Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 14:03:14 +0000
From: Elizabeth Van Dort <evolving-AT-csi.com>
Subject: Re: beer mats


John - sounds like that was some Saturday night!!

Cultural representations spelt out in one's food and drink.......

But you can't possibly think that meaningful cultural constructions should
be readily displayed and easily available for  public consumption within
the constraints of a bottle of beer or a plate of vindaloo?  After all,
public economic rationalism seems to be first and foremost a matter of
gathering together as much variety and exotica from the wider world as
possible.  As we all know, the greater the variety, the greater the
likelihood that people will part with their money  (the exchange of money
is after all the real reason for our continued existence - didn't you know
that when the stockmarket falls the earth actually pauses on its axis in
shock).  In this process these items can only ever become trivialised and
delineated as we endeavour to sum them up in a single image or sentence.
It IS just a plate of curry - should we sit and stare at it and count the
cultural references or should we just eat the thing??

So what to do?  Education, understasnding, realisation - but these require
even more globalisation and mass exchange.



And as an Australian, it is considered quite normal and logical amongst the
English that I must therefore speak with a broad accent, be slightly stupid
and say 'G'day' a lot.  After all, these people do know how Australians
behave - they watch 'Neighbours!'    I am generally guilty of none of the
above, but when in the UK I am continually faced with a dilemma - do I
conform to these expectations or confound them?  "You don't behave like a
typical Australian", they say, raising their eyebrows.  "Well, you don't
behave like Benny Hill/Jeremy Beadle/Anthea Turner etc", I retort.

Interesting (off-topic) question - are Australians visiting London (who,
like Americans,  DO always seem ten times louder and more 'Australian' than
they do at home) actually conforming to or confounding this general
representation?


We must be understanding and sympathetic - Australians, Beer and Curry are
in Cultural Crisis!

Ah, don't mind me - it's that Trickster that lives in all of us.....

Liz



--
Liz Van Dort
evolving-AT-csi.com
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/evolving/










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