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The Ocean Taussig Forgot.
Stephen Muecke, UTS
| [ Go to this paper in the timetable ] |
In "The Beach (A Fantasy)" Mick Taussig elaborates on the invisibility of oceans, forgotten ports and disappearing oceanic culture in our hypermodern placeless world. He and Charles Olsen forgot to mention the Indian Ocean, but our fantasy is to relive its importance as a transnational space of culture and commerce, once the hub of the world economic system, and only eclipsed as such by the West in the last 200 years. Far from being a contemporary phenomenon, globalisation has a long history where words are exchanged with goods along trading routes and cultural value is built up. In the elaboration of the stories of the ocean, of then and of now, we want to reengage the urgency of ‘speaking so as not to die’ (The Thousand and One Nights) knowing that economies of desire are also ways of giving cultures their form and value.
Stephen Muecke is returning from Lamu and Zanzibar with a few stories …
