Daily Dust :: A Camel in front of the Keops' pyramid
Both Lady Mary Montagu and Lord Byron were enamoured with Albanians... Maybe it was because of their distinctive and very dashing national dress. Maybe it was because fear is an aphrodisiac... Or maybe it was because they took photographs as good as The Albanian's.
Although I suspect that the 'mountain eagles' the British muckity-mucks disported themselves with didn't get around quite as much as this contemporary one does.
Whatever, his travels have thrown up a plethora of landscaping ideas. I am particularly taken with this camel-pyramid combo, but there are plenty more where that one came from. And now that Administration have finally taken some of the 'search for Inky' hard yakka of my hands, I'm going to spend some time exploring The Albanian's world.
Want to see what I'm seeing? Visit The Albanian aka Merkur Nallbani's photostream >>
posted by Director at 6:22 pm
2 Comments:
Thanks for including my picture in your museum and for your words.
Though I am not fully clear with the "...Maybe it was because fear is an aphrodisiac... "
you mean there was/is something like "albanophobia" and Lord Byron used it as an aphrodisiac?
I agree with you, there is an "albanophobia" in the minds of the western world and Europe as a whole, but would like to hear from your perspective why, how is it perceived, how does it look like in your mind.
cheers
Well -- I think Albanians historically have been reknowned for their fierceness and courage... but it is also possible that travelling through the mountains more or less by herself and not speaking much Albanian was probably pretty frightening for an aristocrat like Lady Montagu in the early 19th century. On the other hand she was obviously exhilerated by it all as well...
Lord Byron, on the other hand, was probably busy being turned on by himself...
We don't see many Albanians in Terra Incognita (actually, we don't see anyone much...), so I have little personal experience with Albaniaphobia -- though I am told that many Europeans are racist and exploitative of them.
But Albania sounds like an incredibly interesting place to visit...
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