do the write thing
Since early November, nearly every home across the country has been experiencing the same plight. Ah yes, you might say, home forclosures have affected many Americans. Or perhaps you assume that I speak of the widespread draught that has made campfires a risky game in most of the continental United States. Although these problems are relevant, they're not what I'm here to discuss. The problem I speak of concerns our afternoons, our evenings, and even our late nights. It reaches us in the office, crime scene investigation, and the er. Whether you're a big shot or a desperate housewife, (surely you're catching my drift by now) you've most likely felt the effects of this issue.
The problem we're here to address is the Writers Guild strike, which has deprived law-abiding Americans everywhere of their favorite source of entertainment and relaxation. According to Dr. Norman Herr of California State University, Northridge, 99% of American households own at least one television. That means 99% of Americans are feeling me on this issue.
In addition to the sweeping demographic that this address should affect, the problem is given further legitimacy by the fact that npr deemed it worthy of mention on 'all things considered' this afternoon (so you know it's serious.) kim masters reported that the networks are beginning to run out of scripted episodes of shows like 'grey's anatomy' and 'csi', and with the strike looking unending, the state of television in 2008 is looking bleak. Without the scripted shows, the networks are forced to rely on new episodes of less popular shows, shows that had been relegated to secondary networks, and new reality shows. Some of these include pitches for a celebrity version of the old gameshow "password" (remember how you and your friends used to love getting together to laugh and enjoy a great episode of hollywood squares, hosted by al borland? wait...), and a show called "moment of truth" which entails everyday people being hooked up to a lie detector and asked questions like "do over-weight people repulse you?" (isn't it nice to know that network executives think americans would be willing, nay, eager to spend an hour watching joe schmo from hackensack lie about whether he really cares about starving children in africa? isn't it unfortunate that they're probably right?) Shari Anne Brill, television ad executive, speaking to this insubstantial substitute programming, intoned that tv execs are just hoping that viewers are so desperate for a way to fill their time that "they will just want to watch anything..."
This unfortunate (and most likely true) revelation brings me to my point. Are we as a nation so much at a loss for something to do that we're willing to just stare at the talking box in front of us no matter what it's blabbering about? "No new tv shows?? What will I do?? I guess I'll just watch re-runs of 'Becker' and that new reality show about the search for the next great ventriliquist..." My fellow Americans, I have a revolutionary idea that could change our evenings, and our country, for the better.
Read a book.
We learned how to do it in like, first grade, and it's kind of like riding a bike - I'm sure we'd remember how if we tried it again. This idea came to me when I realized that I myself have done more reading in the past month than I have in the last several months, and it all started when Thursday night television turned into re-runs. For I, an admitted bibliophile, am never the less oft distracted by the humor and companionship of America's most ubiquitous living room guest. (In case you've been here, yes I see the irony in the fact that my own television sits in the center of my bookshelves, surrounded by happy tomes.) Television is brilliant entertainment, makes us laugh, gives us something to recount around the watercooler at work. "TV," said Frank Lloyd Wright, "is bubblegum for the eyes." But a book...ah, a book, according to Neil Postman, is "an excellent container for the accumulation...of information and ideas. It takes time to write a book, and to read one; time to discuss its contents and to make judgments about their merit...a book is an attempt to make thought permanent and to contribute to the great conversation conducted by authors of the past." There's nothing wrong with chewing some gum (especially if you eat a lot of garlic, or if you chew the sugar-free, tooth-whitening kind), but it's pretty vital to your health to also eat some real food. ("Oh no. A metaphor." I know, I'm sorry. It'll be over soon.)
I'm just proposing that we take this break from regularly scheduled programming to feed our minds with some thought-provoking, imagination-expanding, verbally graceful literature. Like Popeye, but with books instead of spinach. (Ok, metaphor over.)
Suggested reading list:
-"An American Childhood" by Annie Dillard (vivid, warm descriptions of a very american 1950's childhood. you can feel yourself thinking more clearly and growing more alive as you read)
-"All Over but the Shoutin'" by Rick Bragg (incredible, brilliantly written, funny, and moving. follow bragg from backwoods alabama, to haiti, to harvard, to a pulitzer prize.)
-"This Side of Paradise" by F. Scott Fitzgerald (the main character of this jazz age coming-of-age tale reflects the inward, self-aware thoughts of every person honest and alive.)
-"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" by Mark Haddon (a unique, fresh, and funny mystery from the first person perspective of a 15 year-old, british, autisic boy.)
-"Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves" by P.G. Wodehouse (do you think british people are funny?christopher buckley says "it is impossible to be unhappy while reading the adventures of jeeves and wooster. and i've tried.")
-"Through Painted Deserts" by Donald Miller (don drives with a friend from texas to oregon in a vw van and wakes up to what makes life vivid.)
-"A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway (poignant, world war I, quentessential hemingway. frankly, it's a worthy book that stays with you.)
The problem we're here to address is the Writers Guild strike, which has deprived law-abiding Americans everywhere of their favorite source of entertainment and relaxation. According to Dr. Norman Herr of California State University, Northridge, 99% of American households own at least one television. That means 99% of Americans are feeling me on this issue.
In addition to the sweeping demographic that this address should affect, the problem is given further legitimacy by the fact that npr deemed it worthy of mention on 'all things considered' this afternoon (so you know it's serious.) kim masters reported that the networks are beginning to run out of scripted episodes of shows like 'grey's anatomy' and 'csi', and with the strike looking unending, the state of television in 2008 is looking bleak. Without the scripted shows, the networks are forced to rely on new episodes of less popular shows, shows that had been relegated to secondary networks, and new reality shows. Some of these include pitches for a celebrity version of the old gameshow "password" (remember how you and your friends used to love getting together to laugh and enjoy a great episode of hollywood squares, hosted by al borland? wait...), and a show called "moment of truth" which entails everyday people being hooked up to a lie detector and asked questions like "do over-weight people repulse you?" (isn't it nice to know that network executives think americans would be willing, nay, eager to spend an hour watching joe schmo from hackensack lie about whether he really cares about starving children in africa? isn't it unfortunate that they're probably right?) Shari Anne Brill, television ad executive, speaking to this insubstantial substitute programming, intoned that tv execs are just hoping that viewers are so desperate for a way to fill their time that "they will just want to watch anything..."
This unfortunate (and most likely true) revelation brings me to my point. Are we as a nation so much at a loss for something to do that we're willing to just stare at the talking box in front of us no matter what it's blabbering about? "No new tv shows?? What will I do?? I guess I'll just watch re-runs of 'Becker' and that new reality show about the search for the next great ventriliquist..." My fellow Americans, I have a revolutionary idea that could change our evenings, and our country, for the better.
Read a book.
We learned how to do it in like, first grade, and it's kind of like riding a bike - I'm sure we'd remember how if we tried it again. This idea came to me when I realized that I myself have done more reading in the past month than I have in the last several months, and it all started when Thursday night television turned into re-runs. For I, an admitted bibliophile, am never the less oft distracted by the humor and companionship of America's most ubiquitous living room guest. (In case you've been here, yes I see the irony in the fact that my own television sits in the center of my bookshelves, surrounded by happy tomes.) Television is brilliant entertainment, makes us laugh, gives us something to recount around the watercooler at work. "TV," said Frank Lloyd Wright, "is bubblegum for the eyes." But a book...ah, a book, according to Neil Postman, is "an excellent container for the accumulation...of information and ideas. It takes time to write a book, and to read one; time to discuss its contents and to make judgments about their merit...a book is an attempt to make thought permanent and to contribute to the great conversation conducted by authors of the past." There's nothing wrong with chewing some gum (especially if you eat a lot of garlic, or if you chew the sugar-free, tooth-whitening kind), but it's pretty vital to your health to also eat some real food. ("Oh no. A metaphor." I know, I'm sorry. It'll be over soon.)
I'm just proposing that we take this break from regularly scheduled programming to feed our minds with some thought-provoking, imagination-expanding, verbally graceful literature. Like Popeye, but with books instead of spinach. (Ok, metaphor over.)
Suggested reading list:
-"An American Childhood" by Annie Dillard (vivid, warm descriptions of a very american 1950's childhood. you can feel yourself thinking more clearly and growing more alive as you read)
-"All Over but the Shoutin'" by Rick Bragg (incredible, brilliantly written, funny, and moving. follow bragg from backwoods alabama, to haiti, to harvard, to a pulitzer prize.)
-"This Side of Paradise" by F. Scott Fitzgerald (the main character of this jazz age coming-of-age tale reflects the inward, self-aware thoughts of every person honest and alive.)
-"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" by Mark Haddon (a unique, fresh, and funny mystery from the first person perspective of a 15 year-old, british, autisic boy.)
-"Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves" by P.G. Wodehouse (do you think british people are funny?christopher buckley says "it is impossible to be unhappy while reading the adventures of jeeves and wooster. and i've tried.")
-"Through Painted Deserts" by Donald Miller (don drives with a friend from texas to oregon in a vw van and wakes up to what makes life vivid.)
-"A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway (poignant, world war I, quentessential hemingway. frankly, it's a worthy book that stays with you.)