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Old 03-24-2016, 06:12 PM   #23
Galadriel55
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Linking through meta

As I was mourning the passing of the Tenth Doctor, I attended a meeting about language and identity, and it turned out that the presenter was a Whovian and had quite a few examples of dialect perception from the show. I chatted with her for a bit afterwards, it was really cool - you don't often meet a person who's fascinated by two of the same things as you are. We talked about lots of planets that have a north, and about Judoon platoons upon the Moon, but here's something she told me that I never thought about before. She was discussing how different dialects are subconsciously associated with a certain group of people, and based on relationships with that group the language variation is perceived differently (fancy, formal, low-class, differences in race, class, location, etc). For instance, British accents as a whole are thought of as "cool", classy, formal, etc on this side of the pond. For instance, we hear the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler talk, and we subconsciously think they are cool just because of the way they speak (all true based on personal experience). However, apparently England English middle class people tend to look down on the accents that these characters speak - the Doctor sounds like he's from the North, which I'm assuming is subconsciously "uncool", and Rose sounds lower class. It would be really cool if someone from thereabout could actually confirm the influence of their accents, but at least this is supposed to be the theory.

I realized that Doctor Who probably contains a lot more "British" things - things you wouldn't really get unless you were familiar with that culture. In a way also, I think the writers/directors/producers may be imposing certain cultural aspects or preferences onto the show. Perhaps it is because of their main audience, and because the whole thing is based in the UK, but potentially because people automatically impose their own views or knowledge or feelings on their creations, to an extent.

The same is true for Tolkien, in many cases. LOTR is "based" from the Shire - the Shire is home, it's the normal, and it's the place that you relate to most naturally as home. However, in a way, it's Tolkien's home, but not necessarily the home of all the readers. There are some things that may be universal, like Frodo's desire to save the world for the sake of the Shire, but some details are very culture-specific. Specifically, when Sam keeps reminiscing about the Shire during the trek to Mordor, he brings up a lot of details of what home means to him. These details are part of what Tolkien probably felt meant home to him, or to people like him, but they might not be intuitive for all people. Easiest example is fish and chips. Many people can probably relate channeling nostalgia through food or smell, but not everyone would pick fish and chips as the dish. They would still get the general idea, but some poignancy of the image is probably lost.

To a large extent, TH and LOTR are shaped around the perceptions of the hobbits traveling in foreign lands. We see the world through a hobbit filter. That filter most closely matches to Tolkien's own view, and people whose cultures overlap his the most probably get the best "image". We see Doctor Who through the eyes of the companions, which are almost all British, and I feel like I'm missing quite a few details looking at it from their cultural filter (the whole accent thing being one of them).

This is true for any work - everything has a culture associated with it that doesn't always match the culture of the audience. I'm reading War and Peace, I'm almost finished, and I'm still not used to the ideas of fashion and taste (my friend was most disturbed by the woman with the beautiful mustache, but the thing I have most trouble accepting is the plump limp hands that apparently bespeak firm character and authority). But that's more like a complete immersion into a different place/time, while LOTR and New Who appear to be more culture filters: the ideas are universal, but some tiny little details are almost like inside jokes. It's not a bad thing, but it's a thing. It's actually kind of cool. And given how many parallels people draw between the legendarium and Tolkien's own experiences and culture, I think it's a legit point of comparison with Doctor Who.
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