Games Good. Film Good. News Stupid.
I wrote this almost four years ago, but it's as true now as it was then. The specific news stories have change changed, but the silliness of hasn't.
Lycan Slaying and TV News Bashing
Because I’m a writer, the written word is important to me. On the other hand, there is no doubt that even if I wasn’t a writer, I’d read voraciously. I think reading is the primary motivation behind most writing careers. Frequently, the love of reading leads to a desire to sculpt stories like those that have been loved. Or something like that.
But I know that when Selene pumps the final 9mm rounds into the Lycan’s shuddering body (1:41 into that video), church bell tolling with each retort of the gun, her blue eyes blazing with blood lust, I want to pause the DVD, run to my computer and write. Not sure why, it’s just so darn cool. Of course that was a film, but the point is nevertheless germane. Stories inspire me, and I guess that breaks my streak of not mentioning Underworld.
Similarly, because I’m a designer, games matter. Or maybe because they matter, I’m a designer. Either way they are great fun. I think there’s a pattern here.
Conversely, TV leaves me cold. Not the piece of wiring or glass, that is as harmless as a gun, but like a gun, in the wrong hands it is deadly. And make no mistake, TV has been in the wrong hands for as long as I can remember.
I watched five minutes of headline news yesterday. It was all I could take. As a mentor of mine once said, “TV news, isn’t” Headline news is a jumble of features CNN feels will grab readers’ attention and advertisers' dollars, interspersed with occasional (very occasional) bits of news that CNN feels will grab readers' attention and advertisers' dollars. Yesterday’s headline was the ranting of a teen-aged boy in court.
Really?
On a 510,066,000 square kilometer planet, a planet where genocide occurs on a daily basis, where two rogue states are on the verge of nuclear weapons (and the means to deliver them), where good men and woman die daily to protect their friends from the same fate, where…heck, where the stock market crested 10,000 for the first time in over a year (when Bush appropriated the first TARP funds was the last time)...with all that, a 16-year old boy’s courtroom tantrum is the headline news? I doubt it. Of course this isn’t all about CNN. Fox News is just as bad, it’s reporting so obviously right-wing slanted that the station has become the mainstay of late-night TV humor. This isn't a left-right thing, it's a feed the masses pablum thing.
Let’s, however, stop cursing the dark, and light a candle. What can we do? Stop watching TV news. I mean right now. Subscribe to a newspaper, read it. If you have a paper aversion, go online and read your newspaper. Listen to the BBC. Why the BBC? There’s more of a world view, less sensationalism. Less us versus them, and in a world determined to polarize itself, that’s a good thing.
See you tomorrow.
Lycan Slaying and TV News Bashing
Because I’m a writer, the written word is important to me. On the other hand, there is no doubt that even if I wasn’t a writer, I’d read voraciously. I think reading is the primary motivation behind most writing careers. Frequently, the love of reading leads to a desire to sculpt stories like those that have been loved. Or something like that.
But I know that when Selene pumps the final 9mm rounds into the Lycan’s shuddering body (1:41 into that video), church bell tolling with each retort of the gun, her blue eyes blazing with blood lust, I want to pause the DVD, run to my computer and write. Not sure why, it’s just so darn cool. Of course that was a film, but the point is nevertheless germane. Stories inspire me, and I guess that breaks my streak of not mentioning Underworld.Similarly, because I’m a designer, games matter. Or maybe because they matter, I’m a designer. Either way they are great fun. I think there’s a pattern here.
Conversely, TV leaves me cold. Not the piece of wiring or glass, that is as harmless as a gun, but like a gun, in the wrong hands it is deadly. And make no mistake, TV has been in the wrong hands for as long as I can remember.
I watched five minutes of headline news yesterday. It was all I could take. As a mentor of mine once said, “TV news, isn’t” Headline news is a jumble of features CNN feels will grab readers’ attention and advertisers' dollars, interspersed with occasional (very occasional) bits of news that CNN feels will grab readers' attention and advertisers' dollars. Yesterday’s headline was the ranting of a teen-aged boy in court.
Really?
On a 510,066,000 square kilometer planet, a planet where genocide occurs on a daily basis, where two rogue states are on the verge of nuclear weapons (and the means to deliver them), where good men and woman die daily to protect their friends from the same fate, where…heck, where the stock market crested 10,000 for the first time in over a year (when Bush appropriated the first TARP funds was the last time)...with all that, a 16-year old boy’s courtroom tantrum is the headline news? I doubt it. Of course this isn’t all about CNN. Fox News is just as bad, it’s reporting so obviously right-wing slanted that the station has become the mainstay of late-night TV humor. This isn't a left-right thing, it's a feed the masses pablum thing.
Let’s, however, stop cursing the dark, and light a candle. What can we do? Stop watching TV news. I mean right now. Subscribe to a newspaper, read it. If you have a paper aversion, go online and read your newspaper. Listen to the BBC. Why the BBC? There’s more of a world view, less sensationalism. Less us versus them, and in a world determined to polarize itself, that’s a good thing.
See you tomorrow.
Comments
Smiling about the Underworld mention. It certainly is pretty from start to finish. Not a big fan of the characterization or the plot, but stylistically it rocks!