From cclash@web.net Wed Sep 11 14:29:14 1996 Date: Wed, 11 Sep 96 12:46:44 -0400 (EDT) From: "Jocelyn J. Paquette Bob Ewing" To: ftp@etext.org Subject: Heartbeat#4 @~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@ HEARTBEAT #4 a free weekly email exploration of late 1990s culture both on and off the Net. url: http://www.izad.com/cultureclash. published by Culture Clash Communications cclash@web.net @~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@ STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART: Talking TV: I like watching television. My program choices vary from sitcoms {Frazier, Roseanne, Grace Under Fire} to dramas {NYPD Blues} to gradening shows {The Cottage Garden, Quest for The Rose}. I'm also a big Blue Jays fan. Despite this, I sense that much of what I watch, excluding the ads, is propoganda rather than programming. First let me state that I believe that the reason tv exists is to deliver a maximum audience to advertisers. The shows we see promote a consumer lifestyle that involves living in a state of continuous purchasing. Without question advertising is propoganda, information that is designed to influence your behaviour. It is pervasive and highly intrusive. I tape much of what I watch so that I can fast forward through the commercials. Taping also enables me to watch programs when I choose. I even tape Blue Jays baseball for watching late night, my favourite time for tv watching. I avoid the late tv news, easy to do as it is mostly content free, and as I don't have cable, there is often little on past midnight. Of course my trips to Toronto, where the hotel room comes with cable, indicate that it would be little improvement. Infomercials predominate. Overall television may be an intellectual wasteland but there are oasises out there and with a vcr you can arrange your own safe place for enjoying them. ACTION PLAN: Take a few minutes, sometime this week, and think about what you are wearing. Are you wearing anything that you made? Are you wearing anything made my friend or family? Are you wearing anything made by someone you know? Do you have any idea of who made any item you are wearing; what about your shoes? Do you know anything about the working conditions where any item you are wearing was made? How much the workers were paid? How they were treated? How about the environmental impact? Consider your answers to these questions. The money you spend on clothes can make a difference. STAR TREK: THIRTY YEARS OF STORYTELLING by Jocelyn J. Paquette The original Star Trek opens informing the audience that they are about to embark upon a journey, "to boldy go where no ..."; this classic storytelling technique dropped us into the Star Trek universe and most importantly aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. The nature or feel, if you like, of the series reminds us of something we relate to as it comes from our own experience. No matter were you were from storytelling was part of your heritage. We embraced the welcome and succumbed to the hypnotic allure of the speaker. Whether it was William Shatner as Captain Kirk or Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard, the stardate and opening remarks of their situation, gave us a sense of time and space. In Deep Space Nine Commander Sisko, actor Avery Brooks, shares the narrator duty with various regulars. It could be Major Kira telling of a Klingon ship coming through the worm hole or Odo complaining that Starfleet's reporting mechanism is cumbersome. Kate Mulgrew's Captain Katherine Janeway of the Starship Voyager leads the narration. The narrator or storyteller remains constant throughout the shows. During these articles the question I wanted to bring out was not so much why Star Trek was the phenomenon it was but why it continues to be? Is it the storytelling format that draws us into this future world? We have as part of our heritage as human beings the shared power of the oral tradition. Some cultures have remained stronger and maintained the tradition to present day but all peoples supported to some extent the sharing of events, stories to warn small children of dangers even stories for wooing a loved one. The heritage of passing down experiences, stories, humorous anecdotes, riddles, parables belongs to us. The oral tradition is a form of life experience that is common to all cultures. "Space, the final frontier, these are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. It's five year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations. To boldly go where no man has gone before". The invitation was like asking you to sit down near me and let me tell you a story. "Stardate 3025.3" Kirk and some of the members of the Enterprise crew were about to begin a "Shorelive" (OST, 1966) on a previously chartered planet. The white rabbit is our first clue that this idyllic planet has some secrets. Dr. McCoy simply thinks about Lewis Carroll's creation of Alice and the little girl and the rabbit appear. The use of literary and historical events was connected closely to the familiarity that storytelling provides the viewer. "Requiem for Methuselah" (OST, 1969) brought famous characters from history to us. Da Vinci, Brahms, Galileo had been our mister Flint. An immortal, he lived lives till he needed to disappear and start anew elsewhere. Shakespeare becomes a vehicle in which Data can learn about the human condition. "Darmok" (TNG 1991) brings Picard and the captain of alien ship together on planet where they must learn to communicate with other. Once understanding that the Tamarians speak in metaphors Picard came to realize that the Tamarian Captain sought peace and contact with the Federation. The culmination for me about the storytelling technique of Star Trek and how much it had become a part of the very essence of what the adventures were was the episode entitled "The Storyteller" (DS9 1993) a planet was brought to peace by fabricating a menace that could eradicate them. Every year a ceremony was performed that evoked the spirit in order to pledge themselves to continued peace among the inhabitants. Only the storyteller or the Sirah of the village knew that Dal'Rok was merely an illusion. That secret would be passed down from Sirah to Sirah. The millennium will bring about changes and transformations for all of us. In an age where instant communication is an everyday occurrence, where we can send and receive information from between continents as easily as across town I hope storytelling remains the rich and treasured gift for all. The year 2000 and Star Trek belong to each other. Assured in the annals of our shared realities and love for the "possibilities" Star Trek has secured its future in our hearts. "LIVE LONG AND PROSPER, PEACE AND LONG LIFE" N.B. Facts and title information for all four articles were gleaned from the following Star Trek resource materials. 1) The Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future, by Michael Okuda, Denise Okuda and Debbie Mirek, Pocket Books, 1994. 2) Star Trek Concordance, by Bio Trimble & Paramount Pictures, Ballantine Books, 1976. 3) The Star Trek Compendium by Allan Asherman & Paramount Pictures, Pocket Books, 1989. 4) The Star Trek The Next Generation Companion by Larry Nemecek & Paramount Pictures, Pocket Books, 1992. Other information from the motion pictures, television episodes, comic books, aniteds as 30 years of personal experience as a fan. ---- Live in a rural area or a small town, then the following may interest you: -------------- CONTACT INFO & INSTRUCTIONS ------------- The Update is delivered twice per month by E-mail. Please send a message using the following format: TO: ruralupdate@lists.aspeninst.org SUBJECT: subscribe BODY: Your name, organization, mailing address, phone & fax E-mail address and WWW site (if you have one). If successful, within an hour you will receive confirmation and the most recent issue. Be advised this subscribing format varies somewhat from other listserves. Archives from past years are currently posted on HandsNet at http://www.handsnet.org/handsnet in the Rural Issues forum. A trial subscription is free. By October 1996 I should have a "Best of Rural Update" selection available on the Aspen Institute Web site: http://www.aspeninst.org/rural. 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