Post #401046 by bigbrotiki on Wed, Aug 13, 2008 11:42 AM

Sorry, Terence, you set yourself up for that one! :D
As I said above, I really appreciate your extensive replies, and I am happy about serious intellectual discourse on the matter, but the sad thing is that unless you have read both of my books, we can't really talk. Nevertheless, I will try to respond to some of your points:

On 2008-08-12 23:33, DJ Terence Gunn wrote:

There is often a fine line between style and culture. >And tiki torches: they were never called that in earlier times, nor do they have actual tikis on them. And most non-historic/traditional Polynesian ‘Tiki’ mugs created today are not ‘Tiki’ mugs, they’re artful drinking vessels. But it’s easier to say ‘Tiki Mug’, isn’t it? Forget education or respect for culture, let’s bring everything down to a kitsch level the Tiki followers can understand.>Ask yourself, ‘Did I invent “Tiki”, or did “Tiki” invent me? As long as people believe this fantasy I’m on a pedestal, an expert. But what am I without this fantasy?’>To say 'Tiki' to describe something saves a great deal of time.>But the word and meaning can be just as pedestrian as the pedestrian one attempts to articulate the meaning to.