Trope-a-Day (R): Alien Arts Are Appreciated

Alistair Young

Dec 9, 2011

Alien Arts Are Appreciated: There is an entire industry involved in selling the ultratech equivalents of opera glasses necessary to perceive the really alien arts, and teaching courses in their proper appreciation. Which may, under some circumstances, involve having new perceptual routines, background information, and indeed, gnostic overlays containing entire worldviews, grafted into your mind-state.

But, in general, as everyone is sharing one universe with the same physical, ethical, and economic laws, there’s usually enough overlap that everyone can find something to appreciate in most other species’ cultures.

First example that comes to mind: Imperial watchvid connoisseurs would appreciate Firefly, even if a lot of them would secretly prefer a trigraphic remake.

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