[UA] America by Prime Time (was Greetings)

[Liam Routt]

I hope this is my last message on this Off Topic topic...

Cassady Toles wrote:
> 
> 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.

Not in the media I watch - there are people cast specifically in roles
from other states, and racial groups, exactly because they are from other
states and racial groups...

> I know there are different Areas of Australia (but I don't know how many or
> how different they are).

More different than most Australians probably think they are, but a lot
less diverse than the US.

>  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.

Those are *exactly* the sterotypes which I think the US entertainment and
media industry provides to the world. Exactly. Those are the terms that
I'd expect everyone of my Australian players to use to describe those
states, and indeed I would not even think twice about assuming such
attitudes from them. Attitudes which I might well play with when
providing other, less stereotypical people from those (and other)
locations.

> 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).  

Which is, I think, very well represented by the breadth of film, TV,
fiction, and non-fiction media about the various and sundy states, issues,
and historical events in the US. If anything, I think the damned variety
of attitudes and cluttered history of the country makes Australia's past
seem simplistic and one-dimensional, at times. The history of this
country, and indeed most of the issues which plague it today, is more on
par with the issues that have shaped any single state (or cluster of
related states) in the US. What we see when we look across at the US is a
country which has a stupifying (at times) variety of different ideas and
attitudes. Like Europe, but all under the one umbrella...

> 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).

The bulk of the population (as James has said elsewhere) live in large
cities that are not unlike the large cities of the world, and have similar
populations to other large, but not extreme, cities. But these are pockets
(really large pockets), and then there is a lot of land like that stuff in
Iowa, or even Ohio, with farms and towns. And then there are the desert
areas which have even fewer people. But those areas are not there for most
of us. They are "somewhere else". We, mostly, live the sort of lives you
do. With the volume turned down a notch, as things are not *as* important
in the major Australian cities, in general. Its all a notch lower. I
couldn't stand the thought of staying in Chicago - it was all too extreme.

The cities here don't have the extreme ghettos, although the line between
rich and poor is widening. And the suburbs perhaps take up more of the
cities than they do in many large US cities. Melbourne, at least, is one
of the most sprawling metropolises in the world, I believe, but most of
that is treed streets and suburbs, not bombed-out apartments and low-rent
districts.

My impression is Australia is more overwhelmingly middle-class (or even
upper middle-class) than most of the largest US cities.


> 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.

I think we can. We see it in films so often. On TV. Its crammed with
people. It has tall buildings that go on for miles. You can see an
Australian skyline, but we see New York as a background for films, TV
shows, and computer games, much less the news, all the time. And all the
views of it we get give us an increasingly enormous picture of it. Sure
going there would add a dimension, but we *do* have an existing
impression.

I don't think that Australians neccessarily fully apprehend the
frightening size of the US population centers; but I do think they can
discern it as much as you can without being there. Which is a lot.



All of this is written in the spirit and name of informing, and not
attacking, if that makes a difference.

Take care,

Liam
--
Liam Routt                                               liam at routt.net
Darcsyde Productions                           http://www.darcsyde.org/

        -- still waiting for the Absolute Destiny Apocalypse --

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