TED Community » Sid Tafler
About Me
Author, Great Bear Mountain, a novel about Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal in Europe 30,000 years ago: meeting, mating and (mis)-understanding
- Location:
- Canada, Victoria British Columbia
- Gender:
- Male
- I am:
- Journalist, Writer/Editor
- My website links:
- Then and Now: Why the Deep Past Matters
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TEDCred score: +2.30 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.
A comment on Conversation: Which is the best way to improve your English?
2. Read English.
3. Listen to broadcasts online. There are some that are designed
for non-English speakers.
A comment on Conversation: If you could warn your past self about anything only using two words, what would you say?
A comment on Conversation: How many books have you read this year?
all very good.
A reply on Conversation: What does cave art mean to you?
The marks we make may be on other people, kids,
friends, neighbours, strangers.
A reply on Conversation: What does cave art mean to you?
Merci pour vos reflections.
It seems to me these works at Lascaux took many months or years to learn the technique, master the craft and days to create.
I think you're right about caves, they probably lived in rock shelters, open air spaces, covered by a roof of rock in the side of a mountain. Perhaps at the back of the rock shelter was a cave, that's how I present it in the book I am writing.
I have visited caves in the Lot, but not the Vezere. I look forward to visiting the area in the future.
A reply on Conversation: What does cave art mean to you?
Interesting thought, a backdrop to story-telling or theatre.
Another theatre surmises some of these works were an early form of cinema.
In the right light and angle, some of those forms look like they're in motion.
A comment on Conversation: After carrying you and giving you birth, what was the single most significant thing your mother did in your life?
A reply on Conversation: What does cave art mean to you?
Sometimes it's hard to grasp the idea of deep past of 20,000 or 30,000 years ago.
Even a few centuries is the distant past for many of us.
Any assumptions about the way those people thought or why they created these works much be approached with humility.
I agree, Lascaux is one of the finest galleries of all time.
I have had the privilege of seeing two painted caves in France and have read many books on the subject. One I would recommend is The Nature of Paleolithic Art Dale Guthrie.
A comment on Conversation: Can and will books ever be replaced by something other than we know it today?
Books are beloved by many cultures of the world, but they are only
the mass market delivery vehicle of the last few hundred
years.
They will likely be replaced with a new form of technology.
But we must be careful not to throw out the baby, and find
a way to properly reward authors and other book-making
professionals.
A reply on Conversation: Is war inevitable? Is it a natural state of human affairs or an aberration, absent from our distant past and perhaps, our future as well?
that we had a few thousand aberrant years, with lots of war and killing,
but many thousands of years before and after with very few wars.
You can walk down the street or
into a store in perhaps 99% of the villages, towns and neighbourhoods
in the world and have nothing to fear.
Some of us may be carnivores, most of us eat plants or animals, but I doubt it is in our
nature to kill other humans. We are like wolves, efficient hunters and killers, but a wolf very rarely
kills another wolf.