Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id BAA21831 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 16 Mar 2001 01:09:22 GMT X-Originating-IP: [209.240.220.215] From: "Scott Chase" <ecphoric@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: Toggling nature's auto-erase Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 20:05:32 -0500 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <F205RzpPWywCP6K8CAC00001da3@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 16 Mar 2001 01:05:32.0691 (UTC) FILETIME=[33404630:01C0ADB5] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>To: "memetics list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
>Subject: RE: Toggling nature's auto-erase
>Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 09:23:30 -0500
>
>On 03/14/01 05:40, Vincent Campbell said this-
>
> >From a memetics point of view, this whole area is very interesting. Do
> >memes work because they are attuned to the range of sensory inputs that
>our
> >filtering mechanisms allow into normal consciousness? Is that why when a
> >colleague of mine kept singing a snippet of 'quando, quando, quando' ,
>and I
> >then had it banging around my head for days? (If you know it, apologies,
>as
> >I bet it'll be going round your head later today.)
>
>One has to know the tune, firstly, or hear it. "Quando, quando, quando"
>is totally unreferenced in my head, and so, no, it entered and left with
>dispatch. On the other hand, I've been carrying around, intentionally,
>the little tune that Jan Hammer wrote for the humorous portions of the
>Miami Vice episode called 'Phil the Shill', which was on TNN last night.
>Before that, I was intentionally wandering around with Bill Frisell's
>'What Do We Do' between my virtual ears.
>
>Why? Because I like 'em.
>
>Memes do seem to work as filters, and I'm beginning to see them as only
>this- immediate indexers of perceptions. There is something about the
>ideas of surrealism that have always attracted me in this regard -
>
>"(Surrealism) declares that it is able, by its own means, to uproot
>thought from an increasingly cruel state of thralldom, to steer it back
>onto the path of total comprehension, return it to its original purity."
>- Andre Breton
>
>- to the point of which I have declared, manifesto-like, "To a life
>without memes!" which, to me, is a utopian and ideal state, as I have
>increasingly begun to see memetic processes as artificial and
>manipulistic, as I have certainly seen the motivations of those who
>profess to be 'memetic engineers' as faintly if at all divorced from
>propagandists.
>
>The idea needs to come first. If one puts spin on it and calls that spin
>'memetic engineering', the idea is lost. It is up to religions and laws
>to so something ethically useful with it at that point....
>
>"Let us not mince words: the marvelous is always beautiful. Anything
>marvelous is beautiful, in fact only the marvelous is beautiful."
>Andre Breton, 1924
>
>If memetics has anything to do with distorting the beautiful, it is false.
>
>
First things first, thanx for pointing out that Vice is on TNN. It's on
right now. I was a Vice-addict and now I'm back off the wagon to recovery.
Second, would the rampant propogation of cheap Armani knock-off jackets with
obligatory t-shirts and dress shoes with no socks back in the eighties
qualify as a memetic epidemic? Would Michael Mann be a pioneer in memetic
engineeering? Well, most Vice-heads probably couldn't afford the white
Ferrari Testarossa, but may have opted for the Daytona Spyder kit car based
on a Corvette chassis (which IIRC Ferrari forced the show to do away with in
a very explosive scene involving a handheld rocket launcher).
If anyone saw Adam Sandler's movie "The Wedding Singer", wasn't there
somebody in that film who tried to dress like Sonny Crockett/Burnett? IMO,
even the "Nash Bridges" show tries to play towards "Miami Vice" a little.
The musical score for Vice probably added to its appeal. IIRC there were a
couple soundtracks available including Ian Hammer's stuff and then current
popular music. The Miami skyline didn't hurt either. I can't recall whether
Coconut Grove made any cameo appearances.
As an aside, I think it was Michael Mann who did the first movie with
Hannibal Lector (called "Manhunter"). I saw this back when it was released
in he mid-80's, but didn't realize the connection with "Silence of the
Lambs" until fairly recently. The latest "Hannibal" movie is quite
disturbing, especially where Ray Liotta tries some new cuisine at his own
expense. Hopefully these Lecter flicks don't have any deleterious memetic
impact on modern culture.
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