I like that emic/etic distinction. I want to think about it some more, but I think it has some very useful applications. And I don't think there is anything particularly mockable about analyzing the Grateful Dead (as the fan calls the kettle black). They are/were highly skilled musicians who had been playing together for decades and were really inside each others' heads, and because of their active encouragement of fannish taping, there is a huge repetoire available for analysis. Dead shows were actually extremely structured, and I've always understood them as ritual more than entertainment. Joseph Campbell tells us that religious ceremonies are re-enactments of central myths (duh, because he's still really a Catholic); a Dead show is a ceremony that re-enacts an acid trip. If they didn't have an underlying formal structure, they wouldn't be nearly so effective.
I tuned into Dancing with the Stars last night for Ian Ziering, being a long time 90210 fan myself. One of the things I find fascinating about that show is the way it showcases the differences in how the genders are trained for performing careers. Nearly all the women have had some type of dance instruction, at least as children, but most of the men are total neophytes with no theory even to get them started. The athletes often have the most difficulty of all, because they don't want to let loose. My favorite season of that show was the one when John O'Hurley (J. Peterman from Seinfeld) went up to the finals. He was charming, funny, and a good dancer.
So now I am trying to imagine Phil Lesh on Dancing with the Stars. In a purely emic way, of course.
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Date: 2007-03-20 01:50 pm (UTC)I tuned into Dancing with the Stars last night for Ian Ziering, being a long time 90210 fan myself. One of the things I find fascinating about that show is the way it showcases the differences in how the genders are trained for performing careers. Nearly all the women have had some type of dance instruction, at least as children, but most of the men are total neophytes with no theory even to get them started. The athletes often have the most difficulty of all, because they don't want to let loose. My favorite season of that show was the one when John O'Hurley (J. Peterman from Seinfeld) went up to the finals. He was charming, funny, and a good dancer.
So now I am trying to imagine Phil Lesh on Dancing with the Stars. In a purely emic way, of course.