There are plenty of people who get into western philosophy because of "the mysticism"
March 11, 2026 - 02:49 UTC
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I once wanted to write a Tumblr called The Culture of the Far West, from the POV of a European Studies scholar in an alt history in which Song China industrialized and now in the 1600s the modern world is China + Arab world while Europe is a backwater.
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song china kinda did industrialize, in an early modern sort of way. a lot of what we call the modern world got rolling there. it just played out in different ways between then and the 1800s.
kim stanley robinson's the years of salt and rice is a neat alternate history along those lines.
kim stanley robinson's the years of salt and rice is a neat alternate history along those lines.
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Eastern Roman Empire: once a backwater, now easternizing under an autocratic emperor- song's main ally in the region
latin republic of france: still harbors ambitions of uniting the latin countries, though further away from this than ever after the Song obliterated their armies in Brittany
latin republic of france: still harbors ambitions of uniting the latin countries, though further away from this than ever after the Song obliterated their armies in Brittany
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The main thing you would be thinking of is Through Darkest Europe where Islamic civilization was the first to modernize and industrialize (??? Would have been China) and Europe is a poor, overpopulated backwater and cesspool of "Aquinist" extremism (analogous to Islamic fundamentalism. "Deus Vult")
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this is the same thought-virus i contracted years and years ago from seeing the wikipedia page for harry turtledove's alt-history abt an advanced and united islamic world and a terrorism-ridden european backwater
"what if europe wasnt the one to figure out modernity," THAT is my roman empire
"what if europe wasnt the one to figure out modernity," THAT is my roman empire
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Topics to cover:
* The Four Humors
* Christianity
* Heraldry
* Discoveries the Ancient Greeks and Romans beat China to
* Why are they so anti-Semitic?
* Alphabetic scripts
All in the register of a Tumblr academic telling people not to exoticize peripheral cultures while low-key doing it themselves.
* The Four Humors
* Christianity
* Heraldry
* Discoveries the Ancient Greeks and Romans beat China to
* Why are they so anti-Semitic?
* Alphabetic scripts
All in the register of a Tumblr academic telling people not to exoticize peripheral cultures while low-key doing it themselves.
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I thought there was a series where I think Aztecs and Chinese were the premier competing civilizations.
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