Something about the tumblr app is not agreeing with me today and because I have no time to use the pc now I am going to post a submission I received as a screenshot:
I am going to repost the link so it can be clickable: https://mangaanimeblogger.com/anime-legacy-why-greece-needs-its-own-ghibli/
I have in the past posted other submissions by the dear @ashitakaxsan, who runs an anime blog but also has an interest in Greek culture and mythology and envisions and tries to create an anime with Greek mythological themes, I believe.
This post in particular is an interesting and detailed critique of a cultural stagnation and social rigidity in Greece, which has led Greek artistry far from animation and the endless possibilities for expression and visibility it provides. Furthermore, it correctly describes the hypocrisy in Greece, where animation at times has been seen with suspicion or as exclusively targeted to children and not beneficial to the child’s development, yet modern Greece’s storytelling orbits almost exclusively around family melodrama tropes and questionable themes such as adultery, scandals, domestic crimes, which not only do not set a standard as a positive role model for the Greek family and the Greek children, but in fact could even have a negative impact on them. With all of this I wholeheartedly agree.
However, as the creator and the runner of the present blog, I have the sole responsibility for publishing the content submitted to me. As such, and as a Greek native, I feel compelled to question some parts of the tireless work produced here and I hope it is received the way I mean it, as well-meaning constructive feedback.
While I absolutely agree with the critique regarding most of the Greek storytelling on TV, I disagree with the judgement against some shows, especially Konstantinou Kai Elenis and I Magissa, and I found the points made to be nitpicking and a bit of misinterpretation of these shows. KkE is a comedy and must be received as such: with this perspective, neither culture nor characters associated to the culture (the Byzantinologist professor) get a free pass from comedic scrutiny. Besides, the show does not aim to reduce the importance of Byzantine heritage. It’s only an ethographic portrayal of a character who is ultra traditional yet also an elitist, and all this is given through a purely comedic light. As for Magissa, actually there is something to be corrected here. Of course there were certain clans in Mani that were rich and they were lords and had servants and such! This was not unrealistic at all. Furthermore, there were rich privileged Greeks - usually Christian tax collectors - in other regions of Ottoman occupied Greece. Claiming that this is unrealistic is factually wrong. I also did not understand why following a Game of Thrones western recipe is viewed as wrong, whereas being inspired by Japanese anime is supposed to be a positive to be pursued. I don’t think the western mode of storytelling has anything inherently worse or wrong about it and both technically would be inspirations from a foreign mode of storytelling. But we can also see this in a different light; Ancient Greek drama did involve tragic and often extremely intense scenes or themes, including even domestic murders and even incest (Oedipus Rex comes to mind). In this sense a type and fashion of storytelling such as that of Game of Thrones might even be closer to authentic Greek storytelling, if not actively inspired by it (ancient Greek drama and all, etc)
Some scientific studies, propositions and widespread theories are rejected a bit too easily as wrong and I personally cannot get behind this, at least not until I make an extreme study on all latest standings. For example, the Indo-European theory is rejected with an implication of it being a threat to the indigeneity of the Greeks, and I don’t understand this. Indigeneity is by default a relative concept because technically, if we go back enough, we would all only be indigenous of Africa. The fact that the leading theory is currently that the Proto-Greek tribes emerged and migrated from somewhere in the far northeast to then blend with the Aegean peoples called Pelasgians in order to form the Greek nation does not seem to me like denying the indegeneity of the Greeks because there is not any other living culture that exists to have predated the presence of the Greeks in the Greek mainland. Of course there were humans living there in Palaeolithic times, and migrating, and mating and all that. But there is no culture existing nowadays (or for several thousand years) that can claim an older presence in the land than the Greeks. Besides, the very Greeks of antiquity were a product of the blend of those Proto-Greeks migrating from far away (potentially the Siberian steppes, most theories suggest) and the local Pelasgians, the Minoans and in general other peoples falling into the Anatolian farmer category. Conclusively, there is nothing in the theory that challenges the autochthony of the Greeks.
Some inaccuracies also: the Sumerians are not descendants of the Pelasgians, neither is the Egyptian civilisation based on Pelasgian culture. Also, I do not see what the challenge is if Greeks did take and shape the Phoenician alphabet to fit the needs of the Greek language. It is not the Greek language itself that was Phoenician. Simply the Greeks at some point changed their mode of writing into a more convenient one, in which they also added original elements (ie vowel characters).
The Fallmerayer doctrine is not at all taught in schools or in any way accepted in the Greek society. On the contrary, it is a long time globally academically debunked theory which is only rallied by anti-Greeks and irredentists of neighbouring countries. Maybe some of their migrants here may try to rally these ideas in the interior of the country, but I don’t think they will have any success. However, I totally agree about a general weird tendency to view cultural and heritage love as inherently fascist or something. This is indeed pushed by certain political circles.
I think I might have had more to address but the length of the text worked a bit against me remembering all the points I intended to make. Overall, although I thought the main point that was being made was great, the text lost a bit of steam in combining too much diverse information at the same time and I am not sure all served the ultimate message that was meant to be sent. This post also made me a little curious for the identity of the writer, whom so far I never perceived as a native Greek or as an insider in Greek matters, let alone from the 80s-90s. Therefore, I must raise the question of how much (if at all) AI was used in the making of this essay. Some changes from first to second person also seemed jarring to me.
Please be reminded, I have the responsibility of what is being published in this blog and thus I try to keep some standards, as well as make sure that the posts do not suggest a different Greek reality than the one I am aware to be true as a - hopefully pretty unbiased (I try at least!) - Greek native . At the same time, however, I genuinely want to congratulate your interest in Greek culture, your right in raising awareness of the degradation of Greek storytelling throughout the last decades (minus a mini renaissance lately, which you mentioned), the lack of imagination, the double standards in the way various storytelling modes are perceived, the traditional pseudo-moralistic rigidity.
And you hit the nail on the head with your question, does Greece lack cultural confidence?
Yes it does. Greeks have internalised the quite common foreign disdain and the constant comparisons with the Ancient Greeks they are subjected to, almost as if they have an obligation to prove anything to the other contemporary nations. As a result Greeks are often afraid to touch their own heritage, almost dreading that they are unworthy of it, while some even choose to not confront it by rejecting this as old-fashioned and ultra right behaviour. Meanwhile, the true ultra rights are just as confused and scared as the rest, and in order to compensate they come up with extremely pathetic and laughable theories of superiority. These alone could answer to you the question of why the vast majority of Greeks generally do not invest in novel imaginative artistic ways to promote or revisit or contribute to and advance their rich heritage.
This was a great point to bring up.
