on nativity

[Dan Goncharoff]

I am still scratching my head, trying to figure out what this has to do with
birth, or even "birth"...DanG

On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 6:11 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      on nativity
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The quotes make this semantically interesting and revealing:
>
> 1996 Edmund J. Yorke in Iain Stewart & Susan Carruthers, eds. _War, Culture
> and the Media_  (Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson U. P.) 95: Heroic myths
> were still perpetuated in films such as _Bengal Rifles_ (1954), featuring
> Rock Hudson as a British (!) officer bravely suppressing a "native"
> rebellion.
>
> In fact, the rebels depicted in the film really are "natives" - of India
> - whereas Rock Hudson, Arlene Dahl, and the other cast members are
> colonials.  By being in a movie, however, the natives become "natives" -
> cliche' Western caricatures of colonized indigenous people. Few if any of
> the actors were Indian, but that's irrelevant to the story being told.
> (Michael Ansara, not an Indian but an Indian rather, has a conspicuous role
> as an Indian.)
> Even though the fictional "natives" really *are* "natives," Professor
> Yorke or his editors wish to avoid the impression either that the film
> "natives" are cinematic "natives" or are played by actors who are actual
> "natives" - if that word is permissible here.
>
> The obvious solution, therefore, is to call them "natives" rather than
> natives.
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org