or one that has moved into the background.

I wonder what you have discovered through your studies. What cultures have influenced you? How has one or another really chnaged how you think? How you see the world and how you see yourself, your culture in the world?

For those of us who want to know more, it's not about leaving out that which you don't mention in the moment, it's about finding out much more about what is mentioned in the moment.

Sarah