Worldbuilding, Propaganda, and My Favorite Gardening Show
I’ve been thinking this week about narratives, and how propaganda is world building in this shared sandbox we call reality.
There’s loads of propaganda out there, which I have various emotional responses to. But the thing that set off my curiosity about this is actually the calmest, most soothing media I consume.
Gardener’s World is a British gardening show that airs once a week from spring into fall. The primary host, Monty Don, is a cross between Mr Rogers and Bob Ross, with a pleasant accent and a soothing voice any ASMR youtuber would envy. He and a diverse cast of co-hosts spend episode after episode talking about plants they like, touring nice gardens, and giving advice that I can use about 50% of the time in my freezing climate. I started watching it during the part of the pandemic when I ran out of Great British Bake Off to watch, and those of you who follow me on Tumblr know it’s been instrumental to my burgeoning gardening obsession.
Gardner’s World is so obviously designed to give the exact emotional experience it delivers that I started thinking about how it so reliably creates this mood. I guess that’s a natural author reaction to have, but so far everyone I’ve mentioned it to seemed startled or confused by my curiosity. There’s lovely nature images and softspoken pleasant people enthusing about things they care about, and no manufactured TV drama at all. Of course it’s soothing.
That’s all completely correct, but I wasn’t satisfied. I’ve watched soothing videos before, but none have hit me like this.
After a few weeks of pondering and watching, I’ve decided it’s a matter of world building.
There’s no fictional element of the show, but the producers are masterful in their use of framing to build an internally consistent view of the world. I don’t hesitate to call it propaganda, because after several seasons it’s very apparent that this framing is intentional and often directly countering right wing propaganda.
During the height of Brexit, Gardner’s World was brimming with immigrants of all stripes, talking about growing the food they can’t find in stores, or how they recreate the feel of their grandmother’s garden in a tiny patch of London, or just enthusing about tulips like any other of the segments focused on community gardeners.
The show features cheerful autistic people running their own greenhouse businesses, talking about how they employ a lot of autistic people “because we’re better at this”. It’s got queer people just going about their business- planting gardens for their kids, obsessing over ferns in their retirement. People in wheelchairs, or with no arms, or with limited vision, are all on regularly chatting amiably about adaptations they use for their garden- and also just about the same gardening topics as everyone else.
All along but more and more often, they feature segments on climate change. How can you adapt to changing growing conditions in your garden? How can you limit or eliminate the use of peat in your garden to keep carbon in the ground? How can you help declining insect populations?
They key thing here is that none of this is ever presented with an element of debate. There is no question of whether climate change is real and happening now and in need of immediate, groundswell intervention. There is no asking queer people to prove how virtuous and deserving they are. Every type of brain and body depicted is framed with respect, dignity, and implicit acceptance.
I call it propaganda because I know full well that a good portion of the show's original target demographic are regularly exposed to narratives that none of these subjects are settled and certain.
This is a counter-statement that refuses to directly address what it’s arguing against. It refuses to be defensive.
Instead, it relies on presenting you with a vision of the world where all of this is real. And, just like how you accept that the warp drive warps and the dragon flies, you accept what’s presented to you.
It’s so consistent, deliberate, and so unselfconscious. And I think the combination of those three things are a great formula for anyone creating fictional worlds. It’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to justify every facet with details and defenses. And it’s just not needed.
If your audience's hearts are engaged, and you just present them with what is, they will follow you. If it's a vision of a world they need in some way, it'll be comforting.
Before I go, I wanted to invite anyone in the area to come meet me, in person! I will sign books if you bring them, be selling them if you like, and am also completely thrilled to chat with you regardless of whether you have/buy a book or not.
Please come say hi to me at CONvergance if you can! (I have more hair now). Come talk about my books. About cyborgs or politics or gardens or writing or animating or anything. I’ll also be on a panel later that evening on creating your creative space that has a surprising array of panelists and should be fun. And I’ll be floating around the convention all weekend, and open to approach.
As always, thank you for reading. It means so much to me. I'm working on a special... short story? Novella? Special treat just for you subscribers.
Best Wishes,
Lee Brondtide
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