Smaug in the South Seas

[minoanmiss]

So I happened upon "Planet Earth: South Pacific", a beautiful nature show about the South Pacific narrated by Bendywick Cucumberpants. (I was very amused to hear his cool colonialist tones and say to myself, "I know that voice! I think that's either Hiddleston or Cumberbatch!")

It's a beautiful show, but its greatest strength also leads to its biggest flaw, IMO.

It presents the peoples of the South Pacific as part of the natural systems of the South Pacific, which Is accurate and truthful -- we humans are a species of animal, and even the most unnatural things we do are modifications of nature. But as part of that presentation, the only person who speaks in the narrator (a British man with a dispassionate tone). I don't like that at all. The South Pacific Islanders may sing on camera, with cursory explanations of the ritual we're being shown, and their voices fill the soundtrack, but we never get to hear them talk, as people talking to other people, and I think that's a mistake and has deeply disturbing implications. The dispassionate Western outsider perspective is not the only sentient human perspective on the South Pacific.

So I'm making a note to fill in those holes in my learning about the South Pacific.

(All that said it's a really pretty show.)

Comments

[kore]

(omg, your post title <3)

[minoanmiss]

Hee, that's to gingicat's credit. It's so perfect.

[amaebi]

I haven't seen that show, but it sounds as if I agree with you entirely. :(

You know, Tongan is one of the languages I'd like to learn, with resources and time....

[minoanmiss]

I am pleasantly unsurprised that you think people who aren't White are people. :)

Oooh, why is TOngan on your language list? This sounds interesting. :D

[amaebi]

Sadly, not that interesting. My seminary internship was with a congregation that included both a White congregation and a Tongan (plus some Samoans) congregation which were kind of semi-detached. Everyone was a member of the same church, and many of the Tongan congregation participated in the English-language service, but there was also a weekly Tongan worship service afterward, which I stayed for several times. I worked with the kids and youth of the congregation, who were all Tongan or Samoan. And there are a fair few Tongans and Samoans in the Denver and Salt Lake City areas.

[minoanmiss]

No, that's definitely interesting. It makes sense that you would want to knowl the language of both interlinked congregations.

[amaebi]

I liked the Tongan congregation and its members and kids and youth.

[ljwrites]

Holy shit not having the islanders talk is, like, highly creepy. This kind of thing is why I started to get away from National Geographic documentaries and their ilk, as entertaining as I find them. I got the uncomfortable feeling that brown and Black people are treated as part of the fauna, which by itself is true for humans but is ONLY treated as true for nonwhite people, which is big no.

Also I hereby nominate you for "most phallic flubbing of Bendrick Cummersnatch's name."

[minoanmiss]

Yes exactly! Discussing how people are part of the fauna is excellent. Acting as if black and brown people are nothing but fauna but white people are sentient and analytical -- COMPLETELY NOT EXCELLENT.

Also, thank you very much. Everyone puts the penis in his first name, I thought I'd mix it up. :D