[Buddha-l] Re:American Mahayana/British Theravada?

[curt]

Richard P. Hayes wrote:

>Of course, not everything is due to colonization patterns. It always
>intrigues me to discover that there are German scholars who find North
>American native peoples fascinating. Why? But then again, why not? It
>could be that there are some human enterprise things that are just
>intrinsically interesting to human beings everywhere. (Sorry to sound so
>un-post-modern.)
>
>  
>
German interest, scholarly and otherwise, in Native Americans is 
traceable to the wild popularity of James Fennimore Cooper's novels, 
which were actually received more enthusiastically by German readers 
than they were at first by his fellow countrymen - who were, after all, 
still basically a bunch of British snobs who had never heard of this 
Cooper fellow.

Cooper's novels, in turn, represent one of the more insidiously 
fascinating aspects of cultural imperialism - romanticizing the very 
people you are doing your level best to wipe off the face of the earth. 
But don't get me wrong - the guy could write a good book, that's for sure!

- Curt