Okay, what else are you consuming... FaceBook, random internet stuff, Pinterest, Reddit I guess.. I don't really know the specifics, but I do know that while that stuff is all a lot of fun, it is also a bit shallow if taken to extremes. Just melts into a wall of empty fluff if you binge on it.
Videogames, some of you play videogames. I'm sure there is some good stuff there at least in terms of the craft of the things, and the challenging puzzles you must solve, as well as the aesthetics of it. But, I will just go ahead anyway and paint with a broad uninformed brush, and say I bet it's still a lot like movies... They can't escape all that corporate influence in their DNA, all that MONEY that goes into getting them made.
That's the bottom line with all this stuff we've mentioned so far, it all comes out of a very cloistered environment. Thousands of brilliant dudes (and dudettes, they try their best to find female nerds, I know) make this stuff, and it's really really good, in a way... HOWEVER. At the end of the day, about 6 or 7 princelings sit atop these Hollywood Fun Factories, signing off on every project and making damn sure it fits their "agenda." Whatever the **** that agenda may be.
Oh, you didn't know they had an agenda? Yep. I could tell you about the Agenda. But let's not get into all of that. Let me just ask you to CONSIDER... maybe in baby steps, start small... CONSIDER getting off their reservation to some degree...
I know it's hard. It's hard for me too. They've got us all hemmed in. You don't have much time, and it's easy to just take whatever's being shoved in your face. And the professional critics and reviewers, and media types generally, alert you to what should and should not be consumed. So it's all a very smoothly running system. And like we said, it's actually pretty good stuff, in a lot of ways --- craft-wise, and creativity wise, and "production values"-wise. It's slick stuff, and some of it almost seems like it might be ****ing Art or something. All "critically acclaimed" and **** like that.
But it does have that little Agenda doohickey firmly embedded in its shiny, sparkling orifice of your choice.
Even if you don't know much about the Agenda, you can probably sense it's there. Humanity's not QUITE so far gone yet that we don't still have a 6th sense about this stuff. You must feel a little bit queasy from time to time when scarfing down this primo candy --- don't you? No? Maybe even at a sub-conscious level, just something you push down and repress because nobody else seems to notice...?
If you've read this far, I'm probably preaching to the choir. But possibly there are some marginal folks who might just need a nudge to see what I'm seeing... That's who I'm talking to. I can't reach you if you Totally Don't Like to Read. And if you already "get" what I'm talking about, there's no need to tell you this.
But if you're in some borderline state, where the Standard Entertainments, as much as you enjoy them, seem slightly suspect, or not quite filling enough, then I'm recommending trying to cut the cord as much as possible. Yes this is another lonely rant in favor of things like Books. And candles, even, ha ha. Try reading some Books by Candle-light, and see if the allure of TV and Movies and Videogames doesn't fade, somewhat. And take a Really Long Walk in old-timey Nature (sans tech! No iPods etc. allowed!) It will blow your mind (might need to be repeated on several occasions to achieve this effect --- some detox may be necessary.)
And (though this is hard and I'm not successful myself) I think maybe trying to find some genuine marginal artists --- whether writers, painters, musicians, poets, cartoonists (I have to add, given my own comics practice..), film-makers, etc. --- could be fruitful. I know there are a lot of dregs. In the smaller media you may be able to rely on what small publishers "recommend" for you, because more is permitted in those small spaces. But when you get into the Big Money fields, the Military-Industrial-Entertainment Complex (MIEC), as it were, then the Agenda is highly present, whether you have fully picked up on it yet or not.
As a caveat, I would say that engaging the MIEC can be quite fruitful if you are aware of, and have your antennae up to watch out for the Agenda. To pick up any signs of this complicated code, sort of treating Hollywood like Talmudic texts or something. An elaborate "sign system" that must be decoded if you wish to avoid swallowing the propaganda and mind-control wholesale.
I always get so dramatic about things...
Anyway, if that latter approach interests you, a good guide I have found is Jay (I forget his last name) over at JaysAnalysis.com. He does "esoteric" movie reviews, pointing out the hidden meanings embedded in popular entertainment.
I hope you have found this helpful and of interest, agree or disagree. I welcome comments and dialogue.
ACK!!
ReplyDeleteBooks! And as if that, alone, isn't bad enough, you also advocate the reading of books by the light of a candle.
My God, man, have you gone daft?!
And the icing on this cake of an idea of yours, Mawster Timothy, is that we should trek to a site that specializes in analysis? Yes, yes, that is EXACTLY what I need and crave - MORE analysis!
Tell me this, why do we have to care about esoteric meanings embedded in popular entertainment? It's not as though we're going to grasp them, anyway, is it?
It seems to be all that I can do to try and develop some bare modicum of appreciation for art, before the last sand of time falls from my hourglass of life.
If I take to reading books, then I won't have time to hang out here, even if it is only on the odd occasion. No more pithy quips. No more scouring of your wit.
And that, my dear sir, strikes me as a not so very pleasant way to go about hobnobbing through life.
What did they do before books, anyway? The whole nature thing?
Nature - that's where the bears hang out, right? Have you ever seen a grizzly kill a man, before/ Well, have you, Mister Rocks?
We don't have grizzly bears hanging out here, insofar as I know and am aware of, but we do have bears. I think of them, when take out the trash after dark, sometimes, and that time when my mode of transportation decided to spontaneously convert itself into a fountain at approximately midnight. It was God-awful cold, that night. Should I have read a book in the darkness while walking and freezing my ass off?
Actually, it was my ears that were freezing, but I'm not quite sure how reading a book in the dark would have helped.
I did have gloves, though, but trying to turn the pages of a book while wearing those, honestly, I just don't know if I could have pulled something like that off.
Can't we just be entertained? Do we have to run the slalom of inculcation, also?
I have enough difficulty making out the words on menus in restaurants with poor lighting. What size is the font of those books that you're wanting read?
I must end this here. The thought of this compelled book reading is making the tension level in my shoulders increase.
What I need is one of those cinnamon roll things with the pecans on it.