For the panel this week we welcome Luke Corbin from Myanmar Musings and Familiar Strange alumnus Jodie Lee Trembath!
Simon starts us off [1:31] by discussing his recent culture shock in moving to Germany from Australia. Simon thought that experiences during fieldwork and working with other cultures would have prepared him better for a rapid transition to another culture. The Strangers offered some other perspectives about culture shock and their own experiences. What about you? when you travelled for fieldwork or even moving to another country, did you experience culture shock?
Jodie [6:41] then poses a question to the rest of the strangers, “as an anthropologist, what is story to you?” This question stemmed from Jodie’s recent obsession with the book series The Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb. The Strangers debated what even constitutes story and how different disciplines and cultures share knowledge. What do you think constitutes a story?
Next, Luke [11:58] discusses the fastest selling cologne in the Australian perfume industry and how smell and masculinity are related in Australian culture. It might surprise you what the cologne is and what it smells like! The Strangers offer some personal anecdotes about masculinity and how it has shifted over time. What do you think? What does masculinity smell like?
Finally, Alex [17:30] discusses the bureaucracy of play and games discussed by the late, David Graber’s in his book, The Utopia of Rules. Alex brings up how even a game based in imagination and role playing such as Dungenons and Dragons, there are still rules that people need to follow. To play, you have to participate in bureaucracy. This leads Alex to ask the question “Is imagination built on rules? Should we rethink conceptions of play?”
Links and Citations
Check out Myanmar Musings here:
https://www.myanmarmusings.com/
And Luke’s profile here:
http://chl.anu.edu.au/our-people/details/luke-corbin
If you were interested in the concept of Umwelt that Simon mentioned:
https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=2660
Check out Mary Douglas’s Purity and Danger here:
Explore the fantasy novel series Jodie has become obsessed with here
https://www.goodreads.com/series/54099-realm-of-the-elderlings
Check out the references that Luke mentioned in relation to story here:
Robert Mckee’s Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting
https://www.booktopia.com.au/story-robert-mckee/book/9780413715609.html
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers
https://www.amazon.com.au/Writers-Journey-Mythic-Structure/dp/193290736X
Joseph Campbell’s Hero With A Thousand faces
Check out both the new and old Victoria Bitter ads that Alex mentioned here:
If you were curious about David Graber’s work The Utopia Of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-utopia-of-rules-9781612195186
Check out Alex’s blog about Dungeons and Dragons here:
Don’t forget to head over to our Facebook group The Familiar Strange Chats. Let’s keep talking strange, together!
If you like what we do and are in a position to do so, you can help us to keep making content by supporting us through Patreon. Our Patreon can be found at https://www.patreon.com/thefamiliarstrange
This anthropology podcast is supported by the Australian Anthropological Society, the ANU’s College of Asia and the Pacific and College of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Australian Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, and is produced in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association.
Music by Pete Dabro: dabro1.bandcamp.com
Shownotes by Matthew Phung
Podcast edited by Alex D’Aloia and Matthew Phung
Feature image “Monster Manual” by Four Bricks Tall (2020)
https://flic.kr/p/2jGGASv
