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L.I. Underhill is a media critic and historian specializing in pop culture, with a focus on science fiction (especially Star Trek) and video games. Their projects include a critical history of Star Trek told through the narrative of a war in time, a “heretical” history of The Legend of Zelda series and a literary postmodern reading of Jim Davis' Garfield.

1 Comment

  1. Daru
    December 8, 2015 @ 8:01 pm

    "Data is essentially a recursive performer, after all: He's Brent Spiner doing an impersonation of an android doing an impersonation of what he thinks humanoids are like."

    Absolutely! Love Spiner for this and adore this episode too.

    Love what you say about history and stories be they good or bad, and how they are necessary. As well as telling us something about the people who were around when they were created, the stories also tell us a lot about the moment in time and culture they are being shared in, as well as informing us about the teller themselves, let alone the audience with how they respond.

    I really like your description of story as a "performative artifice", and completely agree that only one sliver of one person's perspective is being represented, especially when looking at historically connected stories. This I feel is why it's important to be open to stories coming from many perspectives, especially the stories of hidden characters or disenfranchised groups or people. We need, and often I am interested in the tales of characters who all too quickly vanish, or are transparently absent from a narrative. Also of interest to me is the process of "re-storying", creating new and more authentic stories when we may have had the experience, either by family or society at large, of stories being impressed upon us or injected into us. This I feel is especially important when the stories being told do not represent us or actively hold us back.

    Great piece, thanks Josh.

    Reply

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