#FinishedReading this fascinating look at how indigenous people around the world (but with particular focus on Australia) understand #astronomy , both for storytelling and for practical matters like navigation and tracking seasons - these are not separate concerns, as the stories act in part as mnemonics for the vital skills. Always nice to see references to #ANU scientists, in this case indigenous astronomers @karlienoon and Peter Swanton. #Bookstodon@bookstodon#IndigenousKnowledge
It's one of the lovely things about streaming -- you get to see all these shows and films you were too young for or not born yet when they were released.
@eyrea@RanaldClouston@karlienoon For centuries, every kind of music has built on its forebears, geniuses standing on the shoulders of geniuses. But only in the last century have we been able to actually HEAR those forebears. How did Beethoven conduct the Eighth Symphony? We really don't know. But how did John Lee Hooker play Boogie Chile? We can HEAR that! How did Robert Johnson syncopate? It's on YouTube! Can you imagine if all we knew about Miles Davis was transcriptions on paper?
We're the first humans ever who can hear Caruso AND Glenn Miller AND Dylan AND The Beatles AND R.E.M. AND Prince and build on what they actually did.
@msbellows@RanaldClouston@karlienoon I once read an interview where a film director complained he was in competition with all these films from the last hundred years, and how much harder it made making a film today.
The first thing I thought was, "Dude, try being a writer. We're in competition with fucken Homer."
@eyrea@RanaldClouston@karlienoon Hemingway: "I started out very quiet and I beat Mr. Turgenev. Then I trained hard and I beat Mr. de Maupassant. I’ve fought two draws with Mr. Stendhal, and I think I had an edge in the last one. But nobody’s going to get me in any ring with Mr. Tolstoy unless I’m crazy or I keep getting better.”
@msbellows@eyrea I was just trying to suggest in a mildly humorous way that a moderately famous movie from 40 years ago isn't a reference "we've all seen". I am aware that old things can be interesting.
@RanaldClouston@msbellows They're more than interesting. The more you know about history, the more you realize how long certain things have been popular.
You're very dismissive of a film you already said you're not old enough to remember as a phenomenon -- which it was, which is why after decades of hearing references to it I finally watched it.
I got into the Sherlock Holmes stories at age 11. I was not born in the 19th century.
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