Was John Leonard, during his time on CBS Sunday Morning, the last critic to recommend shows on competing networks? His book “Reading for My Life” starts with this delightful story:
In 1947, a young American and a middle-aged Japanese climbed a tower in Tokyo to look at the bombed temple and the burned-out plain of the Asakusa. The twenty-three-year-old American, in the U.S. Army PX jacket, was the critic Donald Richie. The forty-eight-year-old Japanese, wearing a kimono and a fedora, was the novelist Kawabata. Kawabata spoke no English; Richie, no Japanese, and their interpreter stayed home, sick in bed with a cold. And so they talked in writers. That is, Richie said “André Gide.” Kawabata thought about it, then replied, “Thomas Mann.” They both grinned. And they’d go on grinning the rest of the afternoon trading names like Flaubert, Edgar Allan Poe and Stefan Zweig; Colette and Proust.
That reminded me of Darmok, an episode from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Repeated attempts at communication between the Federation and the Tamarians have failed badly, the outlook is bleak. Then, Picard realizes they speak entirely by allegory, referencing historical events and culture. As Richie and Kawabata’s conversation illustrates, if shared culture between two people is deep they can communicate almost without words. If we meet intelligent aliens we hope our shared understanding of mathematics and the laws of physics will provide a sufficient shared culture to enable communication. Perhaps time will tell. I certain hope so.
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra!
Nice reference…