H
Hu_Fan
Guest
Watching "The Thief of Baghdad" on Turner Classic Movie Channel. 1940. Story: boy thief and a genie in a bottle help a blinded prince recover his kingdom from a grand vizier.
A vizier is a grand ruler in a Muslim country, especially in Turkey under Ottoman rule.
Early movies, well thru the 40s and into the 50s, had Arabian themes. Also review the Tarzan books (Burroughs, 1875-1950), first published in 1912. I have copies of the first few books, including Jewels of Opar, and they are in compilations on Kindle.
Abbott & Costello spent time in the land of Arabian adventures. So did Hope & Crosby. Nowhere in any of the romance and adventure through all those decades was there strife in the modern era between Arab and West. American story tellers conveyed a romantic adventure in the setting. Readers read. Movie patrons filled the cinema houses. African and Arab lands were landscapes of adventure, not war, hatred, and the ugly conflicts of today.
Why did storytellers and Western readers see things differently a half century or more ago, than today? What changed?
What changed the view of the Arab landscape, women with veils that appeared gorgeous mysterious and beautiful instead of dark and aloof? When did Arab the Beautiful become a plague?
Watching this movie... nothing sordid. Ugly. Menacing. It's all quite colorful, gorgeous. Veils are cool! Silks and tents. Swords. Ships and sails. Turbans fit the bill! It's as if today is an illusion. Not back then.
Two things at play. Hollywood promotes an image. But governments create realities that become images. Hollywood then gets on one side or the other and accentuates what it wants to accentuate.
Something made the lands of Arabian adventures into an aberration of all things good and desirable. Not suggesting I have all the answers. But I am saying hardly anyone is asking. Not asking what? Or why?
It's like.. all of a sudden... bunch of bad guys. Just like that.
But western culture... readers, movie patrons... for a long time did not see it that way. Did not even begin to think of it that way.
What changed? Who did What? And When? And Why?
Since 1940, did the Arab world just all of a sudden 'become terrorists?' Just like that? Like, right out of the blue?
Just laying it out there.
A vizier is a grand ruler in a Muslim country, especially in Turkey under Ottoman rule.
Early movies, well thru the 40s and into the 50s, had Arabian themes. Also review the Tarzan books (Burroughs, 1875-1950), first published in 1912. I have copies of the first few books, including Jewels of Opar, and they are in compilations on Kindle.
Abbott & Costello spent time in the land of Arabian adventures. So did Hope & Crosby. Nowhere in any of the romance and adventure through all those decades was there strife in the modern era between Arab and West. American story tellers conveyed a romantic adventure in the setting. Readers read. Movie patrons filled the cinema houses. African and Arab lands were landscapes of adventure, not war, hatred, and the ugly conflicts of today.
Why did storytellers and Western readers see things differently a half century or more ago, than today? What changed?
What changed the view of the Arab landscape, women with veils that appeared gorgeous mysterious and beautiful instead of dark and aloof? When did Arab the Beautiful become a plague?
Watching this movie... nothing sordid. Ugly. Menacing. It's all quite colorful, gorgeous. Veils are cool! Silks and tents. Swords. Ships and sails. Turbans fit the bill! It's as if today is an illusion. Not back then.
Two things at play. Hollywood promotes an image. But governments create realities that become images. Hollywood then gets on one side or the other and accentuates what it wants to accentuate.
Something made the lands of Arabian adventures into an aberration of all things good and desirable. Not suggesting I have all the answers. But I am saying hardly anyone is asking. Not asking what? Or why?
It's like.. all of a sudden... bunch of bad guys. Just like that.
But western culture... readers, movie patrons... for a long time did not see it that way. Did not even begin to think of it that way.
What changed? Who did What? And When? And Why?
Since 1940, did the Arab world just all of a sudden 'become terrorists?' Just like that? Like, right out of the blue?
Just laying it out there.
