lost in television
Yesterday, Matt and I finally finished watching three seasons of Lost. We started watching early March, and have been watching through some sixty or so episodes in the last three months.
Though part of me longs to watch more and find out more about the show, the rest of me is relieved that this too is over. I have felt chained to the television for the last three months. It was fun and entertaining at first, an enjoyable activity that Matt and I could share with each other. But soon it became an all too easy and comfortable answer to the question "What should we do together?" And though we would spend hours together, we would feel like we had not spent any quality time together at all, since we had spent those hours staring passively at a television screen.
It was easy to get used to being entertained and letting the hours pass, instead of finding creative ways to spend meaningful time together. It was easy to slip into a mode where television controlled us and not the other way around.
Recently, Ray Bradbury clarified that his novel, Fahrenheit 451, which describes an authoritarian society where books are burned, is not about government censorship, but about the dulling effects of television. The government does not use televisions as a medium of control, but rather the people choose it as an easy opiate. The fireman in the novel says "We give them what they want".
Books require too much work, too much active engagement. Television is an easy answer to all the difficult questions we may have, because it allows us to forget about them and escape into the world of special effects and good-looking actors. And so the books burn.*
I am looking forward to life without a television and without Lost. No longer can I cope with my boredom or loneliness with a flip of a remote control, letting the colours and sounds wash over me. No longer can I forget about my fears and problems by distracting myself with some mediocore tv program. Instead, I might actually be able to find some real solutions.
* More on his website and in an article in the LA Times:.
** And by the way, I actually like Lost alot. I think it's a great show. I just didn't like how it semi-dominated all my free time for three whole months. :P
6 comments:
Of course, you didn't have to watch sixty episodes in three months.
No we didn't! But she certainly didn't hate them or anything. She was the one who told me about "lostpedia".
LOST LOST LOST!!! I've been a faithful fan of Lost for three years now and missed the season finale a couple weeks ago...and Botswana has no episodes :( so disappointed. Haha but I guess in a way, I'm living LOST episodes here and NO TV :)
oh and did i say i miss you? i miss you and i still like your blog. keep on writing!
aww thanks :)
i love Lost too!
we'll have to have Lost parties in the spring :)
My wife and I used to watch Chinese Kung-fu series together. Some of them were really excellent, with amazingly complex and deep stories. One called "Condor Heroes" that they keep re-making went on for several generations and had some remarkable characters. It's based on a huge long novel written by a Taiwanese historian.
Of course, it meant that we basically dug a hole and pulled it in after us for quite a while.... :-)
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