Alien Arts Are Appreciated: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

[[Rubber Forehead Aliens]] as applied to aesthetics rather than physiology, or alternatively the cultural counterpart to [[No Biochemical Barriers]], Alien Arts Are Appreciated when [[Speculative Fiction]] depicts arts and entertainment made by one species as finding an audience among aliens. As for how likely this would be to occur, ask yourself the following: What human being would appreciate the works of a species that communicate by emitting scents, with the closest equivalent to a novel being a device that emits smells in order to tell a story, or a "sculpture" consisting of a single scent? Or a painting made by a being blind in the spectrum visible to humans but sighted in frequencies humans cannot perceive? Of course, there are also the psychological differences: What would a species with no concept of fate make of the ''Iliad'', for example?

 

Common in [[Space Opera]]. When done by an alien to humans this is [[Klingons Love Shakespeare]], which may be a result of [[Intrigued by Humanity]]; when done by humans to aliens, it may be because the character/group in question is [[The Xenophile]]. When this is applied to TV, it's [[Aliens Steal Cable]]. See also [[Humans Through Alien Eyes]].

 

* It's unclear exactly how much exposure {{spoiler|Kaworu Nagisa}} of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' has had to human culture, but he does specifically cite music as the Lilim's crowning achievement, claiming that it "cleanses the soul".

* A huge part of the plot in ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]''/''[[Robotech]]''. One major reason that humanity wasn't wiped out by their vastly more numerous foe was that many Zentraedi were interested in human entertainment and didn't want to see it disappear. This gets amusing when humanity figures this out and essentially ''weaponizes pop music''.

{{quote|"Pass me that sculpture, please. In that neck's grace lay centuries of art. [...] Are men aware of all the wonderful things that surround them? Do they have any idea of how many inhabited worlds there are in the universe, and how few of them have flowered with objects such as this one? "}}

* In ''Nexus'', the strange sculptures dug up on Ylum prove to be tremendously popular throughout the galaxy, and command high prices. That's partly a result of the fact that the artifacts in question are made of unidentifiable materials. Also, it's not unreasonable to think that people might be interested in the artifacts of an otherwise unknown alien civilization.

 

 

== Films -- Animation ==

* [[Daft Punk]]'s ''[[Interstella 5555]]: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem'' features a blue-skinned alien quartet who are kidnapped by [[Big Bad|Earl de Darkwood]] and disguised and brainwashed to perform for humans, who completely love their music and instantly make them a world-wide phenomenon. Their fans are not fazed when the truth comes out. It even turns out that many music legends, from [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy|Mozart to Jimi Hendrix]], are also aliens who were similarly kidnapped.

 

* [[Larry Niven]]:

** In the ''[[Known Space]]'' 'verse, the Kdatlyno "touch-sculptor" Lloobee is a celebrity throughout human space.

* In the ''[[Uplift]]'' universe, several alien species are enamoured with human literature and poetry (including old science fiction pulp novels), because [[Humans Are Special|the human languages present a high degree of ambiguity of meaning and pronunciation which is not present in the artificial languages used by galactic society]]. Just as many species revile human culture [[Broken Base|for the exact same reasons]], of course.

** And whale songs are considered an art form beyond peer by some aliens.

* In ''[[I Married An Earthling]]'', Earth's TV broadcasts are the subject of academic study on the planet Zeeron.

* An ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' example can be found in the short story ''The Grand Tour''. There are very few intelligent alien species, only about 12 known ones in human space, and none currently advanced enough for space travel. One species which died out was advanced, and are simply known as the Alphanes. There are large crystal pillars that remain of their architecture which are considered quite beautiful.

* In James P. Hogan's novel ''The Legend That Was Earth'', Hyadean films (which are mostly exercises in social engineering) fail to make a splash on Earth. Human films, on the other hand, are becoming very popular on the Hyadean homeworld.

* Murray Leinster's classic short story ''First Contact'' is centered around the dilemma of a human and alien ship, meeting unexpectedly for the first time, who can't possibly trust each other because they have no shared frame of reference, so they can't be certain that they're interpreting anything the other side says or shows correctly. While the captains agonize over this, two low-level crewmembers somehow manage to swap dirty jokes.

** The Thranx poets are thrilled by the range of human artistry. In ''Phytogenesis'', a small-time crook who's never been particularly into human art sees a Thranx poet's spontaneous recital, spawned by the poet's reaction to seeing the man eat a fish, and despite the fact that the performance is whistling and clicking in a language he can't understand, accompanied by expressive gestures he also can't understand, the crook finds it amazingly beautiful.

** On the flip side, the thranx are fascinated by the unparalleled flexibility afforded by humans' internal skeletons, and teams of human gymnasts and dancers quickly find huge audiences among them.

 

 

* ''[[Star Trek]]'':

** In some versions of ''[[Star Trek]]'', human adolescents appreciate Klingon heavy metal. It is apparently pretty much the same thing as our heavy metal, except that Klingons do it and it's in their character, so it becomes "alien". Their opera, on the other hand, is supposedly without any direct real-world equivalent.

*** And then it turns out they have distinctly non-human tastes in this department; they are impressed by technically hard pieces that have no rhyme or reason to them.

** And then of course, there is ''Star Trek IV'', when aliens threaten to destroy Earth because they cannot hear whalesong.

** After figuring out that Talarian language is based on metaphors from their own mythology, Picard attempts to connect with Dathon by reciting the Epic of Gilgamesh.

** The TNG episode "First Contact" (not to be confused with the film) reveals that it's standard Federation procedure to pirate a selection of entertainment programs of a civilization about to discover faster-than-light technology, to help them get a sense of what the race's society is like. One of the people contacted in the episode is quite embarrassed at this idea, and Picard admits that they give an "incomplete" picture of the society.

* In ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', Teyla really has a thing for popcorn. She and Ronan, however, do not seem to understand the attraction of TV. Also, Nerus, a Goa'uld, is fascinated with such Earth delicacies as chicken, seedless grapes, and cupcakes.

** Teal'c in ''[[SG-1]]'' is a big fan of ''[[Star Wars]]'', and apparently has seen a number of action movies, including ''[[Die Hard]]''.

* The ''[[Torchwood]]'' episode "A Day in the Death" had a music box/light show thing, which was explicitly the originating species' equivalent of music. It is primarily visual, but pretty.

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'':

{{quote|"Zooty-zoot-zoot!" }}

** While Human humor often relies of physical injury or embarrassment, Minbari humor centers on failure to achieve spiritual enlightenment. Or puns. Or inappropriate greeting protocols.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Aslan epics and decorative weapons are lovingly described in ''Alien Races 2'' however it is not said whether humans find them popular. However some Aslan ship designs are rather liked by Solomani humans and there were a tales of human warbands in the past who [[Going Native|affected the customs and dress]] of the Aslan [[Worthy Opponent|even when fighting them]]

** One of the straightest examples in [[Traveller]] is the J'aadje. They are obsessed with beauty and what looks beautiful to them will often look beautiful to a human.

 

** ''Stolen Memory'', a piece of DLC, involves going into someone's art gallery. Kasumi, your companion, can remark on various pieces, saying for instance that asari go wild for ancient Egyptian relics, and being disparaging towards an abstract turian work.

** In ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'', you get to wander around [[Adventurer Archaeologist|Liara's]] apartment, where she keeps a lot of Prothean relics. Justified because she used to be an archaeologist with a fascination with the Protheans.

** One of the reports for [[Cerberus Daily News]] says that the asari and the [[Proud Merchant Race|volus]] have embraced Valentine's Day, due to it's focus on reproduction and commerce.

* In the 1997 [[Point and Click]] [[Adventure Game]] ''[[The Space Bar]]'', the films of Jerry Lewis are considered to be the pinnacle of comedy and are universally loved by all species across the galaxy, besides humans.

* The unggoy in ''Halo'' have a black market built around human soap operas, sitcoms, and the like. This probably has more to do with them being tasked to monitor UNSC communications and their superiority at learning (and therefore familiarity with human language) compared to the rest of the covenant than any fondness of humanity.

 

* In a ''[[Starslip Crisis]]'' strip, curator Vanderbeam wanders into Jinx's quarters for the first time and praises the artistry in the crystalline structures he's decorated it with- whereupon Jinx mentions that he has the Cirbozoid equivalent to a human's head cold.

** Considering the strip took place on an interstellar museum ship up until two years ago this trope was half the point of the comic in general.

* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', Karkat, who typically [[Cultural Posturing|derides human culture as primitive and simplistic]], considers ''[[Serendipity]]'' one of his favourite movies, partially because of its resonance with troll ideals of [[One True Pairing|romantic destiny]], and partially because he has [[Guilty Pleasures|pretty bad taste in movies]].

* [[Kevin and Kell]] plays this straight, with canines having a scented candle novelization.

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Futurama]]'':

*** They were saving that for sweeps.

** Then there was this gem of a tale:

* ''[[Gargoyles]]'' are not immune. The younger ones break into movie theatres to watch ''[[Bambi]]'', Hudson develops a fondness for television, and [[Genius Bruiser|Goliath]] raids the library for [[Fyodor Dostoevsky|Dostoevsky]].

* A variation applies in the ''[[Beetlejuice (animation)|Beetlejuice]]'' cartoon with Lydia Deetz's mother Delia. Delia's weird sculpture art is laughed at by the living people in the Outerworld, but it's a smash hit with the dead ghosts of the Neitherworld.

 

== Real Life ==

* Åke "Dacke" Axelsson, a journalist at the Swedish tabloid Göteborgs-Tidningen, came up with the idea of exhibiting a series of paintings made by an ape, under the presumption that they were the work of a previously unknown French artist named "Pierre Brassau", in order to test whether critics could tell the difference between true avant-garde modern art and the work of a monkey. "Pierre Brassau" was in fact a four-year-old Common Chimpanzee named Peter from Sweden's Borås djurpark zoo. Critics praised the chimp's works, with Rolf Anderberg of the morning Posten writing, "Brassau paints with powerful strokes, but also with clear determination. His brush strokes twist with furious fastidiousness. Pierre is an artist who performs with the delicacy of a ballet dancer." One critic, however, panned the work, suggesting that "Only an ape could have done this". After the hoax was revealed, Rolf Anderberg insisted that Peter/Pierre's work was "still the best painting in the exhibition." A private collector bought one of the works for US$90.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS_6-IwMPjM This beluga whale] apparently enjoys mariachi music.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]