[UA] America by Prime Time (was Greetings)

[Cassady Toles]

On Thu, 17 May 2001 00:38:28 , ua at lists.uchicago.edu wrote:

  Of course not. But not every American TV show that we see is "Friends" 
  (although I'd rather have Friends than Survivor 2, which I've mercifully 
  missed). We get Buffy too.  ;)

It's worth noting, that over 90% of television and a good percentage of
movies is written, cast, and directed by people in Southern California,
additionally, most of that is filmed there too.  As a result, movies and TV
really tend to make America seem more homogenized than it is.  People in
Maine speak a dialect closer to a London Cockney accent than to a
Californian one.  People in the south speak a dialect that is vastly
dissimilar to each and contains variation like You-all (which TV and films
almost always depicts as plural--You-all is singular all you-all is
plural--at least in Tennessee, but in Virginia it may be different).
  
I know there are different Areas of Australia (but I don't know how many or
how different they are).  I also know that TV rarely depicts the fact that
most other states view Californians as vapid, self-centered morons, while
most states besides New York see New York as home to nothing but
cold-heartless jerks who can walk by an old lady being gang-raped by members
of the mafia and not care.

  Certainly not. I'm very aware that there are social issues that go back 
  hundreds of years, and that things like the death penalty are racist for 
  reasons that I have only been informed of in a basic manner.
  But I am presented with this basic level of information frequently,
whether 
  it be through the news, through print reporting, through films like Higher

  Learning (which I mostly like and remember for its music), and through 
  references in some roleplaying games (not many; they seem strangely anglo
to 
  me).
  
  On the other hand, the kind of experiences I've had with growing up in 
  Sydney are not reflected in very many forms of media at all, and so I
would 
  be surprised and flattered if you'd managed to be informed of them.
  
  If my experiences with Australian multiculturality are represented in the 
  media far less than American racial issues are, then I find it hard to 
  understand how Americans would be able to learn about them.

It is also worth noting that the "issues of multiculturality" as you put it
are different in all fifty states.  The multi-cultural issues you see in
California are very different than the ones you see in New Mexico are very
different than the ones you see in Georgia are very different from the fact
that you only meet white people in most of Kansas (yes the entire state of
Kansas).  
  
  If I'm wrong, I'll be pleased.  :)

I don't see it as being about right and wrong.  It's really about context. 
I can't imagine what it would be like to be able to drive to more than one
country (something you can't do in australia) but you can do in Poland or
Italy.  But I also can't imagine having as much space in a nation as there
is in Australia.  Just by the numbers (population vs. land mass) it must be
amazing, but I know that there are cities.  I just don't know how big.  I
assume there are skyscrapers, but I don't know how many.  I've never seen an
Australian skyline (though I hope to if I can get on an international tour).
But I don't know if you can really imagine how packed New York City is.  I
don't know if some of the people on this list who are American and have
never been there can imagine how packed New York City is.
  
  This is undoubtedly true. You are the Great Satan, after all. ;)
  
  (that's intended as a joke)

And a funny one at that... :)
  
  Touche. Porn isn't really a religious issue here, as I understand it -
it's 
  a political issue driven by some conservative elements of the government. 
  Australia had a conservative backlash in recent years, but we're a notably

  secular nation.
  
Porn may not be a big religious issue, but I heard Alan Moore's "From Hell"
was also banned there.  I can't imagine what it's like to live in a country
where that could happen.  There are cities where their libraries may not
carry books around here and schools that won't teach them, but the idea of a
book being illegal to own, read, or distribute totally wierds me out.  I can
walk down the street with a copy of Mein Kompf, The Torah translated into
English, the Protocals of the Elders of Zion, and the Huey P. Newton story
all at once and have bought them at the same store.  Further, if someone
tried to keep me from getting any of these, I could sue them (and win
money).  I really don't understand a country any other way.
  
  There may be cultures where elements of the OU may be fairly acceptable in

  the popular tradition (I'm not in one of them). The way that one of my 
  friends talks about Scottish relatives, you'd think they were all 
  Plutomancers.
  
  I'm thinking that the fairly permissive and tolerant attitudes that 
  urbanised Australians have towards sexuality might be extended to *some* 
  occult behaviour. Maybe it's because I'm listening to the B52s while
reading 
  my email (again):
  
  "Wanna be the daughter of Dracula? Wanna be the son of Frankenstein? Let's

  meet, and have a baby now."
  
  Come to think of it, dipsomancers could fit in quite easily. Do you think 
  that dipsomancer cabals ever go on pub crawls before going to duke it out 
  with rivals?
  
  However, my parents have both worked in mental health, and I'm fairly 
  certain that anybody known for the behaviour that entropomancers and 
  epideromancers get up to would spend a week or two in hospital.
  
  In general, I have no problem at all with rpgs being set in the USA;
that's 
  where the market is, and its a great setting for action, conspiracy, and a

  multitude of other game types. Naturally, I still wonder about my own 
  country...
  
  It's possibly more interesting to think about UA and the OU in the 
  distinctive and violent underworlds of England. Throw an adept or two into

  "Snatch", for instance, and think of the merry fun!
  
I'm not saying it isn't worth placing these things in different countries
and changing them, but I think it's silly to assume that any of us really
understand each other's cultures without seeing them firsthand.
  
Just a little snack for thinkin'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I am the messiah in the bottom of a bottle of Jack Daniel's.  Drink of me
and
no peace." -- Cobra Baghdad www.peoplehateme.com
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