Back from the Ether
1. Sadly, not far from where I grew up, gay is not okay [dead link]. Especially if you're a penguin.
2. Apparently Mel Gibson will speak "Maya" at the Oscars. Even though there is no language called "Maya."
I believe I read somewhere that they were writing the dialogue for this movie in Yucatec, but I could be misremembering. Even if it is Yucatec, it's still not historically accurate. The Yucatec spoken today has evolved almost beyond recognition from whatever languages/dialects were spoken at the height of the Mayan civilization. It would be like a Japanese film director wanting to film a historically accurate adaptation of Canterbury Tales by painstakingly translating all the dialogue into modern British English.
Also, I'm frightened of how this movie is going to turn out. I'm very skeptical about Gibson's ability to put forth an accurate and objective portrayal of ancient Mayan civilization and religion....
3. And speaking of Mel Gibson (only tangentially; the following link has nothing directly to do with him), apparently Christians are the new Jews. Oy.
No need to read the entire article, the first two paragraphs are enough to get the gist. I agree that some anti-Christian sentiments go a bit too far -- they have the right to free speech like everybody else. But they're certainly getting no worse a deal than any other non-dominant faith has gotten in the past, especially considering they're not even non-dominant yet. And their situation is definitely nowhere comparable to that of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Come on people. You're insulting yourselves, the Germans, and all Jews with that claim. The only thing Christianity is losing in this country (at glacier speed, I might add) is its blanket protection from questioning and critique. If your religious community panics at the first sign of public skepticism, you've got more serious problems than a few Wisconsonites giving kids pamphlets on secular morality.
2. Apparently Mel Gibson will speak "Maya" at the Oscars. Even though there is no language called "Maya."
I believe I read somewhere that they were writing the dialogue for this movie in Yucatec, but I could be misremembering. Even if it is Yucatec, it's still not historically accurate. The Yucatec spoken today has evolved almost beyond recognition from whatever languages/dialects were spoken at the height of the Mayan civilization. It would be like a Japanese film director wanting to film a historically accurate adaptation of Canterbury Tales by painstakingly translating all the dialogue into modern British English.
Also, I'm frightened of how this movie is going to turn out. I'm very skeptical about Gibson's ability to put forth an accurate and objective portrayal of ancient Mayan civilization and religion....
3. And speaking of Mel Gibson (only tangentially; the following link has nothing directly to do with him), apparently Christians are the new Jews. Oy.
No need to read the entire article, the first two paragraphs are enough to get the gist. I agree that some anti-Christian sentiments go a bit too far -- they have the right to free speech like everybody else. But they're certainly getting no worse a deal than any other non-dominant faith has gotten in the past, especially considering they're not even non-dominant yet. And their situation is definitely nowhere comparable to that of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Come on people. You're insulting yourselves, the Germans, and all Jews with that claim. The only thing Christianity is losing in this country (at glacier speed, I might add) is its blanket protection from questioning and critique. If your religious community panics at the first sign of public skepticism, you've got more serious problems than a few Wisconsonites giving kids pamphlets on secular morality.
Labels: anthropology, fundamentalism, language
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