I believe in letting an invader in and then setting a good example. That is the reply Benjamin Britten gave to a tribunal for the registration of conscientious objectors in 1942 when asked "What would you do if Britain was invaded?" I was reminded of it when researching my recent article on Marco Pallis , who was an authority on both Tibetan Buddhism and early music, and, together with Britten, a champion of Purcell . In his best-selling book Peaks and Lamas , which was written in 1939, Pallis tells this story about the Sakyas , the ethnic group of which Gautama Buddha was a member which inhabited the foothills of the Himalayas. News was brought to them of an impending attack by a hostile tribe and it was debated anxiously whether resistance should be offered or not. Eventually they decided that, as followers of [Buddhist] Doctrine, they were debarred from offering armed resistance, but must welcome the invaders as friends, so they threw down their arms... The Tibetans, how...
Comments
I am not sure where you stay when you are in Paris, but have you ever tried Les Pipos (2 Rue de l'Ecole Polytechnic)? A slight caveat in that we have not been for about 3 years, but it had not changed in the 10 or 12 years we had been visiting on a fairly regular basis.
Affordable hotel and restaurant recommendations make a change from suggested CDs. Does anyone have any ideas for Lille where I will be in a couple of weeks?
http://www.opera-lille.fr/en/saison-09-10/bdd/cat/music/sid/99185_mohamed-rouicha