Cultural identity, personal identity

Cockpit social chat touches on issues of identity.

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Chuck: Where you say you were from?

Graham: Auckland, originally.

Chuck: Oakland? I flown in there. California, right?

Graham: Auckland, New Zealand. Auck, as in awk!

Chuck: Place with all the sheep?

Graham: 50 million sheep, 4 million people, yeah, yeah.

Chuck: So, you’re a New Zealander?

Graham: Originally, yes. Haven’t lived there for 30 years. I have difficulty being called a New Zealander. If someone asks me, "What are you?" I can answer, "I fly, I'm a pilot." That's part of my personal identity. But my cultural identity is not Maori. My father was English but I've never lived there so I'm not British.

Chuck: So what are you? Culturally, I mean?

Graham: Been asking myself that for years. Sort of mid-Pacific?

Chuck: Easter Island?

Graham: Closer to Pitcairn.

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Voiceover

Graham is one of an increasing number of migrants who have left behind an uncertain cultural identity and not found another.

His personal identity being related to his work might mean that we see strong elements of professionalism in his persona, but fewer enthusiasms for food, music, literature, or other cultural traditions.

The cultural stereotype of New Zealand equaling sheep is one which traveling New Zealanders need to have a ready answer to at any time.

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Alter ego

Syd is talking with a friend about a book he just published and finds that he has problems identifying his role in the book.

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Graham: In this book you just wrote, how much of the main character is you?

Syd: Nothing, not a jot. The real me is not the main character.

Graham: But you and he both come from the same country, you’re same age, you have the same values…

Syd: So…?

Graham: Well, I just wondered if it might not be a teeny bit autobiographical?

Syd: Absolutely not. No way, Not me at all.

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Voiceover

Where does it start? The creation of fictional characters in a novel. In a comic strip. Inside oneself? Observing others? Drawn out of nowhere?

Syd might be a construction project manager by day but by night, at the computer, he creates an animated version of himself, commenting on news stories. An imaginary person reporting on real events.

Can Syd say who he really is? Do any of us know who we really are? If you constructed an alter ego, what he or she think? What would they say? Would they end up denying that the real you existed?

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One more thing

Larry and Bill discuss conducting.

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Bill: I think interview film directors can learn something from Hollywood.

Larry: Hollywood?

Bill: Interviews are pretty boring if they are talking heads. Smart editing, archive footage, text inserted, this all helps move the story along.

Larry: It’s not always about stories.

Bill: Well, you as an interviewer, and the conductor of an orchestra, you’re both trying to control unruly sounds.

Larry: Right.

Bill: So I’m just saying, sometimes you have to control what happens at the beginning, and in the middle, and how it all finishes.

Larry: Right again. BME. Know what you mean. Garrot the garrulous.

Bill: What do you do when someone grabs the mike and won’t let go? And they keep saying, “Oh and one more thing.”

Larry: Conductors have their baton. An interviewer has that cut dead question ready.

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Voiceover

A well-structured story generally has a beginning, a middle and end (BME). An interview may also have these components. It is however, more difficult to get the BME balance right in a live interview. Indeed, too much concern with structure can lose you those revealing remarks that make your audience suspend their breathing. Conducting an interview: having that instinct for knowing when to listen, knowing when to break in.

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Raleigh

At the back of the market Frederich stumbles on a Raleigh Sports.

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Frederich: Whose is this?

Somchai: The bicycle?

Frederich: Nicely preserved.

Somchai: It’s been restored.

Frederich: By you?

Somchai: Yes. All original. See? Raleigh Sports. Made in England.

Frederich: I think you’ve installed a back wheel brake off something else on the front wheel. And the saddle-bag seems Chinese.

Somchai: Well, yes.

Frederich: So it’s not exactly an original.

Somchai: Not… exactly.

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Voiceover

In an age of rising energy costs, cars may be had more cheaply while the prices of bicycles rise. Even classics like the Raleigh.

Restoring old objects may be done well or badly. Somchai has to backpedal on his claim that all parts are original, using mollifying expressions like “Well, yes…” and “Not exactly…”

A seller does well to acknowledge the observations of the buyer.

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Because it's there

Stephanie is curious why Eric travels so much.

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Stephanie: Why do you train so hard?

Eric: To make me strong.

Stephanie: Why do you need to be strong?

Eric: To climb mountains and go to the pole.

Stephanie: And why do you need to climb mountains?

Eric: Because they’re there.

Stephanie: Why do you have to go to Antarctica?

Eric: Because I’ve never been.

Stephanie: Couldn’t you be more specific?

Eric: I could, but my answers would reveal me in an even worse light. This way, I remain merely an enigma.

­­­­­­­­­­___________

Voiceover

We are often asked why we do things. We can be clear, if the answer is easily given and does not invite a challenge. Or we can be evasive if we are not sure of the answer or if we think our answer will show us in a bad light.

George Mallory made the response “Because it’s there” famous when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest. Perhaps he was being enigmatic.

Eric may be edgily hedging as he racks his brains to provide a justification for his travels. In cryptically saying “Because they’re there,” he may be buying a little time to justify his large carbon footprint caused by his frequent flying.

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Guess her profession

Besuited lawyers, Eric and Wallace, are having a drink on the balcony at the end of a challenging day.

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Eric: Today I met a charming young lady and paid her 900 for an hour's work. You can guess her profession.

Wallace: Charming young lady and 900 for an hour's work? Hmm. (a) a lawyer (b) a doctor (c) bank teller (d) reality show star. Hmm, good exam question.

Eric: If only it were only an exam question. But I kid you not. The price was painfully real.

Wallace: Joking aside, this sounds like your doctor. Had your burned leg turned to septicemia?

Eric: No, it was the fee to the process the condo title.

Wallace: Now, if you were a cat...

Eric: Which thank heavens I'm not...

Wallace: As I was saying, if you were a cat, your owner would take care of all the vet bills, the rent and legal fees.

Eric: I am not a cat.

Wallace: The medical fees you rack up make me think it'd be cheaper to register yourself as a cat.

Eric: Maybe it'd be cheaper for me to clone myself then harvest the other me for body parts.

Wallace: Grow a clone of yourself? How do you plan on doing that? Pull a rib out of your side and water it? Ha!

Eric: They've done it in North Korea. Or is it just that everyone looks the same there?

Wallace: Hmm. Is it culturally insensitive to describe the denizens of Great Leader's country as all being much of a muchness?

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Voiceover

At the end of a working day, Denny Crane and Alan Shore sit out on the balcony and extrapolate from legal cases to philosophizing about life’s great mysteries. Their exchanges are marked by elements of satisfying conversational repartee: mock challenge, cut-ins, sentence completions, and fanciful speculation. With jobs, offices and balconies, and such stories to tell, like theirs, little wonder that they don’t scurry away home at closing time.

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Are you sure?

Marilyn takes her cat to the vet. For the last time.

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Marilyn: He won't take his medicine, he hasn't eaten or drunk anything for five days, when you put food in his mouth it just falls out, now he can't walk.

Vet: We can give him food intravenously, and continue the prednisone and interferon and antibiotics and anti-inflammatories on a drip also.

Marilyn: A kind of intensive care?

Vet: An ICU, yes.

Marilyn: But he won't recover?

Vet: No, we can't remove the virus. We can just try to improve his condition for a little longer. Then his decline will continue.

Marilyn: Or you could put him to sleep with an injection.

Vet: This is possible. Are you sure you want to do this?

Marilyn: I figure there's no point in prolonging his discomfort by putting him in ICU together with a dozen other sick animals, there's no hope of recovery, putting up with all the side effects of the drugs, taking him home where he might die alone while I'm out. Here I can be with him when he does go.

Vet: Are you sure you won't regret it?

Marilyn: I have the feeling I'll regret it if we don't.

Vet: We'll get things set up.

(20 minutes later, the vet removes the stethoscope from Leo's chest.)

Vet: That's it. He's... asleep.

__________

Voiceover

Leo finally passed away. 19 May 2008. 2 cat years. Despite the decisiveness shown, a decision like this is never easy. Words help screen the bewilderment and pain of losing a pet. But when talk stops the grief gushes up.

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Team building

Eric and Jessica discuss who should be the third member of their panel.

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Eric: Patel? He talks too much. Goes on and on. Always goes way over his allotted time. Johanna is good.

Jessica: But culturally insensitive. Even when she is surrounded by Muslims, she’ll still order pork.

Eric: Geoffrey knows his stuff, but he’s prickly, won’t enter into discussions, just grunts and nods.

Jessica: If we have Patel talk after us, at the end, just brief him to summarize and comment on what we’ve said?

Eric: Might work. We’ll just have to put up with him shuffling his papers and looking at his watch and ostentatiously clearing his throat while we’re talking.

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Voiceover

The speed of a convoy is that of its slowest ship. We do well to remember this when putting together a team.

Everybody has strengths and weaknesses.

It’s just a question of placing someone on a team where their abilities are used, but their idiosyncracies are neutralized.

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Amedeo Modigliani and Jeanne Hébuterne

Antoine and Juliette discuss Amedeo Modigliani and Jeanne Hébuterne
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Antoine: 1920 and he’s 35 and she’s 22.

Juliette: When they married?
Antoine: When they died.
Juliette: Together?
Antoine: Not quite. Full of drugs and other substances, he dies of tubercular meningitis, and she throws herself out a window two days later, killing herself and her unborn child.
Juliette: Distraught?
Antoine: You could say that.
Juliette: And his work?
Antoine: Time will tell. His pictures catch your attention but there is a similarity between them all. The oval faces, the almond eyes, the pursed lips. Even his few landscapes look like the bodies he drew. That tree curves like a torso.
Juliette: Or like Jeanne's finger. Artists are crazy.
Antoine: Some, maybe, but not all. Beatrix Potter?

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Voiceover

Antoine adopts the tone and bearing of a serious art critic (The journalistic premodification, "Full of drugs and other substances, he...).

Juliette seems to be egging him on with her cryptic questions (Distraught?).

But their exchange highlights how we genial everyday viewers of pictures at exhibitions can be persuaded to confer star status on someone with a single idea. Sometimes a little undeservedly.

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Quote, unquote

Sven does this often. May asks why.

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Sven: I do it when I am using someone else’s words. It means “quote, unquote.”

May: Don’t you say who said it?

Sven: I usually don’t know who said it. I go quote unquote when I think it’s a common expression.

May: Shouldn’t you use your left hand for “quote” and right hand for “unquote”?We write left to right.

Sven: I’m left-handed.

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Voiceover

Body language extended to punctuation? Does anyone know of any other examples? Do we use body language for a full stop (period)? For a comma? For a capital letter? No wonder academics get a bad name for paper titles like “Punctuation as a Reflection of Late-Period Existential Angst.”

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I am nomad

Malai asks Sam why he always brings his computer to the coffee shop.

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Sam: I am nomad. I have no office. I work here this morning, in the afternoon I work across town. I can work anywhere there is Wi-Fi.

Malai: Is that all you do?

Sam: All?

Malai: Just work?

Sam: I do kick-boxing when the net is down. I have a balanced life, you know.

__________

Voiceover

On the surface Sam fulfils criteria for a balanced modern life. He works, he's a nomad (see Economist report at http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displayStory.cfm?STORY_ID=10950394) he’s techie, he’s physical. But he seems to miss Malai’s advances. Perhaps his geekiness extends into his earnest defence of his kickboxing. If he were Alan Shore (on Boston Legal) he would transfix Malai with a cobra like hynoticism. Or there again, he just may not be interested.

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Imaginary conversation

At a Psych conference Sigmund is having what he thinks is an imaginary conversation with Johann.

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Sigmund: Thank you very much for your comments about my paper. Encourage someone and they don’t forget you.

Johann: I know, when I said I wanted to leave academia and go into practice, people criticized me for it, it didn’t help me find my way.

Sigmund: And is the way coming clearer?

Johann: It’ll take a while. I am never really sure I am headed in the right direction.

Sigmund: I’ll let you know a secret. You can keep a secret? I am sometimes never sure whether the person I am speaking to actually exists.

Johann: I exist.

Sigmund: If you say so. I certainly have a convincing impression that you are standing here. But I am not sure whether this is actually me standing here. It’s just that people are beginning to inhabit my head and start chatting to each other in there.

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Voiceover

Isn’t this what philosophy courses are all about? Questioning whether we really exist? The pragmatic among us sometimes get a little short with existential uncertainties like this and exhort us with retorts like, “Oh, for God’s sake, get on with it, get a job, get a life.”

Test question: You feel hungry. Do you (a) find gainful employment, remuneration for which you then exchange for victuals, (b) finding you have no funds, you go dumpster diving, or (c) there is no need to do anything since the dream that you are hungry will soon pass.

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After diagnosis

Barry visits Leo who had a somewhat traumatic visit to the vet two days ago.

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Barry: You have a lucky face, Leo. I’m not just saying that like some Indian fortune teller. I mean it. You made a lot of people happy, you made a lot of people laugh. You were a YouTube star.

Leo yawns.

Tired? Well, no doubt it’s the medicine. Let’s just hope… You feel a bit more comfortable after the prednisone? Did you understand what the vet said?

Leo looks up.

We’ll do our best. Medicine. Food, whatever you like to eat. And let’s just hope. You never know. Do our best to put ourselves at the tail of the bell curve. That could mean several months.

Leo settles closer.

That’s it. Nice to just sit close.

Ten minutes of silence pass.

Will say this for you. You are a good listener.

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Voiceover

How to talk to a dying cat? What to say? Maybe it’s not so different to talking to dying human being. H-E-L-P.

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Kinetic Luna

Harry, who is part Indian, has abandoned his attempt to cycle around Northern Territory and has elected to do it by moped instead.

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Reporter: The local community wishes you well on this expedition. But we are curious why you chose, out of all possible motorcycles, the Kinetic Luna.

Harry: Many reasons. There are long distances between filling stations. On this I can do 200 ks on a tankful… My ancestors are from India and this is a moped which has been made in India for forty years. It isn’t difficult to fix if it breaks down.

Reporter: I see tools on the ground already.

Harry: I just assembled it.

Reporter: You’ve tested it?

Harry: Around the back lawn.

Reporter: And a final question: what is the horsepower?

Harry: One horsepower. Hills are no small problem for it but it has pedals and there aren’t many hills in Northern Territory.

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Voiceover

Less is more. In this case understatement (we are curious = we are incredulous) and litotes (hills are no small problem) mark both the reporter’s questions and Harry’s answers. We might also note that the name of the scooter could be lessened to Lunatic!
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Vengeful goddess

Keiko, who is a bit superstitious, and her friend, Shigeko, are pedaling a boat on Inokashira lake.

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Keiko: They’re doomed.

Shigeko: Who?

Keiko: That couple.

Shigeko: Doomed. You mean

 because of the Benten shrine goddess?

Keiko: Very vengeful goddess. Any couple who venture on the lake in a boat will break up.

Shigeko: Us too?

Keiko: Only applies to heteros.
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Voiceover

Even in an age dominated by science and rationality old superstitions can take a long time to fade away. Our emotions can very easily influence what we think and say and do. Or perhaps it is fun just to take a break from science and reason from time to time. And perhaps the final exchange is just a bit of wordplay. Or it may not be.
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Blue cod

Maureen asks the fishmonger for blue cod.
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Maureen: I need four pieces.

Fishmonger: Sorry lady. Only got one piece left.

Maureen: But I’m having three guests. I need four pieces.

Fishmonger: Only got one piece left. How about one piece of blue cod, and three pieces of snapper? You eat the blue cod, and give the guests snapper. You know what I mean? (winks)

Maureen: I couldn’t do that. It’s not fair.

Fishmonger: Wait a moment. (Goes out the back and returns with a whole cod). I was saving this for my brother. But good luck for you.

Maureen: I … I don’t know what to say.
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Voiceover

Maureen, finding pleading actually works with this gruff Croatian fishmonger, is at a loss for words. Primed for disappointment can make us stumble digging up gratitude phrases.
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