I’m about six months short of this blog’s tenth anniversary, so I know that every second reader out there has a cousin Philippe from Normandy, who loves Slurpees, washing his face with a cloth and Lincoln Continentals. The list is mostly tongue-in-cheek.
But I’m interested in how you experience a new place not only in the enormous differences (People constantly use words I don’t understand! There are vineyards everywhere! It’s sunny!) but also in the small and subtle ones. I’ve written about these changes before, like how in Malta there’s an ice cream season and fish availability depends on the wind.
You discern the foreignness of a place when you experience the prosaic details of your life differently. You’ll have lukewarm Coke, and moist hands leaving the bathroom and the like.
These sounds like complaints, but they’re not. Except for Slurpees. I miss Slurpees.
Because this assortment of minuses is replaced by an equally fascinating miscellany of new quirks. When I lived in Ireland, I discovered the pedestrian wonder that is the trouser press. In Morocco, I was both disgusted and delighted by watching the butcher, well, butcher a chicken right in front of my eyes. France is already serving up its own curiosities. The orange juice is better here. There’s a weird culture of motorcycles getting the right of way. Everyone greets each other in our little town, even the newcomers. The towels are warm.
Some days, the little differences seem to be the real source of a place’s foreignness.
The other day I saw this neat mapon Reddit. It’s supposed to show movies that best illustrate each of the fifty states.
I got to thinking about how many popular movies have been shot up in Canada. That inspired a map of my own. I tried to select the most culturally important movie for each province. Here’s what I came up with. Click to enlarge:
I tried to view things through the long lens of historical context. Yes, the Twilight movies are more popular than First Blood today. However, I think we’re likelier to have ‘John Rambo’ as a cultural touchstone in 50 years than Edward and Jacob.
Back in August, I mentioned the Conservative government’s cuts to arts programs, and their controversial grab for greater control over funding for film and TV production.
In roughly $5 billion worth of programs spending, Prime Minister Harper’s $45 million cuts feels like a rounding error. Did they hope to make the cuts quietly, or make a bold statement about tightening belts and, maybe, cultural funding? I’m not sure, but it feels like the issue broke the wrong way. Arts funding became an unexpectedly prominent issue in the campaign, providing fodder for the opposition Plus, the move may have provoked some previously apathetic non-voters to action.
As the Globe and Mail reports, Prime Minister Harper has repealed the problematic clause in Bill C-10. It feels like damage control:
The Conservative Leader’s about-face comes as Tory hopes of a majority fade, and support for the party is sagging in the crucial battlegrounds of Quebec and Ontario.
The move appears to be aimed at appeasing voters incensed at the provision in C-10, and at the nearly $45-million in recent cuts to a swath of other arts and culture programs.
The Globe also notes that all four opposition parties have promised to reinstate the $45 million in cuts.
My friend Gillian linked to this engrossing story of the Miracle Theater in Pigeon Forge, “a stunning musical recreation of the life of Christ told in epic proportion”. Check out the video, this thing is a seriously epic show (and, like so much of Americana, ripe for parody). Speaking as somebody who’s directed the (very) occasional play, I think it’s tacky to have Jesus sing on the cross, particularly in a post-Life of Brian world.
The folks at the Miracle Theatre have a mighty beef with comedian and actress Kathy Griffin, for something she said while accepting an award at this year’s Emmys:
That beef is apparently worth US $90,000 of the theatre’s money, which they used to take out a full page ad (PDF) in USA Today arguing that “Enough is Enough” and scolding Kathy Griffin for her outburst. Griffin was also criticized by the Catholic League, to which she replied “am I the only Catholic left with a sense of humour?”
Before I proceed with the main point of this meandering post, I should observe that this has been a win-win for everybody involved. The Miracle Theatre blows some money on a big ad, but gets a bunch of spin-off attention in the mainstream press. Kathy Griffin, a self-professed ‘D-list celebrity’ gets attention reserved for, well, B-list stars, and plenty of pictures in the paper with her clutching an Emmy.
A Thoughtful, Moderate Response
Here’s what I really wanted to reference: Phil Cooke’s elegant, thoughtful, moderate response to the whole affair. According to his bio, Cooke is “a working producer in Hollywood with a Ph.D. in Theology.” He needs a Wikipedia entry.
In our media culture, the extremists get all the air time. The media rarely wants to hear from the moderates, they like their sound bites O’Reilly and Garofalo-style. The church figures we see on TV and in the newspaper tend to be radically conservative. Based on his response, Cooke doesn’t seem to fit that mold. Go read the whole thing, but here are a couple of bits I like:
Does standing on a street corner holding posters of bloody, aborted fetuses, change the minds of people considering abortions? Or does it make the protestors look like radical fundamentalists?
Does Pastor Fred Phelps, who created the God Hates Fags website, actually draw homosexuals to the faith, or does he make all Christians look like intolerant jerks? I’m sure he’s a sincere guy wanting to reach the gay community, but does that make it OK?
Er, I haven’t read enough of Cooke’s material to know whether this is sarcasm or not. I hope it is.
Some responses from people have sited [sic] Jesus turning over the tables in the temple as an example that we should be confrontational with the culture. But we often forget that the money changers Jesus tossed out were the religious people. There’s no record to my knowledge of Jesus confronting the non-believing culture. He didn’t go into a Roman guardhouse and turn over the tables.
But for me, the scripture that drives my thinking on the issue is Paul’s note in I Corinthians 5:12 – “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.”
My favourite ammunition for confronting religious nutters and extremists of all creeds is their own text. I’ll keep that last quote handy.
Quite by accident, I stumbled upon (not, I should clarify, StumbledUpon) this old-school page which appears to be a first-year sociology project. It’s a big list of cultural practices for sundry countries around the world. They’re a bit dubious, and thus a bit entertaining. Here’s Canada:
It is polite to maintain good eye contact. Men rise when women enter the room. It is considered bad manners to eat while on the street.
No excessive gesturing.
People stand about a half-meter apart when conversing.
Women greet with a slight nod.
Men greet with a firm handshake.
This reminds me of something. There’s a subtle form of sexism at work when men greet women for the first time and don’t shake their hands, particularly when they’re shaking men’s hands. I watch it happen quite often at network events and parties, and always try to be consistent in my handshaking.
But, anyway, let’s try somewhere more exotic. Say, Lebanon:
To signal that someone is a homosexual, lick the little finger and brush it across the eyebrow.
People of the same gender stand closer together.
Raising a closed fist into the air is making a rude gesture.
To nod your head means yes. To signal no, point your head sharply upward and raise your eyebrows.
Greetings made be exchanged with the nod of a head; men will also tip their hats at women.
Wow, that ‘you’re gay’ gesture is quite involved. And Westerners must be baffled by the ‘no’ gesture.
