Television, a response to "A Plain View"
TV is not the devil. There is nothing inherently wrong with it, but something happened to it. As a kid, I watched "Full House" on a regular basis. Thinking back on it, it's kind of creepy that three young girls lived with their dad and two uncles, but the show was wholesome: there was always a lesson to be learned.
From Looney Toons I became acquainted with classical music (particularly Grieg), opera, and fine literature (including Steinbeck and Shakespeare).
Even G.I. Joe taught us that knowing is half the battle.
But now what does TV have to offer? Reality television, which has largely replaced the sitcom, does not conform to either "reality" or normal conventions of "television." It blurs the line between truth and fiction and toes the line of the legal "obscene." The producers want you to think that Paris spilled the ashes of a human being and gathered them up with a vacuum cleaner. In reality, it's just ashes that they told her to spill.
The same goes for current childrens' programming. The infamous Pokemon and the more recent Yu-Gi-Oh have no valuable life lesson at the end, only blatant marketing. In Pokemon you "gotta catch 'em all," and in Yu-Gi-Oh the characters actually play the game for which they sell cards.
What happened to books?
The point is this: in the end, the only television worth watching should make you laugh for 15 minutes to a half hour, and not force you to watch the next episode for fear of missing something important.
Either that, or it should be hosted by Alex Trebek (all other game shows will rot your brain).
From Looney Toons I became acquainted with classical music (particularly Grieg), opera, and fine literature (including Steinbeck and Shakespeare).
Even G.I. Joe taught us that knowing is half the battle.
But now what does TV have to offer? Reality television, which has largely replaced the sitcom, does not conform to either "reality" or normal conventions of "television." It blurs the line between truth and fiction and toes the line of the legal "obscene." The producers want you to think that Paris spilled the ashes of a human being and gathered them up with a vacuum cleaner. In reality, it's just ashes that they told her to spill.
The same goes for current childrens' programming. The infamous Pokemon and the more recent Yu-Gi-Oh have no valuable life lesson at the end, only blatant marketing. In Pokemon you "gotta catch 'em all," and in Yu-Gi-Oh the characters actually play the game for which they sell cards.
What happened to books?
The point is this: in the end, the only television worth watching should make you laugh for 15 minutes to a half hour, and not force you to watch the next episode for fear of missing something important.
Either that, or it should be hosted by Alex Trebek (all other game shows will rot your brain).
1 Comments:
Kelly:
I just wrote a long response to your post and then somehow obliterated the thing.
I'll make it short(er).
My gripe is not that t.v. is "the devil". I am not saying that t.v. is "wrong" in a moral sense necessarily, only that it cannot do very well what it is purported to be able to do: 1) enlighten or educate, or 2) amuse or entertain.
On discovering classical music through t.v: That is like me saying that I first learned of sex by looking at pictures in Playboy. A good thing, poorly conveyed through, in this case anyway, a bad thing. Your logic amounts to this: "The female is a lovely and beautiful creature, and the depth of emotion and desire I feel when I look upon her is good, therefore, Playboy is good." True? I think not. Or think of it this way? It was music you discovered, right? What if the picture had been out on that t.v. set at the moment you heard the music, so that all you did was HEAR the music without the image? Would your experience have been diminished? Of course not. You might, of course, argue that the image somehow enhanced the music. I think Grieg would take issue with that. Grieg and Bach and Chopin were not John Williams writing to "enhance" the mediocre images of the Spielberg of their days, whoever that may have been. Those guys needed no enhancement anymore than Milton or Shakespeare or Van Gogh did. Your scenario makes me imagine that t.v. is like a man who is deaf, mute, blind, and born with no hands, holding out a copy of Shakespeare's plays along with a note to me with his handless arms and written using his mouth which reads, "Take this and read it. I've heard it's really good."
Also: Good job on Crim Law!
Just in case you are curious, I am, it appears, still Kontract Boy.
Post a Comment
<< Home