Is the future bereft of culture?

[Graham Kennedy]

I find it rather nice that people in Star Trek still listen to classical music, still watch the plays of Shakespeare, even still watch classic movies from the 20th century. And it makes sense - classical music and literature has already survived for centuries, surely it will survive for centuries more.

What I find increasingly odd is that this is ALL people seem to listen to.

Trip has movie night - and all he ever shows are 20th century movies. Never anything from his own time, never anything from say 2050.

People read and listen to classical music only. And even then, only from the pre-20th century era. Nothing from the Enterprise era, say, or Kirk's era.

About the only pieces of present day (i.e. future) culture that we ever see are holondeck/suite adventures. And a good deal of them are set during our own present or past - Picard's Dixon Hill, Geordi and Data's Sherlock Holmes, Riker's Jazz, Sisko's baseball games, Bashir and O'Brien refighting the Alamo, the Battle of Britain, Bashir's secret agent program, Janeway's classic Gothic novel, or her Da Vinci workshop. The list goes on and on.

There's the Flotter program. But it's only for kids, and it's already old enough that the adults of Voyager played it as kids - 30+ years old, when we see it.

Is the future so culturally bankrupt that they produce next to nothing contemporary? If so, why is that?

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Wel, the 'real' reason, is the 20th century movies and clsssical music is already there for the writers and producers to use. And they're already making fiction. Flotter and Captain Proton i always felt were nice bonuses.

My take is, in-universe, we simply don't see the contemporary adult stuff.

[Teaos]

I think in universe they had a lot of huge wars in the 21st century and then rebuilt. Then they were space based and had other cultures to check out. So only 20th century culture is pure.

[Teaos]

I think in universe they had a lot of huge wars in the 21st century and then rebuilt. Then they were space based and had other cultures to check out. So only 20th century culture is pure.

[McAvoy]

The 21st century and late 20th century wars may explain why there seems to be an absence of post 60'a music and movies.

Doesn't explain post First Contact lack of music.

Then again, how often dud we really hear or saw music or movies overall? Not that often and you could say hardly a decent sample size.

Though, a throwaway line could have been thrown in here and there. Quark did mention some holosuite programs aside from the holoporn.

[Graham Kennedy]

I can get some sort of culture gaps - though honestly, wars tend to produce different culture, but if anything just as much or even more of it. Plenty of art, music, film, etc came out of World War I and II.

But there's a dearth of contemporary 24th century culture. There's some - Vulcan Love Slave for instance - but in comparison to how much classical literature and music there is, it's minor at best.

[McAvoy]

Here is the thing though, the music that came during World Wars, does anyone know what it is now? Granted taste has changed and you could say by the 24th century rock is considered brutish and classical music is popular. For all we know there is are modern 24th century equivilents that people like Picard considers to be a pale imitation, which is how a lot of rock fans consider in today's music.

[Mikey]

I think that Graham's point is that if we decided to look at a piece of artwork (for example,) we could choose anything from the Lascaux paleolithic cave paintings to Hirst. As far as music, theater, etc., in 'Trek there seemed to be a dearth of choices native to the 21st through 24th centuries. How many times have we seen Shakespeare quoted - even performed - in 'Trek, when one might have expected a simple reference to "Garrrgarghakai, the most famous playwright of Anjemima VII."

[sunnyside]

So the knee jerk reaction is that it's harder to come up with all that stuff so they don't bother, but I get a feeling that the Trek writers felt we were entering into something of a cultural dark ages.

The series easily could have easily incorporated art, music, and so on from the real world that was more contemporary. But alas, the Sex Pistols get snubbed along with pretty much everything else that happened after 1962.

Despite the thematic connection I have my doubts anybody in the new 2017 series will be rocking out in the holosuite to Nicki Minaj performing "Starships"

Similarly there's, at least in fictional depictions, rather more classiness to the conflicts of Nelson, WWI fighter aces, or the Alamo then the depictions of 'Nam or our contemporary wars which tend to be full of grunts laying down a steady stream of vulgarity and racism.

Part of this is probably that we're mostly watching Starfleet officers, who may feel a need to keep things classy if not outright pretentious. Worf, and quite a few others in the conference room that one time Bashir was getting roasted, seemed to feel that even 1962 Vegas and the Alamo were greatly lacking in sophistication. No, everything after opera went out of style was childish. At least until you get to the 23rd/24th centuries where much is made on a few occasions about the various artist, musician, and writers and particularly the institutes associated with them, although they aren't required reading the way Sun Tzu was.

[Mikey]

But why should there be any slightest intimation that a 23rd/24th century valuation of class or classicism is remotely similar to our own?

[IanKennedy]

Well there is divergence, for example:

Kirk: Oh, the complete works of Jacqueline Susann, the novels of Harold Robbins....
Spock: Ah... The giants.

[IanKennedy]

But alas, the Sex Pistols get snubbed

...and so they should. They were talentless idiots.

[Mikey]

But alas, the Sex Pistols get snubbed

...and so they should. They were talentless idiots.

...but talentless idiots with cultural import.

[IanKennedy]

But not something I expect the future to be listening to. Occasionally discuss in a classroom perhaps, but, not listen to.

[Mikey]

That's what they said about Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and Lou Reed too.