dutch settlers on mauritius (was: Benny's Job)

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

 "the typical modern practice, the substance of modern politics, modern  
 intellect, modern life, is the effort to wipe out ambivalence: an effort to  
 define exactly - and to suppress or to eliminate everything, which could not  
 or did not want to be defined exactly. the modern practice is not about 
 capturing foreign countries, but about the filling up of the empty spaces in 
 the completa mappa mundi. it's the modern practice, not nature, that truly 
 cannot tolerate blankness.
 thus intolerance is the natural drift of modern practice. the construction of 
 order limits inclusion and acceptance."
 
  --- zygmunt bauman: modernity and ambivalence [1991] ---

                           (re-translation from pp. 20f. of the german edition)

 kfl

Dave Monroe schrieb:
> Yeah, Alfred Doblin, realized I'd shorted a circuit on that sometime last 
> night, something must have distracted me after that "Al."  By the way, are 
> you familiar with Doblin's fantasy/SF novel in which one or the other (or 
> maybe it was both) of the poles melt and prehistoric animals (mammoths, 
> dinosaurs, whatever) come ambling out?  Read about it in Peter S. Fisher, 
> Fantasy and Politics: Visions of the Future in the Weimar Republic (Madison: 
> U of Wisconsin P, 1991), but I don't know that it's ever been tranlsated 
> into English.  Cf. Vheissu?
>
> But do have both the Schama and the Bauman books, the Schama I recall 
> particularly enjoying (and I just scored a cheap copy of his recent,  
> massive Rembrandt's Eyes, that Dutch Republic and its art were no small 
> fascinations of mine some time ago, any other recommendations?), the Bauman 
> I do not recall so well, but I've lost any recollection of any discussion in 
> either of Mauritius over the decade or whatever since.  It'll be a while 
> before I can dig either out (if I can dig either out, we're talking a 
> potential archaeological expedition here), so even a quick note on their 
> significance here would be appreciated.  Thanks!
>
> >From: lorentzen-nicklaus at t-online.de (lorentzen-nicklaus)
> >To: davidmmonroe at hotmail.com
> >CC: pynchon-l at waste.org
> >Subject: Re:  dutch settlers on mauritius (was: Benny's Job)
> >Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 12:02:17 +0100
> >
> >
> >
> >Dave Monroe schrieb:
> >
> > > Dutch settlers on Mauritius (again, why is this mentioned with some
> > > prominence?)
> >
> >
> >   well, the island of mauritius has a very interesting history, and 
> >between the
> >   late 16th and the late 17th century, the dutch were ruling this planet. 
> >they
> >   still call it their "golden age". you may check out simon schama's "the
> >   embarrasment of riches" [1987]. & perhaps trp had already the south 
> >african
> >   episodes of m&d in mind while writing gr. right inside the heart of 
> >modernity
> >   dwells the extinction of the other. so another thing to check out might 
> >be
> >   zygmunt bauman's "modernity and the holocaust" [1989?]. take a look at 
> >it, and
> >   you'll realize why the dutch settlers on mauritius are mentioned with 
> >some
> >   prominence.
> >
> >kfl
> >
>
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