Klarinet Archive - Posting 000364.txt from 2004/05

From: ormondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] Rosen on text and performance
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 07:36:48 -0400

....and in a similar vein, yesterday I happened to stumble across one of
Burton's footnotes in his translation of "1001 Arabian Nights". He was
explaining why a certain Arabian horse was described (in Arabian Nights)
as being "green" in color:

> The names of colours are as loosely used by
> the Arabs [of the mid-1800s] as by the
> Classics of Europe. Much nonsense has
> been written upon the colours in Homer by
> men who imagine that the semi-civilised
> determine tints as we do.

Does "civilisation" equate to "becoming familiar with" as much as it
does to "truly understanding".

Burton goes on to assert that the real reason for modern color names was
the development of color in lady's clothing --- which overlooks the
needs & effects of color in painted art, and thereby illustrates once
again the effect of focusing one's attention in a certain direction and
eventually convincing oneself that he or she has discovered an
indispensable element of the topic under discussion.

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