Sundog Rising!
Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog
As I Am Entertained, Therefore I Am.
Part Three
Our Premise So Far: Due to its overwhelming presence in our lives, higher than at any other point in history, people today demonstrate a tendency to define themselves in terms of the media by which they are entertained. I decided that wasn’t necessarily such a bad idea, as art offers an exploration of the deepest reflection man has to offer on his world. But does subjecting yourself to endless marathons of The Simpsons or Sex In The City qualify as exposing yourself to art?
Now I’m in trouble. I got into this argument because I complained too many people were taking their entertainment content too seriously! Have I put myself in the reverse position from where I started out? Am I now saying your entertainment choices — and you, by extension — are inferior because they might not be up to my completely subjective opinion of what qualifies as worthwhile art or not?
This is why so many people hate philosophy. No matter how you argue things, you always eventually end up talking yourself into a corner.
I claimed at the beginning of this series that no one should be quick to judge another person based solely on their choice of favourite movies, books, or television programs. I still believe that. To get out of contradicting myself in the deeper exploration, it’s time for a reexamination of my key statement.
As I am Entertained, therefore I am.
The crux of the matter is the passive structure of that concept. I am entertained. We’re trying to extend Rene Descartes’s famous “cogito ergo sum,” but we’re not saying “as I entertain, therefore I am.” I’ll leave that one to Martha Stewart.
No the point is, we’re talking about developing our personas through something that happens to us, rather than something we actively do. Beyond changing the station with the remote.
The content of any entertainment experience, artsy or otherwise, is what it is. People will like what they like. Certainly, producers constantly steering the available choices towards the lowest common denominator in the name of making a buck is not a healthy trend for the culture’s overall well being. But ultimately there is absolutely nothing wrong with sitting down with an episode of The Simpsons or even Sex In The City. There are too many other influences still at work to lay aim at the content of prime time television as being the sole progenitor of the increasingly crass and uncivil society we live in.
Entertainment content is as entertainment content does. The problem comes when people only accept what is thrown at them in a passive manner. Being defined solely by outside forces is no way to develop a solid set of existential credentials for your self.
Whatever your viewing, reading, or listening habits are, it is always necessary to think about what you watch, read, or hear, to build a legitimate individual persona. Unless you’re blindly happy being one of the faceless masses of our culture’s army of consumers. I don’t even want to think about getting into the issue of those who don’t want to think versus those who do, and how many there are in either camp at any given moment. A statement which makes me feel like I’m spinning in place again, but what the hell.
We cannot avoid being affected unwillingly by our environments, but we can always think about who we are within them. Change has to come from within. Working from there, we can make good or bad decisions about what we choose to draw from our endless hours of entertainment. Insights into life as drawn from The Simpsons and Sex In The City are just as legitimate as those drawn from James Joyce’s Ulysses.
And we should all agree to lighten up a little when we choose to speak about our entertainment-derived decisions. Then such conversations can become a good deal more … well, entertaining again.
So what it comes down to is, no matter what you read, watch or listen to, you still gotta think before you are. Doh!
*******
REALITY FICTION UPDATE!
And what is Reality Fiction, you may well ask?
Simple. The concept of the Reality Television Series translated to the printed page. 40 characters from my backlog of generally unpublished material are gathered together to compete in a different theme each Episode, with one or two characters being eliminated each sequence until there are only two left to fight it out in the final. The winner gets a short novel of their own as the grand prize.
But somehow, things always seem to go horribly wrong ...
What’s happening now?
You are cordially invited
to the wedding of
The Ponytail Princess
to
Miss Scintillisha Evans-Holyrood
on the shores of Poor Mademoiselle Lake
beginning Friday, January 31st, 2014
(and yes, we know they’re both girls.)
A totally unique Reality Fiction Too! interlude.
Continuing Friday at: realficone.blogspot.ca
REALITY FICTION TOO! EPISODES TO DATE
EPISODE TWENTY: EXISTENTIALISM
Face the Hangman
EPISODE NINETEEN: ABDUCTION
Abduction/Apperception
EPISODE EIGHTEEN: MELODRAMA
“Terror in Tarnation! A Thrilling Narrative in Three Acts”
EPISODE SEVENTEEN: POETRY
“landescapes”
EPISODE SIXTEEN: SILLY EUROPEAN SPY SPOOF (DUBBED)
“Diet Ray of the Stars!”
EPISODE FIFTEEN: EROTIC SUPERNATURAL ROMANCE
“The Shadow of Her Passion”
EPISODE FOURTEEN: FLYING:
“Sky Calling”
EPISODE THIRTEEN: SLAPSTICK:
“The Phantom of the Werewolf”
EPISODE TWELVE: DAIRY FARMING:
“Early One Morning”
EPISODE ELEVEN: BURROUGHS:
“Chapter Nine”
EPISODE TEN: WEREWOLVES:
“The Silver Solution”
EPISODE NINE: WRESTLING:
“Suckerslam XIV”
EPISODE EIGHT: JANE AUSTEN ROMANCE:
“The Proud and the Senseless”
EPISODE SEVEN: THE JAZZ AGE:
“The Bucky-Dusky-Ruby Red Hop!”
EPISODE SIX: SUBMISSION:
“Re-Org”
EPISODE FIVE: MASQUERADE:
“The Eyes Behind the Mask”
EPISODE FOUR: SELF HELP:
“Sausage Stew for the Slightly Overweight Presents:
Some Several Suggestions Guaranteeing Success for the Mildly Neurotic”
EPISODE THREE: NUDIST:
“If You Have To Ask ...”
EPISODE TWO: FRENCH BEDROOM FARCE:
“Un Nuit a Fifi’s!”
EPISODE ONE: STEAMPUNK:
“The Chase of the Purple Squid!”
A J.H.B. Original!
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