Caucasian genes in Dravidian wombs

[Brian Akers]

In a message dated 11/29/00 2:41:12 PM, iiasguest10 at RULLET.LEIDENUNIV.NL
writes:

>    In conclusion one humble request: if anybody in Europe or America writes
>something foolish or makes a mistake, please, do not make generalisations
>about mentality and attitudes of all European/American/Western scholars.


This reminds me of "Sturgeon's Law."

Theodore Sturgeon was a well-known science fiction writer who once said,
"Ninety percent of science fiction is crap. But then, ninety percent of
_everything_ is crap."

People who take offense at the proclamations of Western Indologists should
realize that some Indologists are smarter/harder working/more talented/better
educated/more thorough, etc., than others, that some deadlines are tighter
than others, some journals are more selective than others, some book
publishers are more reputable than others, some libraries provide more
resources than others, "publish or perish" creates more (but poorer quality)
articles, etc., etc., etc.

And has the acronym LPU made it to Indology? It stands for Least Publishable
Unit. Rather than writing a juicy, robust article, a scholar will break it
into as many smaller parts as possible to generate the largest number of
publications on the ol' CV.

So if one reads a rather poor/silly/under-researched/pointless article that
diminishes Indian Civilization, consider not taking it too personally.

They can't all be gems.

Brian


--------------------
Brian Dana Akers
www.pipeline.com/~sfauthor/
sfauthor at aol.com