rindawriter

>Actually, the Dali Lama answered in a manner much as Jesus would have...expertly slamming the shuttle into the other person's court...requiring he/her to make his/her own responses with his/her own choices and actions...

I grew up with badminton not tennis...

No one has to worry about a book being culturally authentic if it is the real thing in the first place..not the author nor the publisher nor the reader nor the reviewer nor the buyer... The debate and power struggles most notably arise from the suspiciously "smelly" books...although some of them manage to hide the "smell" pretty well...

Posted : May 16, 2007 10:51

Andy Laties

>I suspect that the Dalai Lama's technical skills at the art of rhetoric are superior to Tony Snow's, and that therefore in a direct face-off the Dalai Lama could more effectively position Tony Snow under a Tibetan Buddhist contextualization than could Tony Snow position the Dalai Lama under a Hegemonic American contextualization.

Ergo: Tony Snow is a Tibetan Buddhist (whether he likes it, or thinks so, or not).

Posted : May 11, 2007 10:04

Uma Krishnaswami

>Thanks Andy, that's good to know. I try to do my bit to advance postcolonial views of the subcontinent :-)

Posted : May 11, 2007 06:24

Anonymous

>Are you trying to tell me that Tony Snow is a Tibetan Buddhist?

Posted : May 11, 2007 04:57

Andy Laties

>By the way Uma I sell your marvelous title "Monsoon" at the Eric Carle Museum. It's quite unique in depicting modern Indian life from the perspective of an urban middle class child.

Posted : May 11, 2007 04:44

Uma Krishnaswami

>It was exactly the kind of response that I meant. A deft sidestep that leaves a verbal silk scarf in the questioner's hand and yet delivers its point effectively. After all, it's only in the Western scheme of things that a question is a sort of rhetorical cup that needs to be filled by an answer.

Posted : May 11, 2007 04:26

Andy Laties

>Tibetan Buddhism -- really, all Buddhism -- has a long tradition of debate. Every technique is employed, including sidestepping the question in order to make the point you wish to make.

Posted : May 11, 2007 03:05

Anonymous

>With all respect, it was an interesting answer, but I don't know if it was really an answer to the question he was asked.

Posted : May 10, 2007 06:53

Andy Laties

>Yesterday at Smith College the Dalai Lama took a question from the audience: essentially: "What happens if you are accepting toward other religious traditions but they aren't accepting towards you?" He answered that different people needed religions that offer different things. If you need a religion with a Creator God, then you can have that. If your religion proposes Causality (that's Buddhism): then that's the religion for you. He said it was like people who have different illnesses, and need different medicines. Or how when you go to a restaurant, you should be able to have a menu with different foods.

I thought it was a clever response, especially since Mahayana Buddhism has a key doctrine called "Expedient Means" that says the Buddha helps everyone differently and appropriately, according to each person's development and capacities.

That is: the Dalai Lama did what Uma is pointing out: he responded to a question that posited him as "The Other" with a response that brings "The West" neatly under his own umbrella.

Posted : May 10, 2007 06:07

Roger Sutton

>Well, I never thought "authenticity" was the genuine concern of most of those who wield that cudgel. I hate to go all Jack Zipes here, but I think it's all about power. Different groups, at different times, use it to get a larger piece of the pie. That can be useful and helpful to the literature as a whole, but it's never as disinterested as the advocates would like it to seem to be.

Posted : May 10, 2007 02:23

Anonymous

>And then there’s the flip side, the retelling of traditionally northern European stories with let’s say low levels of concern about appropriation and authenticity. Red Ridin’ in the ‘Hood, etc. Mein Gott!

Posted : May 09, 2007 09:41

Uma Krishnaswami

>I wouldn't worry too much--issues of authenticity and stands against Orientalism were relevant when it was only the "other" doing the writing. But the East is starting to talk back now. Even in children's literature which tends to hold to its staples for centuries. And Bollywood has for years alternately vilified and exoticized the West, including that place called Amreeka! So I'd say enjoy the opera and know that the multi-armed gods might be laughing too.

Posted : May 09, 2007 04:14