originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
My suggestion about the British Empire was more than a bit satiric. It's point was that the notion of classic is historically defined by an accident of empire (although also by the taste of imperialists, which we have learned to share). I expect that, in choosing wines to import, just as in choosing friezes to liberate, the Brits exercised very good taste, in fact. But it was based on where they were and what they learned and for how long. There's a reason Greek architecture is classical in both meanings of the term and Japanese or Mayan isn't, and the reason is evaluative about the Greek, but not about the Japanese or Mayan.