Reflections about Catalan Readings

“The conservatism began to cut in as the conversation developed, this silver-haired elder statesman emphasising the primacy of two things only in Catalonia's history Christianity and democracy. He claimed that the Muslim influence in Catalonia had been insignificant, and that the influence of ,Judaism had always been confined to the ghetto, both of which views will be challenged later in this book.”



This reminded me of research I’ve been doing recently into Japan and the cultural phenomenon of Nihonjinron. Defining a nation as a homogenous unit in at least some respects serves a purpose in differentiating it from the other. If a definition of anything is too broad, it loses its effectiveness. However, when it comes to real concepts, like the identity of nations, such definitions can easily become too narrow and exclude important elements of diversity. In Japan, for example, there is a strong tendency to call Japan a perfect nation state, a clear cut geographic area in which a distinct and homogenous group of people speaking a distinct and homogenous language and sharing a distinct and homogenous culture fit. This definition ignores huge dialectal differences in regional Japanese, significant minority groups such as the Koreans, as well as the Ainu, who have their own language and culture.



“She recognised her hairy son by the fact that he had hair on a part of his body where it should not have been.”


O.o His nose, or???



"For the two hundred years from 800-1000, the Muslims generally had a more sophisticated culture, more advanced farming methods (especially irrigation) and more advanced systems of government than their Christian neighbours."



"the Vall de Boi. This is one of Catalonia's best-kept secrets, and even in midsummer its camp-sites, hotels and national park facilities seem almost exclusively populated by Catalans and Valencians. It is a land of rushing water, oak and pine woods, high pastures and limestone outcrops."



"At Barcelona, you see the image itself, without the setting, without the wonders of creation; at Taull you have the wonders of creation, but a mere copy of the image. It is an unhappy divorce: God not quite at one with creation."

This is interesting, Greece is always pissed at the UK for taking it’s treasures, and it’s certainly not the only one, but dissent about where these things should be within their own countries seems rarer. Of course, everyone is mad that things are away in museums, but don’t museums do good too?

"To the north lies little Llan~a, where the railway from Barcelona reaches the sea, and the tiny coves up beyond Portbou into France."

These are the two villages that I have been reading about, that serve to compare Spanish and French Catalunya. Oddly this makes me think about how old and finite Europe seems to me as an American. I would never think of how many towns there are in Missouri, for example. None of them are old enough to be interesting, not really, and they change fast enough, and if one disappeared it would hardly be a tragedy, and when new ones appear it’s also not really surprising. But in Europe I feel that it’s somehow different – this is Llanca and this is Portbou, they are two of ‘the’ Catalan towns… of which there is a reasonably large but ultimately finite number.



Some Catalans take great pride in the fact that people in the Sardinian town of Alghero (l'Alguer in

Catalan) still speak a Catalan dialect. This is only so because Pere III executed or drove into exile the original inhabitants and replaced them with Catalan settlers.

An interesting issue both specifically and in more general terms. I did my presentation on L’Alguer and noticed that the Italian Wikipedia was actually more supportive of the Catalan community in Alghero than the Catalan Wikipedia, which in fact emphasized this “cultural genocide”.

And I always think that empires, even any change of power, is an interesting and difficult topic. When considering those days, that year, even the generations effected, what the Catalonians did was wrong. But in the big context of history, it’s not unique and it’s not even unusual. I doubt that the then-residents of Alghero, who the Catalonians pushed out, had been the first and original settlers at that spot, even if they may (or may not) have been less forceful in removing the previous occupants. Most places, especially in highly populated areas like the Mediterranean, have hosted multiple empires over time, and the exchanges of power are rarely bloodless.

"'We, who are as good as you, swear to you, who are no better than us, to accept you as our king and sovereign lord, provided you observe all our liberties and laws - but if not, not.'"

This kicks ass.

“His first book, written in Arabic, which was a language he knew better than Latin, was supposed to have been one million words long.”

Seriously?!?! That’s 20 times longer than the average novel!

"The fact that the Catalan words for love and death sound identical with the addition of the definite article l'amor and la mort gave endless scope for word play."



That’s awesome.



"Catalan literature came of age not on the mainland but in the rich diversity of the island of Majorca. Here Christian, Jewish and Muslim ideas and influences inter· twined."



Development always seems to happen at crossroads. <3



"The sea is part of the Catalan consciousness, as it is for the English. As with English, the language betrays the importance of the sea to the Catalans."

The language betrays – clever way to put it, since it’s not really right to make judgements on a culture based solely on the language, but it can be evidence.