[UA] Greetings

[sneadj at mindspring.com]

Greg Stolze <holycrow at mindspring.com> wrote:

> >From: "Epoch" <msulliva at wso.williams.edu>
> >Subject: Re: [UA] Greetings
> >
> >> My experience is that non-U.S. residents tend to have a view of the
> >> U.S. that could only be described as a caricature
> >
> >my experience of most people is that they tend to have a view of most
> >other countries that could only be described as caricature...
> 
> I'll go farther.  I suspect most Americans' view of America is largely
> a caricature.  At least our views of "America that starts more than
> fifty miles from my house."  I've been to Texas twice.  Despite the
> fact that two dear friends of mine lived there, my impression of the
> state is probably more informed by Foghorn Leghorn than by actual
> history.  I've never been to Montana -- its representatives in my mind
> are the Freeman militia and the Unibomber.

Fair enough.  I remember what I thought LA was like before I moved 
there.  My opinion was largely informed by 80s cocaine films like 
"Less Than Zero" and old episodes of "The Rockford Files".  Then I 
moved there and found it was a whole lot more like a cross 
between "Repo Man" and "They Live" (the later film honestly 
ceased to be humorous after I moved there).  

The most fun part of living in LA was noticing the bits of LA in most 
TV and movies (including ones set elsewhere). This radically 
changed my perception of such media.

When I've paid short visits to other cities I've noticed how much of 
an impact media images have on my view of the place.  I've found 
myself focusing on those features that conform to media images, 
while I sometimes pay less attention to those that contradict it.  
For me, the only real way around this is to actually live there for a 
while.

It also fascinates me that there is very little of the US that isn't at 
least broadly parodied in US media.  I have (vastly distorted I'm 
sure views) of the entire South & Southwest and have only visited 
one city in either.  

Do folks in other countries get similar media-pictures of distant 
parts of their own nation, or do they have actual media blank 
spaces where they must relay on word of mouth and similar means 
of acquiring info?


-John Snead sneadj at mindspring.com    

_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua