“The phenomenon of universalization, while being an advancement of man- kind, at the same time constitutes a sort of subtle destruction, not only of traditional cultures, which might not be an irreparable wrong, but also of what I shall call for the time being the creative nucleus of great cultures, that nucleus on the basis of which we interpret life, what I shall call in advance the ethical and mythical nucleus of mankind. The conflict springs up from there. We have the feeling that this single world civilization at the same time exerts a sort of attrition or wearing away at the expense of the cultural resources which have made the great civilizations of the past. This threat is expressed, among other disturbing effects, by the spreading before our eyes of a mediocre civilization which is the absurd counter part of what I was just calling elementary culture. Everywhere throughout the world, one finds the same bad movie, the same slot machines, the same plastic or aluminum atrocities, the same twisting of language by propaganda, etc. It seems as if mankind, by approaching en masse a basic consumer culture, were also stopped en masse at a subcultural level.
Thus we come to the crucial problem confronting nations just rising from underdevelopment.
In order to get on to the road toward modernization, is it necessary to jettison the old cultural past which has been the raison d'être of a nation? . . . Whence the paradox: on the one hand,it has to root itself in the soil of its past, forge a national spirit, and unfurl this spiritual and cultural revindication before the colonialist's personality. But in order to take part in modern civilization, it is necessary at the same time to take part in scientific, technical, and political rationality, something which very often requires the pure and simple abandon of a whole cultural past. It is a fact: every culture cannot sustain and absorb the shuck of modern civilization. There is the paradox: how to become modern and to return to sources; how to revive an old, dormant civilization and take part in universal civilization.”
•Paul Ricoeur, History and Truth, 1955
To be recorded in summer 2024; a series of piano preludes based on various styles of architecture. Performed by pianist Motoko Honda.
The Preludes
Mudhif
Prairie Style
Moroccan Riad
Art Noveau
Cuban Spanish Colonial
Art Deco
Nihon kenchiku