How much Chinese or Indian or South American do people in the West know???
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Probably not as much as they should but I would think there has been greater exposure, or at least visibility than there has been to Africa (that may differ according to where in the west one lives of course).
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Sounds like Florida Man has relocated to the West Coast 
Unfortunate. Let’s hope no one died (unclear if video is from today, so posting it here).
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I know The Missus.
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Was going to respond more fully but wasn’t sure how…
Most SiFi writers (to date) have been Western and I would probably also add that most have English as the their primary language. All the classical SiFi writers, e.g. Brin, Bear, Stapledon Clarke, Asimov and Heinlein were of a certain age where the classical Greek/Roman, and to an extent Norse, mythologies would have their main grounding - so feels only logical they leant on those. Ironically, one of Clarke’s most famous books, Rendezvous with Rama was an outlier but I cannot recall that he actually delved too much into the stories linked to Ramayana…
There is a rich trove of stories in the Ramayana and (especially) Mahabharata but obviously also in the Greek/Roman precursor civilization - the Egyptian culture - but maybe the time has passed as no one reads books anymore…
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There are lots of authors who will have turned to these for inspiration. Not just authors of books but those writing for other formats such as tv and movies as well. Back in the 70 and 80’s we had shows like ‘Monkey’ and ‘The Water Margin’ which covered stories from China, and BB2 used to have a series on Sunday Mornings on the Mahabharata. The demand I’m sure will have only grown since then.
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I agree.
I was approaching this from a SiFi point of view, i.e. incorporating names and themes into “hard” SiFi… Agree there are plenty of adaptations and forays into Chinese, Indian and Egyptian myths.
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Much more and you see evidence of this in popular culture, in the cinema etc. Those cultures have fascinated Europeans and have been studied quite intimately. First of course with Eurocentric eyes (but that’s the same the other way around usually and hardly a unique western trait), then later orientalism becomes culturally more problematic and it’s studied in a different way. But both the orientalists and the modern researchers gave us far more insight and knowledge regarding these cultures than we have around Africa south of sahara. Indeed, when it comes to South America and places like Egypt, it was European that ressurrected their dead languages (Maya, Egyptian hieroglyphs and more) and revivified dead knowledge
There was perhaps more interests in this area during the glory days of the British Empire (much was actually written about it then), but today it’s not an area of interest for those not specifically interested and not much western culture studies have been made compared to the Middle East, South America and those sexy places with “real history”. There is a perception that Africa south of Sahara has little “real history” and it has not fascinated Europeans in the same way that South America, India and China has. I.e. These places had great civilizations. Europeans were less interested in nomadic tribes and barbarians, we had lots of that on our own continent prior to civilization.
The result is that most Europans and Westerners knows in truth, very little about Africa south of Sahara. With exceptions naturally. Everything is relative.
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I agree
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I am sure people know this meme without me writing a caption
https://x.com/Bartaway/status/2038981326582202803
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March 29, Delta Air Lines Flight DL 104 experienced a turbine failure followed by an explosion during takeoff at Guarulhos International Airport on Sunday night. Takeoff occurred around 10:49 p.m., but shortly afterward, the crew was alerted to a problem with the aircraft’s wing.
The flight returned to the airport safely. There were no reports of injuries.
I do.
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Yes, there are still oldies left, predominantly on this forum…, that still do but most people will be introduced to the Greek/Indian/Chinese tales through movies and TV adaptations rather than the written form. Frank Herbert was a great sifi/fantasy writer but not so many know he developed the Dune universe or that 2001 was an adaptation of a Clarke novel and Foundation, by Asimov and so on. But that is fine. My comment was half serious and half joking - that maybe the time of books has passed and flight of the imagination is happening else where.
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A non-breaking story that I saw unfolding last night, with a nice ending.
I have a Facebook friend who is an iman at a mosque in Birkenhead. Last night he reported that there had been vandalism at the mosque as a brick had been thrown through the window.
A little later he reported that the police had arrested 3 juveniles. He asked the police that, rather than charging them, if he could speak to them to try to understand their actions, and explain what the mosque and community centre is for and the work they do for all the community.
A little later, he reported that a local glazing firm had offered to repair the window free of charge.
It’s just a minor incident, but it is nice to see a community pulling together like that.
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A census of regional swearwords is to be carried out to map the nations insults:
I’m sure that Viz comic did this (The Profanasaurus) but what would a uniquely Scouse swear be? I’m sure that “divvy” is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s almost 40 years since I lived in Liverpool, so I am rather out of the loop of impolite conversation. Well, certainly since my grandmother died, at least.
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