Darren New wrote:

> Consider another example. Imagine this:
> 
> You're in the conference room, along with several coworkers, waiting for 
> someone you haven't met before to show up so you can start. This person, 
> who has been around the company a while but you just never happened to 
> meet, walks past the window on the way into the conference room.  You 
> coworker whistles a tune under his breath,
> 
> ... which you don't recognise.
> 
> ... which you recognise as the Darth Vadar theme.
> 
> ... which you recognise as the Wicked Witch of the West theme.
> 
> ... which you recognise as the Indiana Jones theme.
> 
> OK?  Your different opinions, of this person who you still haven't met, 
> have been shaped by a string of otherwise-meaningless tones.  That's 
> culture.  (Assuming you've actually seen those movies, see...)

Wait... The WWW had a *theme*??

Maybe I'm just strange, but I don't think it would matter what a person 
is whistling. The fact that they're whistling something would be more 
significant...

> The reason you read Shakespeare is because others do too, and when they 
> make references to a Shylock, a pound of flesh, or "Lead on, McDuff", or 
> things like that, they're bringing *that* entire story into context.

See, now, in all the years I've been alive, I've never [knowingly] heard 
of anybody making any Shakespeare references at all. [Except maybe to 
Romeo and Juliet.]

> Sort of like that Star Trek NG episode where the aliens communicate 
> *only* in cultural references, and they kidnap the two captains and beam 
> them down to the hostile planet surface so they'll have some cultural 
> story in common to start communicating with?
> 
> (Yes, thank you, I appreciate just how f'ing nerdy this sounds. :-)

...as nerdy as me saying "yeah, I remember that silly episode"?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
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