Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 11:10:15 +0100
From: Stefano Moretti <S.Moretti@agora.stm.it>
To: baidarka@lists.intelenet.net
Subject: Re: baidarka Inuit Cosmology
Gene Smith wrote:
>
> What an amazing description! We live in a sort of tension between total
> amazement and the comfort of familitarity. To the extent that we create
> recognizable patterns and make things 'familiar' we also stop really
> 'seeing' what is there. I wonder what you were 'seeing' in that moment of
> 'vertigo'...
A mixed sensation of familiarity (sky and stars) and completely being
lost. This caused the "vertigo".
This seansation was enhanced by the fact that sailing at night often
confuses all degrees of perception, and there were no "points de repere"
(french expression : no points to estimate your position, I lack the
equivalente in italian and english).
The following nights I was insistingly trying to make sense of the new
sky, with little success: before arriving to Brasil I still could not
distinguish the southern Cross with easiness.
>
> Gene Smith
> way too familiar with Houston
Stefano, speaking about familiarity from Rome, where anything less than
2000 years aint worth repainting (not true really, come and see)