Posts by giovanni tiso
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Yes, but that means that we'll only find out if there's an afterlife if in fact there is an afterlife. And I don't like our chances.
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If you die and then that's it awareness-wise you won't find anything out, arguably. It's difficult to experience not awakening.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to Russell Brown,
The really big RWC money is being spent on infrastructure, and that that will take years to pay back
Or be paid back, as the case may be. I'm looking at you, Dunedin.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to BenWilson,
I was actually asking about me, you seemed to know
No, I figured I could probably beat you though thanks to my being Italian-fu.
I can only speculate on why NZ would be a darling at any time - my guess is that it's mostly through lack of actual knowledge, which leads to essentializing and romanticizing a place.
Perhaps, and didn't the magnificent opening sequence of Once Were Warriors satirise precisely that essentialised and romanticised view? But hey, at least we weren't Middle Earth!
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to BenWilson,
Which was how long? Just curious, because I'm not exactly sure myself.
The first twenty-eight of my life.
I wonder why they were never once mentioned by anyone to me? Probably not hanging out with enough literary types.
There was a time in the Nineties when New Zealand was quite the darling, at least in Italy. Hard to know why exactly that was, and it may have just fizzed out had it not been for LOTR, it's hard to say. In the UK this was even more pronounced by hey, it hardly qualified as "abroad" seeing as it was lousy with Kiwis.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to BenWilson,
I ever heard abroad were about Once Were Warriors.
Speaking as somebody who spent a great deal more time abroad than you did: An Angel at My Table and The Piano were way bigger than Once Were Warriors. And so was The Bone People. Just FYI.
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Actually it makes a change from Jane Campion and Janet Frame and Keri Hulme, speaking of the time when I became aware of New Zealand. (And rugby and Black Magic, to be fair. And yes, sheep.)
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Maybe there's just nothing else to say about New Zealand, eh?
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to Russell Brown,
Tourism NZ seems extremely sure that LOTR/The Hobbit is one that does.
I'm happy for them, I just think it's misguided in the long term. I've gone from people back home telling me and being interested in all sorts of diverse things about New Zealands, to it being Middle Earth and nothing else. It can't last. The fact that the Onion zeroed in on that is symptomatic I think of how it could turn into unintended self-parody, if it hasn't already.
I'd also question that Boy is a story that is just for us. The Film Commission in the early 90s organised a gem of a film festival in Milan (and I'm sure plenty of other places as well) that showcased New Zealand cinema and its ability to reflect its culture. This may have been on the back of the success of The Piano, I'm not sure, but it certainly raised the profile of New Zealand amongst the people who saw it.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to Russell Brown,
The same Tourism NZ that hitched onto the LOTR buzz has also played its part in a flowering of Maori tourism ventures, run by Maori, over the past decade
I'd bloody well hope so.
I think there's room for debate as to how effective cinematic tourism is, but I would think LOTR/The Hobbit is more likely to bring visitors than certain other recipients of the large budget grant scheme: Power Rangers, for example.
Reassure me that the choice between how to promote New Zealand is more between Keri Hulme and JRR Tolkien, than Tolkien and Power Rangers. Please.