Laughing Meme

My copy of “West Wing: Season 3″ arrived, and I’ve just started watching it. (putting me at something like a 2-3 year lag behind when it was broadcast) One of the season’s recurring themes is “Qumar”. Qumar’s horrific laws regarding women, its corrupt aristocracy, and its terrorist training camps. Qumar is everything that upsets Americans about the Islamic world.

And it doesn’t exist.

Slipped into the discussion with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Helsinki and other ridiculous sounding yet real places Qumar is a rhetorical device designed to reinforce every negative stereotype Americans (and the West) have been trained to believe about Islam.

Of course the stereotype about Americans is we don’t know geography. Unfortunately this stereotype is true. I wonder how many people at home watching knew Qumar doesn’t exist, and in fact that no one, not the Taliban, not Saudi Arabia not Iraq quite measures up to this platonic ideal.

I think Sorkin knew he could get away with some emotional TV without having to present the same balanced, researched, and nuanced material they usually show because “its over there”, and we’re hicks. Its hateful, and its cynical.

update: wikipedia on Qumar

I am now the proud owner of The West Wing, Season Two DVD set, with Chinese subtitles (optional). And I’ve now used eBay for the first time, making me a real, live Internet user. Pretty soon, I’ll ditch my AOL account, and maybe put up a personal homepage. (do people still do that?)

So far it hasn’t been as laugh out loud funny as the first season, but that could be something about my preferred viewing time of after midnight, and stressed.

Loved this exchange from last night’s episode, discussing education.

Sam: We need a permanent revolution.
Toby: Where have I heard that?
S: Permanet revolution?
T: Yeah.
S: From a book
T: What book?
S: [pause] A little red book.
T: You think we should quote Mao Tse-Tung?

Makes a certain amount of sense actually, as the Maoists, and their mass culture were some of the first people to take education seriously, a point not addressed by the show. Not a model I would want to emulate however, but interesting, and why I love this show. Doubly interesting as I’m watching it on DVDs shipped from China which, while quite nice, with good picture and sound, have a definite cottage industry feel about them, if you know what I mean. Talk about your free market.

But isn’t a “permanent revolution” a Trotskyist ideal?

Things I’ve spotted in CJ’s fish bowl:

• Xmas decorations
• A panda
• A space shuttle
• A podium

Which leads me to believe that in each West Wing episode something new is in the fish bowl. I turned to the web to for a complete list of these miniature props, ideally with screen grabs.

But the web seems to have let me down! How could such a useful site not exsit? What happened to a web that has everything? Where are the obsessive geeks and fans? I confess that I gave up rather quickly after the first few promising seeming results from Google turned out to TWW fanfic or slash.(answering, I suppose the question of where the obsessive fans are) Maybe it is still out there?

On a tip from Jasmine I rented the first season of West Wing last week.
I don’t remember the last I found television engaging and funny, but I think I it was probably while I was still watching Gummi Bears every Saturday morning. Saw a review from the Guardian describe the dialogue as “machine gun” and “hard to follow”. Be that as it may, the pacing plus lack of commercials (on DVD is the only way to watch TV) means it isn’t boring! How novel! No need cruise IMDB half way through for random trivia. Add dry, bitter wit, and a president intelligent enough to remember the rules to chess, and I’m thourghly amused.

One problem with my televsion watching technique; only the 1999 season is available on DVD here in the US. In the UK they’ve also got season 2, but um, where are the rest? Hello? Big evil corporate media moguls? Please release more.

Also, I seem to be the only person who likes Toby, the shows unsung hero in my book, tied for my favorite character with the rabble rousing reporter character (big surprise?) whose name I’ve forgotten.