The bodies on the gears of the culture industry

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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
    March 14, 2016 @ 10:10 pm

    "I don't think you necessarily need to be born in a certain place to be connected to it (if anything Westernism proves that), so long as your travels through life and around the world are done with a sense of mindfulness, awareness and empathy."

    What a great article Josh, thanks, and an interesting development on themes touched on in your ideas in 'Cardassians'. I agree *so much" with the idea that if we are working from the premise that The Next Generation is utopian, then there's no way this story should happen. And surely the writers could have found another way of depicting those affected by the warp drive other than as terrorists?

    I like that you bring up the canoe as both a vehicle for travelling and as representing the ecosystem too – as within Welsh and British myths, there is an analogue within the 'Spoils of Annwn', where Arthur travels in ships to the Otherworld, Annwn, seeking the magical Cauldron of Annwn. The part that relates to your text though, is that Arthur's own ship is called Prydwen, which has too been seen to represent the land itself, a Goddess and the island of Prydain, or Britain later, as a whole.

    I love the image of the island I live on being a ship, a Goddess entity, which one can journey in, even to the Otherworld.

    Empathy as you say is key, and it seems that the writers here have pictured the Enterprise crew as having very little as they have apparently been journeying through many spaces completely unaware.

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