Cultural Appropriation November 29, 2009 – Posted in: Aberrant Normalcy
While browsing Pearl River Market (a Chinese importer) in Chinatown/SOHO yesterday, I came across this banner hanging from the ceiling (click to enlarge):
Underneath a meditative Buddha head is Herbert’s “Litany Against Fear,” which, you know, really does just kind of work as a Buddhist mantra. Even if Herbert wrote it in the 1960’s and not in the Xin Dynasty. Even if it was written as fiction. So what if it’s from a science fiction novel about a future so far from now that humans think Earth is a myth? I love how it quotes Herbert as if he’s a sage philosopher (well, he was, but probably not in the way this suggests), and I love how it conspicuously leaves out mention of the novel. Also of strange and interesting synchronicity, I was wearing my “Litany against decaf” t-shirt. I wonder how many interesting tidbits of religious wisdom over the ages were co-opted from fictional sources.