The Griffith Ramayana
How an Englishman went up a subcontinent and came down an Indian.
Same of the more
John Ottinger III has had it with critics who complain that women and minorities are not adequately represented in SF anthologies. Unfortunately, he also blogged this view.
The Politics Of Captain Nemo
On Jules Verne’s strange hero Captain Nemo and how Nemo’s radical history was suppressed by English translators.
Thomas Barnett: Mapping The Next Neo-Snafu
Parsing political futurist Thomas Barnett’s semi-moronic blueprint for creating the next American century.
William Makepeace Thackeray: The Indian In The Closet
Miscegenation — racial mixing — is a recurring theme in Thackeray’s works. Strangely enough, the most obvious explanation is also a plausible one.
Tribhanga: Strike A Pose
The tribhanga pose — contrapposto — is a very common feature of South-asian art. It has intriguing connections (and differences) with Greek conceptions of the ideal. This is a look at some of them.
Kolam: What The Hand Said
Kolams are curvilinear shapes drawn by Tamil women, usually early in the morning and usually just outside the house. Kolams have fascinating relationships with the labyrinths of Crete, sona drawings of the Chockwe and picture grammars.
Caste, Closure & Contagion
Caste is not the same thing as class or race. I argue that it’s better to think of it as a “closure system” rather than a hierarchy. A closure system is … what the heck, read the damn thing. Inspired by Christopher Alexander’s essay: “A City Is Not A Tree.”