Going Where No Culture Industry Has Gone Before

[x_los]

I am VERY TIRED. Still drained from the latest bout of illness, and not a little exhausted by my Pre-Guest Cleaning (girlfriend comes Sunday--I'm excited, a touch nervous, and frantically tidying things) and running around tonight, despite my ingestion of a 1) Java Monster, and 2) Caramel Mocha Chiller (tm, Sonic). Neither of which made me feel as if I had live hamsters who'd just been bitten by cocaine-addicted scorpions surging through my very veins, despite the adverts' implications and my own over-enthusiastic expectations. Energy drinks of the world: where are my hamsters with second hand substance abuse issues? Where?

ON TO THE SCI-FI RAMBLING.

Like everyone else in the world, the popular resurgence of Star Trek has drawn me back to my stream of origin a sci-fi salmon. In the past weeks I've managed to re-watch nearly all of ST:TOS.

It always bothers me that Other Planets have monolithic cultures, as if cultural globalization has just swallowed them as part of their evolutionary process. Initially, I assume a vastly alien culture would appear uniform by virtue of the great differences that must exist between products of entirely disparate cultural origins. But as we get to know a species over centuries, shouldn't some distinction become apparent between, say, Vulcans from different hemispheres? Betazoids of different religions?

Re: Vulcans, it sometimes seems as if we only ever come in contact with members of the highest class. In the original series we see Spock's marriage: hyper-traditional and redolent of privilege. In the later-made and earlier-set Enterprise we see another much like it.

Star Trek is big on advanced societies being inherently classless. Whether or not this is naive, and if wealth might be supplanted as the basis of such a hierarchical system by privilege based on traditional prerogatives, what might be seen as a meritocracy, or a valuation based on an individual or family's perceived contribution to society, can be laid aside for now. Suffice it to say that kibbutzniks traditionally wield a numerically disproportionate political power in the Israeli Knesset, as do Ashkenazim in Israeli politics, without the benefit of necessarily being more monied--so there's certainly precedent.

The Western perception of Japan is that everyone knows how to run a tea ceremony and cavorts with geishas. These are historically very upper-class activities, built around having the leisure time necessary to develop and devote to them. Vulcan attitudes and mental disciplines (meditation, philosophical education, occasional retreats into monasticism), at least according to human historical tradition, smack of the money necessary to devote to a fetishization of an ironically complicated scholasticism-cum-Buddhist-esque simplicity.

Also, there could be a wicked underlying complacency to stoicism--its easier to be untroubled, to consider emotional outbursts gauche, if you're entitled enough to make most worry unnecessary?

As this culture progressed, did identifiable upper class behaviors become the signifiers of Vulcan-ness? There's something disquieting about the loss of those other classes' cultural identities, even as the loss of ethnic identities is a sad end to what we have to assume was initially a plurality of experiences. The ways and views of the middle and lower classes seem to have been lost, either as these classes gained the resources that enabled mobility and imitative behavior (or is this romanticizing their difficulties?), in some reaction to contact with the larger galaxy, or by virtue of a wholesale trend towards homoginization.

This always bothers me about Doctor Who, as well, re: the 'Gallifreyans' vs. 'Time Lords' nomenclature thing. I have to say I much prefer it if the appellation 'Time Lord' is synonymous with 'Gallifreyan,' rather than handed out only to Academy graduates, nobles, or the somehow /specially/ intellectually gifted in Gallifreyan society. I think I find the Doctor running away from a species-wide elitism more resonant? I want 'Come now, we're both Time Lords' to be a call to something more fundamental and significant than 'help a brother out, we both went to Eton.' My general squick's more complicated than that, but I'm not sure how to parse and articulate it. I just wholesale /prefer/ 'Time Lord' simply meaning Gallifreyan.

Spock's class status is revealed rather slowly--we learn that he's from a /very/ well-placed family only in second season's Amok Time when Kirk and McCoy notice that a reactionary Vulcan politician of interplanetary renown is officiating at Spock's wedding, and comment on it. Spock's in no position at that point to observe or react to their surprise. Later we meet a prominent Vulcan ambassador, and Kirk is surprised that the ambassador and his human wife are Spock's parents. It's interesting that Spock's human mother and Nurse Chapel both imply that for all the touted superiority of their emotional stoicism, Vulcans have some expectations of submissiveness from their wives that humans typically find sexist or strange. This isn't mentioned again in later encounters with the species, perhaps thought better of by later writers.

From a social sciences perspective, the dragging out the 'tortured half-breed' trope with Spock's a bit of a backward-looking step from a show that so wanted to be progressive.

As a parting non sequitur, I'm so, so tired of chasing bats out of the kitchen. This is like the fourth this summer? We have to be /doing/ something different to attract them, or their diminishing habitat is pushing them further into the city than I've ever seen. But screw environmental worries: damn bats! All up in my kitchen! Confounding the Schnoodle! ...I'm sorry, I have to go now and found a prog rock group, 'Confounding the Schnoodle.' Excuse me. I'll be back later. With Grammies.

Comments

[aralias.livejournal.com]

the thing about whole planets having the same culture has always annoyed me too - and they only don't when there's some sort of giant war going on, which i suppose is backe up by how there's always giant wars going on on earth, but still.

i like this especially - I assume a vastly alien culture would appear uniform by virtue of the great differences that must exist between products of entirely disparate cultural origins.

interesting, though of course - not true, because most sci fi planets are populated by "basically humans".

[aralias.livejournal.com]

mmm, gallifrey is so pretty. remember the orange sky? remember how it looked nothing like a big bog in the middle of england on a nasty day? oh yes, well do i remember that.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Oh hey, wow, what a geographic difference that was! Not a quarry in sight.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you make a good point there at the end. Also I think you've ironed your hair today, I'm watching you pack and it looks v. subdued.

[reserve.livejournal.com]

One day I'm going to write this REALLY long AU in which Spock in the (illegitimate) child of a wealthy German-Jewish banker and a Lithuanian woman from the Lower East Side, and where he spends the majority of his time in his father's home, with his other children, and goes to fancy preparatory,school and then runs away to fight in WWI, because by God, he's a German... but then! All hell breaks loose when he's like, 40 and he has to reconcile this huge gaping pain when both his father's idea of high German culture is destroyed, and to the east, his mother's family perishes as well, and the shtetl dies. And then he meets Kirk, who's a kind of new cowboy journalist/resistance leader, who is in NYC pleading with the wealthier families for operating money so that he can continue to support the efforts of his movement, and Spock is moved by Kirk's work, and brash attitude, his blatant american-ness.. and they travel to Europe together during/after the war to help with the relief effort/fight the Nazis. There is drama, and tenderness, and hot sex in tents and sewers.

Mostly this is my way of saying to that I associate Vulcans with Jews.

Mostly this is my way of saying to that I associate Vulcans with Jews.



AND IT TURNS OUT THAT I AM ACTUALLY WRITING KAVALIER AND CLAY. OOPS.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Really? Rather than Time Lords, Bajorans and Ferengi, we're going with our latest genocide narrative inna box? :p

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

I remember that comment about Vulcan wives. I was intrigued by it, because sexist as it sounds, it seems to indicate something significant, if subtle, about how Vulcans do things and/or their biological impulses. That's something I always wanted more of: how do other races differ from us in biology and instinct? Where do the changes start, and how to we get here from there? Star Trek explored this more habitually than any other show I can think of, but still they only took it so far (understandably, since they had other things to accomplish).

But the wife thing seems to point toward much more interesting things than the movie's "Let's poke fun at the half-breed!" Granted at least they made the attempt to put it in a
Vulcan context (you fail at being Vulcan!) But I could wish they'd gone for something more complex there. At least, a question of how being half-and-half would actually affect him? The show handled it with more panache 40 years ago...though I allow that it had about 70 hours more runtime than the movie.

Still, I've always been sad that in shows like Who and Trek that so often the alien cultures are not allowed to be as weird as they ought to be. You'd figure: alien culture, alien species, TOTALLY DIFFERENT, right? But 19 times out of 20, they're just funny-shaped humans (though I do recall a conversation in "Cat's Paw" where Spock commented on the alienness of beings from outside the galaxy compared to the general homey familiarity of our galaxy's civilizations...which is an interesting thought with interesting implications).

In Who, it's especially disappointing because he's an alien. But in New Who they've humanized him so much--human emotions, human reactions, apparently 99% of the time human biology and capabilities--that sometimes I find myself forgetting. At least in Old Who they kept him mysterious.

Still, re-watching old Trek delights me with far Out There they were willing to go back then compared to now. Given the lack of pop cultural sophistication at the time re: cultural awareness, it was impressive--sadly moreso than today, when we're supposedly more enlightened about embracing diversity, but apparently far less creative in our entertainment.

The whole "one planet, one culture" thing started to strike me as silly when I was fangirling Star Wars (where they took it as far as "one planet, one climate" but enough on that). At least in Trek, they give it enough thought to associate globalization with cultural evolution. Whether it's actually better, I don't know. The human diversity is still there, apparently. Uhura identifies as Bantu and speaks Swahili. Chekov, from his accent, speaks Russian. Sulu is a weird blend of Americanized Japanese (which seems prescient these days--but wasn't he adopted by American parents or something?). I've always wondered: do the nations still exist, or are they referring to them as regions under a world government? How is Earth arranged in the 23rd century?

And I suppose, in all fairness, they just didn't have time to devote to the cultural nuances of other species when the show was supposed to be about starship captains who were only going to be there for a few days.

[gritsinmisery.livejournal.com]

Well, TOS was big on hyperbole, anyway. All the societal differentiations were either artificially induced (and therefore bad, m'kay kids?) or when you did get "naturally" differentiated societies, everything was taken to an extreme to make a point -- "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," "The Cloud Minders." But extreme societal homogeneity (izzata word?) was also derided. TOS was very libertarian... Heinlein probably loved it, (except that he never loved anything not of his own making.)

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Cloud Miners was chemical, though? But I always saw the economic system as more socialist?

[gritsinmisery.livejournal.com]

Cloud Miners was chemical, though?

Thus the quotation marks around naturally.

But I always saw the economic system as more socialist?

In Cloud Minders, or the show as a whole?

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Ah. And I mean the moneyless Federation economy, at least as Next Gen always tries to explain it?

[gritsinmisery.livejournal.com]

Ah, but that was Next Gen. Dear, sweet, "the 'Murican way is best, even if it means breaking the Prime Directive to show the lost souls that" TOS never really emphasized the Earth or Federation economies all that much. America was far more globally-minded by TNG (and more willing to see Our Heros as occasionally In The Wrong)... I realize the comments have expanded to the whole ST-verse now *points up and down*, but I was stickin' to TOS when I put in my oar.

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Re: Time Lords vs. Gallifreyans, "Invasion of Time" makes it sound like you're a Time Lord unless you reject it--like the "barbarians" who live outside the citadels, and are one of my favorite things ever for subverting the barbarian trope. Super-evolved race who wear furs and carry bone spears around because they enjoy fighting for survival. Awesome.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

That's my preferred explanation too? And I do enjoy Outsiders as drop-outs/a rebellious or reactionary movement that rejects the citadel system.

[neutralalienist.livejournal.com]

The human race in Star Trek seems pretty monolithic too. Every time Kirk (or, well, more often Picard, I'm a really a TNG girl) talks about humans - it's just humans. There are no divides, no differences ever acknowledged. We are the plucky passionate people of the galaxy, across the board. We have the same values and beliefs. So at least they don't just do it to aliens, I suppose, but it's still bothersome.

With Time Lords, I do consider their culture monolithic, but then I also think they're mostly congregated in the Citadel, and have been stagnant for millennia, so there's a reason for it. I never liked the Gallifreyan/Time Lord divide, either, especially in light of the new series - if that were true, the Doctor shouldn't just be lamenting the Time Lords. Besides, I like that 'Time sense' to be inherent; if they're automatically more in touch, more able to control it, they're more alien.

Besides, they are already people outside society, a different class - the Outsiders.

...Awww, bats! <3 /would probably not feels this way if she had to chase them out of the kitchen

There was a bit on Animal Planet where a bunch bats had decided to make an office building their new home. So...could be worse?

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Indeed, they occasionally include minority groups in positive, responsible rolls, but the individuals in question are all culturally white, to the degree that I didn't really understand Bashir wasn't just a tan Englishman with a somewhat unusual name when I was little.

Or the opposition to things among humans (like Data's rights, or the Maquis) is /issue/ based, rather than part of a larger scope of trends/set of perspectives?

Gallifreyans I actually WANT to be monolithic or almost as a result of creepy Rassilonate cultural engineering, as BFAs like Zagreus or Omega sort of suggest took place. And I'm bit on the 'natural, non-technological ability to sense time' as well, for special-cool-timey-whimey points.

They're not at all bad, but my little siblings FREAK OUT about them, and it's shreiking at 3am and not fun.

...the office bat building is REALLY CUTE, though. :3

[neutralalienist.livejournal.com]

Yeah - they pay lip service to different cultures, with Chekov's Russian pride and Picard's affection for France, but it doesn't seem to cause any major differences. Just...aesthetics and differing histories and it's all the same now. (I always figured that was why Chekov went overboard, personally, but that is purely conjecture.)

Exactly. I love, say, The High Ground? Where freedom fighting/terrorism is viewed from both sides, and there are no easy answers. But the cultural heritage of any character, how that would affect their opinions, never comes into play.

I definitely think Rassilon had a lot to do with it, which is marvellously fucked up. (I think technology and some biological engineering enhanced it, but that it was always there. Regeneration I'm not so sure about - maybe they took the natural potential and expounded on it? I definitely don't like the idea that you're awarded them upon graduating Academy, though.)

Clearly they need to learn to love the bats.

They just minded their own business, too! Lalala, flying over your head, don't mind me.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

There's something weird about outsourcing the issues of racial or theological difference onto aliens? During the 'Bajorans are Israeli' DS9 phase we def. had some 'Jem Haddar are Arabic' parallels in play. Making difference alien and irreconsilable is a creepy gesture?

Yeah, I hate graduation-regeneration kiiind of a lot.

[neutralalienist.livejournal.com]

I understand using aliens to mirror and examine humanity, but...it works much better if the humans are different from each other, so those differences aren't automatically limited to different species, different planets.

Yeeah. Especially since it'd mean the Doctor probably took Susan before she got any more regenerations, which - really? Doubt it.

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

I always wished they had spent more time in the original series exploring the dichotomy of Vulcan disavowing of emotion as a means to peace versus their not-too-terrible but still there sexist attitudes. Oh well, can't have everything.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Right, because where's the logic in human sexism? It's an inefficient use of resources and often a highly emotive topic--so where's a Vulcan edition coming from/how do they justify it?

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

It's even more boggling and frustrating when you stop to think that their distant Romulan cousins (though they are war-loving and emotion-filled) don't seem to implement it at all, really. The Romulans didn't seem to mind giving women positions of authority. The Romulan commander comes to mind.

[meaning-full.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I love how in Next Gen they're always like, "well, in OUR culture, we have no need of simple thing like money anymore. We can create matter," in this really condenscending way. Like, "why don't you guys just create matter? Wtf is up with that? Silly lower species."