Alien perspective

I was reading this website http://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/miner.html the other day and it made me wonder what some of you dopers might have to say about the topic.

Miner’s description of the everday life illustrates how taking the perspective of the outsider can make one aware of how we uncritcally accept our own cultural patterns and practices as “normal” and “natural”. Using sort of the same approach miner did I was wondering if any dopers could describe some aspect of your own culture in the same way. What could be gained from stepping back and viewing one’s own culture from the perspective of an outsider or means by which we can view our own world from the perspective of an outsider.

Imagine yourself as alien and viewing such things like sporting events, or the beauty industry, or dieting or religious beliefs. It can even be simple everyday behavious such as shaking hands or smoking cigarettes.

Aboriginal Science Fiction magazine used this idea in the editorials. The perspective was from the “alien publisher” and he would try and report back some aspect of human life as seen from his view. Unfortunately the alien seemed more like a liberal so these were thinly veiled jabs at whatever the topic was.

While I like your idea of trying to write in this style, I lack the skill and the time to attempt it.