--- Neil Faulkner N.Faulkner@tesco.net wrote: > >
'With whom do you mate?' is answered in a similar
way. You mate with the best imitators of the trendiest memes. So, not only are memes selected for the ability to spread themselves, genes are selected in ordinary Darwininan selection for their ability to make individuals that are good at spreading memes." (Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow, chapter 12)<<
I am currently alternating between fascination and confusion by this meme theory, I'm not sure, but I interpreted the above as Dawkins saying that 'survival of the fittest' is as much a psychological function as it is a physiological one - in as much, that we seek out those that are compatible with our memes in the hopes that a perpetuation of the species continues as per our own individual formula. What are memes exactly? Genes shape our physiology and specify psychological traits - are memes fixed within our personalities or are they malleable? If they work on a sort of pulse system, then are we perhaps drawn to certain individuals through an internal radar?
So you had mods and mod chicks riding around on the
back of a Lambretta, punks and punkettes both sporting badge-festooned leathers, the heavy metal legions etc, all displaying the trendiest memes for their particular subcoterie.<<
The trouble with the 'birds of a feather' attitude though is that it doesn't allow for a varied mix, (as with genes) if memes don't go beyond their own group type then we are setting ourselves up for mental stagnation - lateral thinking and innovative thought is restricted to only a few individuals.
There are good actors and bad actors, of course, but
these evaluations are frequently subjective (the histrionic ability of a certain Mr Darrow being particularly open to question in some circles).<<
Hmmm, very difficult for me to respond to this without being subjective - in fact, I personally believe that all acting performances are viewed in a subjective way - you can (for e.g.) go to the theatre to see a show that you don't think is really your cup of tea and the show is starring someone whom you don't particularly think much of, yet when it is over you are enraptured by it all - your assessment of the actor is objective, your assessment of the show is objective, however; your assessment of the performance of the actor is subjective - the performance was to your liking - however; there would be others who came away disenchanted, yet you all saw the same performance. Therefore; whether Mr Darrow shows a great degree of histrionics or not and whether it is appropriate for that performance or not will always be debatable - for me personally, a certain amount of drama is in keeping with the personality of Avon. What I found to be a poor showing was his role in 'Timelash' - not his acting - that was as good as ever as far as I was concerned but all I could see was Avon with longer hair and a bad outfit - he didn't create a new personality for this character - that was bad - but the same could be said for Jaqueline Pearce of her role in 'The Two Doctors' - Still I must finish on a PD high :-) I thought his minor role in "The Silurians' was good.
So there are several factors directing us towards
developing crushes on actors: their imitative ability, their physical desirability, and their professional success. Is it ever more than a crush? In the overwhelming majority of cases, probably not.<<
Could not our memes be directing us toward those that complement our own memes - What I mean is, in the case of actors, they are up there on the screen, that makes them so much more accessible to us via their characters than say the person who catches the same bus as you every morning - Let me put it this way - why do we cry when a character we love has been killed off, when (even as disturbed as we are by what goes on in the world) we don't cry everytime we read the morning paper - it's because we know the character, we have come to identify with them and we see something in them that appeals to us, we have become personally involved...the question is why? they are not real - but the person at the bus stop is...what if, our memes are responding to factors in that character that we seek to associate with in RL - to go further, if an actor uses parts of his own personality in a character and it's these very parts of the character that appeal to some fans, this would explain why some fans like the actor in whatever he/she does and others only like the actor in the associated role.
Paul Darrow has been sent, quite unsolicited,
explicit fan material that he personally found upsetting, but I don't think fandom or any particular aspect of fandom - including slash fic or slash art - can be held responsible for that. It's the person or persons who sent it to him that are to blame.<<
This point is debatable - it would depend on the reasons for why it was sent and the personality of the sender - if it was sent strictly to upset him, then it is definitely the individual only who is responsible for this act. If on the other hand the sender is of a simple minded nature (and I don't mean thick - just not able to determine what is fully acceptable and what is not)then they may see all the smut as an acceptable part of B7 and possibly saw nothing wrong in their actions - which of course, was totally wrong.
Where such dysfunctionality originates, and to what
extent the rest of us collude in promulgating and/or perpetuating it, is another question. (And not an unimportant one.)<<
Most definitely not an unimportant one.
===== Cheryl. (My favourite 'Blake's 7' moment) What a fiasco! We could take over the ship you said, if I did my bit. Well, I did my bit, and what happened? Your 'troops' bumble around looking for someone to surrender to, and when they've succeeded, You, follow suit! (Avon to Blake. "Spacefall")
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