Oversaturation

[eliskimo]

Hi! I haven't posted to LJ very regularly of late. It occurred to me this morning that the reason is that I've been having real face-to-face discussions for the past two weeks about things I normally post about. How old fashioned of me! I guess it got the urge to share out my system. I must have an innate need to do it one way or another

Comments

[jenevieve_book]

I've noticed the opposite of you in my LJ posting habits, namely that I've been posting more than usual lately, and I'm pretty sure it's because I'm so holed up with homework right now that I'm not getting as much human contact as usual, so my need to talk about things has to go into my LJ instead.

Also, I very much like that passage you've posted, and it's unfortunate how true it is. What book is it from?

[eliskimo]

Burden of Truth by Charles Colson & Anne Morse.

[mahault]

Makes you think, doesn't it. I don't think we're there yet, but watching the news can be scary these days. As soon as I heard the term Homeland Security, I thought MiniPeace! Thankfully, the world can still be a pretty subversive place sometimes.

[eliskimo]

For me the choice of the term "Homeland Security" had immediate connotations to "Heartland" from the old mini-series "Amerika" and also "Fatherland" (which in turn made me think of "Volksgemeinschaft," the double-speak of a "People's Community" under a dictatorship). Further thinking about it brought to mind the South African-under-aparteid "homelands" (aka "bantustans") - which since it uses the same word probably should have come to mind first, but it didn't.

Whoever thought up the term "Homeland Security" wasn't too bright.

[camillofan]

That reminds me! I had to explain "Room 101" the other day to a class after it failed as a reference (I didn't allude cryptically, either; I said something was "like Room 101 in 1984-- anyone have to read that in HS or for a lit course here?"). I wouldn't have used it if I could have thought of something the would get. Is there a dynamic equivalent for today's young?

[eliskimo]

I think that's the problem with today's cultural oversaturation - it's hard to pin-point something everyone will have seen or read.

What immediately comes to my mind is the episode from Stargate SG-1, Season 2 called "The Gamekeeper." In it, the members of the expedition are hooked up to machines that force them to relive the terrible moments of their past (the death of Daniel's parents, a mission of Col O'Neill's that went terribly wrong).

The difference is, of course, is that the machines weren't intended as a threat or a punishment, but simply to share memories. Unfortunately it chooses intense memories which for the Tau'ri (people from Earth) turn out to be bad ones.

I suppose it would depend on what aspect of Room 101 you were alluding to - the torture, the nightmare, the psychological game, the betrayal ...

[camillofan]

Do you reckon the kids would know "Stargate" better than 1984? Probably a toss-up

Relevance as an issue

[lametiger]

Being in the publishing business (as a typesetter, but since my wife is the proofreader I get in on some of the other discussions as well), one of the things we have to deal with from time to time is "while this illustration is very timely right now, does it have the lasting power to still make its point for as long as we hope this book will still be in print?" It's not merely the oversaturation issue, but a problem as old as history that except for students of history or fans of oldtime books/movies/TV shows, people only understand what they have lived through or experienced directly. In any case, it makes for some interesting discussions. If we dump this cultural/historical reference, what do we replace it with? Can we make this point as "pointedly" in any other way?