Round and Square: Zweirad Szenen

From Round to Square (and back)

For The Emperor's Teacher, scroll down (↓) to "Topics." It's the management book that will rock the world (and break the vase, as you will see). Click or paste the following link for a recent profile of the project: http://magazine.beloit.edu/?story_id=240813&issue_id=240610

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Showing posts with label Zweirad Szenen. Show all posts

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Zweirad Szenen (9)—Where Fish Sleep

Click here for the "Zweirad Szenen" Resource Center (all posts available)
Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Zweirad Szenen"
This is a "small" (小) post—click here for an explanation of Round and Square post lengths.

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On this date on Round and Square's History

30 August 2014—China's Lunar Calendar 2014 08-30
30 August 2014—Social and Cultural Theory: Theory Letter (2014)
30 August 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 08-30
30 August 2013—New York Review of Books Syllabus (2013)
30 August 2012—The New Yorker and the World: Course Introduction
30 August 2011—Styling Culture: Introduction

Back in Germany, and back on my two wheels, I decide to go for a long ride through the woods before taking a nap. The flight was long and oppressive in its own peculiar way (an exit row seat is countered by the, er, bathrooms.

On the bike, I peer to my left as I enter a copse. And what do I see? Well, it looks like a comfortable place where the fish sleep at night.

This is not what I thought "sleeping with the fishes" meant.

Mind you, I have been awake for almost forty-eight hours, and jet-lag might be playing with my thoughts.

Fish dorm.

That is all.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Zweirad Szenen (8)—Western Caricature

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On this date on Round and Square's History

16 August 2014—China's Lunar Calendar 2014 08-16
16 August 2014—Theory Cartoons: Persistent Identity
16 August 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 08-16
16 August 2013—From the Geil Archive: Southern Mountain Museum
16 August 2012—Rural Religion in China(12
16 August 2011—Displays of Authenticity: Mongolian Barbecue

[a] Cross-cultural Cliché RL

So I was minding my business yesterday, flying along the trails (as I perceived the experience), and was stopped in my cinder-meets-rubber tracks by a scene I just couldn't comprehend anymore (despite having grown up in the 1960s, with Gunsmoke and Bonanza).

I am not proud of this.

Yet here, in the middle of Bavaria (Franconia), I saw an almost unbelievably stereotypical scene from an American movie set...except that the juxtaposition is just too odd.

Cliché.

It is a significant thread in our historical studies of other societies, and the German fascination with the American West has everything to do with one Karl May (1842-1912), whom I have been reading assiduously for the last three months (ever since I chanced to hear of him in a passing conversation at a café). He's a bit of a Jules Verne figure, but without the worldwide stage. In Deutschland, though, he has captured the imaginations of even the "latest" generation. The actor who played "Winnetou" in several movies just died, and it was national news.

So, I ask myself, how does such a scene even happen...anywhere, much less southern Germany, sechs, sieben, acht, oder neun time zones away...depending on how you count? Imagination, cliché, and the distinct power of certain writers to shape imaginings (and longings) for generations fuels it.

Karl May. We'll be "talking" about this very "accidental ethnographer" on Round and Square soon. There seem to be a whole bunch of them in the second half of the nineteenth century (men and women). Almost makes one think that something was going on....

As for the "scene" itself, I remain speechless.

[b] Karl May RF

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Zweirad Szenen (7)—Disturbing Ende

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On this date on Round and Square's History

15 August 2014—China's Lunar Calendar 2014 08-15
15 August 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 08-15
15 August 2013—From the Geil Archive: Introduction
15 August 2012—Rural Religion in China(11)
15 August 2011—Middles: By A Nose

[a] Ende RL

O.k., yes, I stopped to take a picture. Is it only moi, or is there something vaguely disturbing about this image (as the corner turns)?

Maybe it is just the "geography," but I am sensing Heideggerian strains here.

Friday, August 14, 2015

Zweirad Szenen (6)—Fundamentals

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On this date on Round and Square's History

14 August 2014—China's Lunar Calendar 2014 08-14
14 August 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 08-14
14 August 2013—Causal Contingencies: I Love Double Seven
14 August 2012—Rural Religion in China(10)
14 August 2011—Just Do It Over: Introduction

[a] Got It RF

Back to basics.

As I wove my way through a heretofore-unbeknownst-to-me little path, I found myself back in the Bavarian social world(s) of street signs and traffic markers (instead of shocking portrayals of Jesus on the cross in the middle of the woods—coming soon).

And now, I see "Im Grund." My initial reaction (from English that I have only slowly learned not to "translate" into German)...was horror. Why would anyone reside..."Im Grund?"

Well...genau. Of course. Im Grund is the point of it all. Ask everyone from John Wooden (look him up) to, well, the lunar calendar...in Lunar World. "Im Grund" (the Internet has fabulous search tools, so knock yourself out) is perfect. Immanuel Kant meets Aristotle...meets...all sorts of practical people (and I mean "practical" in the widest sense...far beyond Kant's First Critique).

And then I cycled away, thinking only of the circuitous meanderings of the Kritik der reinen Vernunft.

Im Grund.

[b] Fundamentals RF

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Zweirad Szenen (5)—A Thousand Years

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On this date on Round and Square's History

4 August 2014—China's Lunar Calendar 2014 08-04
4 August 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 08-04
4 August 2012—Rural Religion in China (Introduction)
4 August 2011—Longevity Mountain: Mid-Mountain Temple Road

[a] Thousand RF

So if you're from the United States, this is stunning (if you're from China...not so much). Every day, I pass through the little village of Hausen (it sort of rhymes in German with the pronunciation of "thousand"...sort of). And every day I remember that Northfield, Minnesota and Beloit, Wisconsin just can't compete in terms of communal longevity (infrastructure, bureaucracy, and summer events).

Cows, Colleges, and Contentment...to be sure, but not a thousand years old.

A thousand years (now 1,008). For an American, that's hard not to notice.

Monday, August 3, 2015

Zweirad Szenen (4)—Auf Wiedersehen

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On this date on Round and Square's History

3 August 2014—China's Lunar Calendar 2014 08-03
3 August 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 08-03
3 August 2012—Reviews: Introduction
3 August 2011—Seinfeld Ethnography: Code-Cracking

And when I leave (just about every town in Germany) on my two-wheeled vehicle, my beating heart (at about 80% effort, I hope) is warmed by a little "bye-bye" before I head onto open roads.

I mean, think of US roads. Maybe some states tell us that we are leaving, but things are pretty much focused on welcomes. How about the care and kindness that goes into a very nice little goodbye? It's a beautiful thing, and I always note the warm embrace of communitas from the, um...community.

Americans: Let's think about this. I know it exists here and there, but what about a nice "We'll Miss You" for our towns?

Tschüß!