BERKELEY / UC folklorist Dundes dies while teaching / His scholarship helped to create an academic discipline — I got more knowledge from the classes I took from Alan Dundes than probably any other professor at Cal Berkeley. A loss to humanity. He was also a great resource. For years I’d call him, often at home, to get his take on a situation knowing I’d get an “angle.” He once appeared, as I recall, on the Carson show or one of the late night shows to talk about how the Star Ship Enterprise was symbolic of promoting Capitalism universally. He began with the “Enterprise” itself and its name then he broke down the entire show in a phenomenal way that was just riveting. An amazing folklorist. If you ever see his books, which are collections of folklore — much early Urban folkore — buy them.
His take on Star Trek promoting capitalism is nonsense of course. Firstly, it presumes a conscious effort which has never been mentioned by anyone including Roddenberry. Second, the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise was well known as a legend during World War II that was pivotal in the Battle of Midway. It was after this ship (and other WWII ships and carriers) that the shows ships were named. Third, it ignores the fact that in the show the “economics of the future are very different” as in there is no money (how that works exactly we are never told.). This is a case of creating fact from analysis instead of the other way around.