He went on to say that "pie with a fork" is North American etiquette (and adopted by that particular organisation as standard), and that in other cultures you do what your hostess (or host) does. It is impolite to demand a fork in a culture which only uses spoons (or fingers). He had other examples of different cultures, for example the Jockaira in "Methuselah's Children" where it was a communal dish and politeness was to scoop up the stuff with your fingers and feed it to your host or partner.
The point in Space Cadet was to break the attitude that "the way I was taught is always right", and to set a standard which would be regarded as "not impolite" by most of the people they were likely to encounter (although some would find it strange and possibly inefficient).
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Straight from the Book
Date: 2006-10-15 09:15 am (UTC)Oh, someone was thinking of a different book, blue in color? As I recall it allows either.
Re: Straight from the Book
Date: 2006-10-15 01:06 pm (UTC)The point in Space Cadet was to break the attitude that "the way I was taught is always right", and to set a standard which would be regarded as "not impolite" by most of the people they were likely to encounter (although some would find it strange and possibly inefficient).