Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: voodooqueen126 on November 19, 2009, 06:17:35 PM
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This may sound a bit random, but how would many of characters (especially Yeerk and Andalite characters) react to human movies (obviously I am not talking about silly movies like Harold and Kumar or the Simpsons) but movies like the Pianist, Depa Mehta's Earth (you can just imagine some Andalite family going to the cinema thinking a movie called Earth is going to be a nature documentary or something), Master and Commander (the 12 year old outranks that old experienced sailor WTF).
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lol idk, but this post reminded me of #14 when Visser Three cut off the furry's head (or whatever the term for the Daffy Duck costumes at Six Flags is) and got freaked out that it had another head within its first head.
or anything Ax did with pop culture, the things he said about Star Trek, soap operas, Saturday morning cartoons...I always thought those were some of the funniest moments in the series.
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But I am not talking low brow pop culture (whatever my dingbat b-tch of a marxist lecturer says, there is a quality difference between high culture and low culture) I am talking about Andalites (say Alloran and his wife) going to see "Macbeth".
Also how would Jennor react if she read/saw Lolita?
[spoiler]In real life the Humbert Humberts of the world just abandon their dead victims like sacks of trash on the side of the road. [/spoiler]
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see I think Andalites would have the same disdain for human culture that you have for "low-brow" culture.
I mean, it's never explicitly talked about, but I'm pretty sure Andalites have their own literature, music, etc. I don't think they have theater b/c Ax says something typically ignorant and amazed about actors, but they definitely have stories, because we know they accepted the Ellimist myth into their collective unconscious. So if Steven Spielberg or David Lynch or, I don't know, think of any highbrow director (lol Roman Polanski?), came up to an Andalite and was like "I really think the themes about resurrection and rebirth in my new film will affect a space-faring race like yourselves," I think they'd laugh in his face.
Or else, you'd have Andalite academic types going all "yes, humans have finally entered their proto-enlightened phase, let's watch how long it takes for them to catch up to us intellectually," so there may be some interest.
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Sure Andalites exhibit the same disdain (I am thinking of Alloran's comments in TAC) for primitive religion, but this is no more advanced than the disdain that Richard Dawkins feels towards christianity-this disdain is not evidence of advancement but rather belonging to an alternative ideology. Having said that, there is evidence that the humanities (art, literature, philosophy etc) is no better amongst Andalites than anything you have on Earth: it is almost like Andalites have advanced dramatically in science (like they're a whole species on the side of the brain that is mathematical, scientific, practical etc I think it is right brain but I can't remember) but little in the humanities: think of Ax's amazement towards pop-culture-he thought it was really amazing (the plots and contenents I mean-not the technology), reveals a species with insufficient focus on the humanities. Just because they're better at science, doesn't mean they're better at everything: think of that engineering student at Uni: he is great at maths and all that blah-but chances are he is terrified of writing anything.
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I'm more of the opinion that just because we didn't *see* that side of Andalite culture doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
We know there's cloud art and morph dancing (whatever either of those entail) but honestly Ax is to Andalite culture as a thirteen-year-old Tony-Hawk-worshipping MTV-ingesting Twihard douche bag is to human culture. He wasn't the best student, he was more interested in sports and girls than school, etc. Imagine if we'd gotten the Da Vinci of Andalites instead of the Dakota Lohan or Miley Cyrus' little sister.
and actually this is one of my biggest "UGGHHH SERIOUSLY??"s of the series. Couldn't we have just gotten a paragraph or two of that great Andalite poet that all warriors recite on their deathbed, or Ax being disappointed about no longer having access to the Andalite TV network to watch his favorite "shows?" That's what I like so much about Star Trek--the Vulcans, the Cardassians, even the Klingons are allowed to have a culture that produces bodies of work that get referenced, and it's always characterized to fit the traits of their race. And even human culture is kind of powered-up with holonovels and stuff to make use of new media. I don't know I just love those kinds of details.
Then again the Klingons were obsessed with Hamlet in the sixth movie, so maybe the Andalites are just a bunch of cultural reappropriators too. We just never found out.
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your point doesn't completely contradict my own: Ax is admittedly a sporty soldier whose chief interest is chasing tail :-* But the fact that he thought soap operas were amazing to me indicates that a low brow andalite like Ax was below the literary intelligence of a low brow human (the media we enjoy is a reflection of our intelligence in that field-hence the reason my lecturer is a silly cow). So the Da Vinci of Andalites might well be below the Da Vinci on Earth.
On the poems that they recite at their death: it could be that like the Chinese (I am vaguely thinking of the Confucian reverence to things like the book of songs) certain poems fill the same niche that the bible fulfills in western culture: said warriors are just praying before they die.
The andalite lack of humour might also be a strong indication of a lack of verbal intelligence.
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yeah, his fascination with daytime television, thinking commercials are emotionally compelling, and thinking that the Cinnabon is the height of human culture doesn't do much for my theory, but at the same time maybe Andalite drama is just presented in a different format. Like if a human saw cloud art we'd probably be all "wat" whereas they'd be able to extrapolate the meaning, they'd know cliches and tropes and expectations better than we would, etc. It's different art, but still art. So yeah they may not laugh in Spielberg's face, but they might be something more like "why do you humans devote such intense scrutiny to things that you film with video and audio recording equipment? What a waste of creative energy" or something.
and tbh I never bought that Andalites lacked a sense of humor. I think Ax just took himself too seriously, I think he *got* most of the jokes but was just *above* them. It's made clear in the Andalite Chronicles that Arbron had a sense of humor, and Alloran used to, and it's not all that incomprehensible compared to human humor. I take that more as a KASU than anything, tbh.
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and tbh I never bought that Andalites lacked a sense of humor. I think Ax just took himself too seriously, I think he *got* most of the jokes but was just *above* them. It's made clear in the Andalite Chronicles that Arbron had a sense of humor, and Alloran used to, and it's not all that incomprehensible compared to human humor. I take that more as a KASU than anything, tbh.
You know i have thought about that and i think the lack of humor is just a trait on Aximili and Elfangor. I mean we know from AC that Andalites do in fact have a sense of humor. The fact that the only ones that seem to not have ever been able to understand humor were brothers. Though Elfangor did say he understood Human Humor years later.
I think Ax was just like one of those obsessive kids we see so much lately. he just loved Human TV and didn't understand the difference between shows and commercials. I myself cry at Hallmark commercials and i happen to have been human all my life ( I think)
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Yeah but Elfangor thought Arbron was unusual, it's not like the brothers were the only humourless andalites. I don't deny that Andalites have humour (or humanities/arts), it is not a dichotomy, but that they seem to have a degree less than humans.
Grass scape artist reminds me of that Martha Stewart stuff/table presentation.
How would Alloran and family feel after watching Changi, Bridge on the River Kwai, or Paradise Road?
This is supposed to be a fun topic.
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I think it depends. One of the leading characteristics of a lot of high-brow movies is that they speak universally to human nature. Andalite nature and human nature are obviously different. Even taking the whole alien thing out of the picture you have a group of omnivores vs. a group of herbivores. So I think that some of the movies would appeal greatly to them, while some would strike them as incredibly 'human'.
I think a big thing to keep in mind is that as much as they deny it themselves, the Andalites are from a military society that is heavily based on honor. Even though we know that there are traitor Andalites, the majority of society doesn't see that. So I think they would have some trouble understanding, say, Macbeth. Other high brow movies require a knowledge of human history that Andalites may not have.
All that said, though, I don't think Andalites and humans are all that different, and I think some of the Andalites could wholly appreciate the films once they got past the ridiculous 2D screen and overall technological quality. Not all Andalites, but some. Similarly I don't think that ALL humans would be able to appreciate Andalite high culture (whatever that is), but you would get some humans who loved to study Andalites and therefore appreciated all aspects of their culture.
Hmm....that makes me think. Imagine if you could major in Andalite Culture in college? How fun would that be?
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Hmm....that makes me think. Imagine if you could major in Andalite Culture in college? How fun would that be?
not really...
you would feel very homesick after a while. cheifly, when you look around a reliaze that your the only human being for a while around.
as for the topic it's self. human culture is very competetive. it grows rapidily, shrinks just a quickly and grows stronger than before. to contast, andalites have the "waiting and see model" which they are making slower techological progress but im willing to guess the culture suffers as a result.
if anything, the andalites will be conqured with popcorn.
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You don't have to go to the Andalite Homeworld to major in Andalite Culture. Maybe a year or two abroad, or something. :P I could have majored in Greek Studies or something without ever going to Greece.
Also, if popcorn isn't the victor then chocolate globules will be.
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well i think Aximili is just adorable! To think he had no idea what kissing was! (giggles a little bit) I think it was romantic when he kissed Estrid.
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well i think Aximili is just adorable! To think he had no idea what kissing was! (giggles a little bit) I think it was romantic when he kissed Estrid.
i expected him to be very sloopy kisser :P
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well i think Aximili is just adorable! To think he had no idea what kissing was! (giggles a little bit) I think it was romantic when he kissed Estrid.
Give him a little credit, his species doesn't have mouths!
I expect that certain movies might appeal to the Andalites, but not necessarily for the same reasons they do to us. They would probably be easily bored and/or confused by most of our popular movies though (Twlight, lol).
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What about Andalites watching Titus Andronicus? Shudder?
Here is another possibility: Andalites are immensely powerful-to them America is like a third world country-beautiful culture and art (things such as soap operas, hollywood, hot dogs, foodcourts etc)but still crime riven and full of poverty-with the immensity of Andalite power in mind imagine if a leading Andalite politician and general where in their hotel room with their families, and someone accidentally turns on world movies (instead of the bold and the beautiful) and said Andalite family ends up watching the the Circle or Kandahar or even worse Osama? How might they react to such misery? My feeling is that the Andalites would be like the Americans (we only ever meet Andalite soldiers and the basic instinct is extreme optimism) except without America's delicacy, perspective, caution or good judgement and immensley more powerful. On the bright side: not beholden to Saudi Oil they might actually be willing to cut the poison off at its source.