“The creators of the first civilizations descended from generations of wall builders.”
— David Frye, Walls
— David Frye, Walls
Just started and so far the book is excellent. Here David Frye on the Roman poet Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso 43 B.C.—17/18 AD) and his relationship with walls, spear in hand.
“Without walls, there could never have been an Ovid, and the same can be said for Chinese scholars, Babylonian mathematicians, or Greek philosophers.” — Walls, David Frye
Walls are holy. In ancient Mesopotamia even the Gods built walls and dug ditches.
“A city was a thing with walls, just as it had always been—except in the extraordinary case of Sparta.”
— Walls, David Frye
— Walls, David Frye
You can't have a garden (civilization) without fences (walls). David Frye on the walled Athens and the martial Sparta.
Poetic history writing here. David Frye on the First Emperor of China (259-210 B.C.) and his wall building, also mentioning Shulgi, King of Ur 2029-1982 B.C.). Both fairly gigantic figures on the road to human civilization.
Walls are for peace. David Frye on the revolution in anthropology that finally made academia admit that warfare didn't start with walled cities. Quite the contrary.
Walls are for peace and civilization:
“Virtually every potential opening along the roughly five-thousand-mile border separating the Eurasian Steppe to the north and the zone of urban civilization to the south was, at one time or another, walled off.”
— Walls, David Frye
“Virtually every potential opening along the roughly five-thousand-mile border separating the Eurasian Steppe to the north and the zone of urban civilization to the south was, at one time or another, walled off.”
— Walls, David Frye
David Frye on the Chinese Ambassador and explorer Zhan Qian (張騫 d. 164-113 B.C.) whose exploration of the Western Wastelands enabled the opening of the Silk Road, connecting the walled civilizations of Central Asia for trade and commerce, breaking China's isolation.
David Frye on the 14th c. walls of Ireland, and how the English expression describing someone as outside civilization literally stems from what is “beyond the stakes”, beyond the pale...
In the New World just as in the Old World, the rise of civilization was only possible where first the walls had risen. David Frye on the walled civilizations of America.
The most infamous wall of the 20th century was a mere trifling compared to the far longer walls separating the East from the West, from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea. (David Frye, Walls)
David Frye on how paradoxically, the Walls are coming back with a vengeance. The world today has more walls than ever before, and just as before it started in the Middle East, by now essentially completely walled.
India and South East Asia is not far behind, almost completely walled, electrified, mined and barbed wired, in the tallest borders of the world.
Meanwhile in Africa, the walls are coming up. Most of which are sponsored by nations and people who officially are opposed to the building of walls. Wacky indeed.
The one Western nation that was the undisputed leader of wall building is of course the U.S. Starting with Clinton in 1993.
David Frye on the inane slogan “Build bridges not walls“.
Anna Q. Nilsson (1888-1974) was a hugely famous movie star who (without meaning to) in 1926 started the gated community trend in the U.S., first among the rich and famous, then for ever wider circles of the population.
“Are we forever building ‘monuments to fear’?”
— David Frye, Walls, 2018
— David Frye, Walls, 2018
