Don't apologize. I think you highlighted something that's of value in trying to tease out what's going on (within the writerly world, at least): that you can have a community that's as diverse as possible, unified, strong -- like some small towns I've lived in, and larger cities like Chicago or San Francisco -- and yet when the media constantly bombards you with the same faces and styles and accents over and over, it's like this discounts everything you see around you.
I think one of the saddest moments for me, when roadtripping, was getting to a hotel and excitedly turning on the local news, so I could hear the local accents while I unpacked. But there wasn't. They sounded identical to the national news, such that I couldn't even tell the difference when the show switched over. No local accent. Nada. I heard it in other folks in the town, and while checking in, but it'd been wiped from their local radio and television.
Was such a wipe good? bad? Am I even in a place where I could say? I don't know. All I know is that I felt like something had been taken away, a part of the experience that I enjoy, whitewashed somehow into something more mainstream, faceless, national instead of regional. There's diversity and then there's cultural sameness. One, I enjoy, and the other is just... boring. Flat. Uninspiring, even. Realizing that's what you're seeing is like realizing you're eating a different dish every single night, but the spice is always just oregano -- no matter what it looks like, it still tastes the same. I can't see that as a good thing by any stretch.
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Date: 19 Jan 2009 11:03 pm (UTC)I think one of the saddest moments for me, when roadtripping, was getting to a hotel and excitedly turning on the local news, so I could hear the local accents while I unpacked. But there wasn't. They sounded identical to the national news, such that I couldn't even tell the difference when the show switched over. No local accent. Nada. I heard it in other folks in the town, and while checking in, but it'd been wiped from their local radio and television.
Was such a wipe good? bad? Am I even in a place where I could say? I don't know. All I know is that I felt like something had been taken away, a part of the experience that I enjoy, whitewashed somehow into something more mainstream, faceless, national instead of regional. There's diversity and then there's cultural sameness. One, I enjoy, and the other is just... boring. Flat. Uninspiring, even. Realizing that's what you're seeing is like realizing you're eating a different dish every single night, but the spice is always just oregano -- no matter what it looks like, it still tastes the same. I can't see that as a good thing by any stretch.