From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: The Literary Canon
Date: 27 Aug 92 16:37:17 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA

In article <94600@bu.edu>, manes@bu-pub.bu.edu (Michelle Manes) writes:
> In article <11888@optilink.UUCP>, cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes:
> |> In article <1992Aug24.202946.14878@cs.brown.edu>, ks@cs.brown.edu (Kate Sanders) writes:
> |> > In article <94417@bu.edu> manes@bass.bu.edu (Michelle Manes) writes:
# |# # #I had the priveledge (?) of checking out the new Encyclopedia
# |# # #Brittanica during an annoyingly hard-sell two days ago.  It now
# |# # #comes with a series of "Great Books."  By my count:
# |# # 
# |# # #nonwhite males who weren't ancient Greeks: 1 (Cervantes)
# |# # [other statistics omitted]
# |# # 
# |# # not to be picky, but ... it seems like a stretch to count Cervantes
# |# # as nonwhite. now if you had said Dumas ...
# |# 
# |# How many nonwhite ancient Greeks were there, by the way?  Greeks are
# |# a people of indisputably white race.  Or did Ms. Manes perhaps mean
# |# "members of the classical Greco-Roman culture"?
# 
# You are absolutely the first person I have *ever* heard who claimed that
# Greeks at any time -- much less ancient Greeks whom none of us have had the
# priveledge to meet -- are "a people of indisputable white race"!  Modern
# Greeks are *much* darker-skinned than your average "white" European race.

Have I wondered into the Twilight Zone?  Do you know ANYONE that
considers Greeks anything but white?

# I have no reason to believe that ancient Greeks were any lighter-skinned.
# Do you also believe that Jesus was pale and had light brown hair and
# blue eyes because you've seen it in so many paintings?

No, and while this may be a surprise to you, Arabs, Iranians, etc.
from the Middle East are considered white.  Now, I suppose if you
belong to Aryan Nations, or the KKK, there might be some argument
about these things, but what planet are you liberals living on where
Greeks aren't white?

# |# Maybe I'm just a narrow-minded sort, but unless a writer makes a point
# |# of telling me his race or gender, and that it has some significance to 
# |# what he is writing about (e.g., Shelby Steele's _The Content of our 
# |# Character_), I don't see much point to classifying the author by race 
# |# or gender.
# 
# An author's identity -- including race, creed, gender, socio-economic
# status, age, when and where they lived -- impacts his writing.  It has
# significance whether or not the writer is explicitly discussing issues
# of race and gender.  Whenever I begin reading a book, I look for a short
# (or long) biography of the author so I have some context in which to
# understand his work.  It may be true that I can enjoy and benefit from
# the book without the background information, but I find this context
# helps immensely.
# 
# Michelle Manes		|	"What should I be when I grow up?"

I could quote long segments from Thomas Sowell and Milton Friedman,
and unless you had read the quoted sections, I doubt you could tell
me the race of either.

The time and place a person grows up make a big difference.  Race?
Sorry, liberals, but it's irrelevant.
-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer  My opinions, all mine!
Alcohol prohibition didn't work; drug prohibition doesn't work; gun
prohibition won't work.