virus: Humor from the fringes of memetics

Marek Jedlinski (marekjed@magnum.lodz.pl)
Thu, 23 May 1996 18:59:15 +0200 (MESZ)


In a senior translation course I teach I recently introduced
memetics to the group and assigned a short piece about memes.
Today one of my students submitted his translation and attached
a postcard to it (British-made). The postcard features a geeky-
looking, black clad, bespectacled, lanky young man who thinks
to himself: "I suspect that *genetically* I'm allergic to cleaning
and *culturally* I need to have sex with a lot of people..."

I wondered if the author of the cartoon (Jacky Fleming) heard
about memetics, or is it only an echo of nature-nurture debate;
but I like the twist in the joke, as well as the fact that
the student surely caught on to the Metameme :-)

(Otherwise, allow me to say that I've been following the
postmodernism and 'absolute truth' threads with held breath.
My self-inflicted lurking is necessary in order to cope with the
end-of-semester workload, and I wish I could contribute
to the debate; but I'm still here and learning from your
posts by the hour!)

Best wishes to all,

marek jedlinski

--
Caution: This message originated solely in my brain,
which has no authority to speak for other parts of my body.