Nicole and I spent a couple of days at her aunt and uncle’s Texas lakehouse a month ago for our anniversary. It was great. Originally, we had bandied about the idea of heading out to New Mexico, but–largely due to some time constraints and the alluring fact that the lakehouse option was inexpensive, we decided to save the Newer of the two Mexico’s for a future destination.

Having some money freed up by our decision, we realized that it needed to be spent. As American as my Body by Hot-n-Ready physique, I insisted we get an HDTV. So, we did. We landed a good deal on a refurbished 37-incher. It is lurge.

With much doubt, I plugged the TV into the cable outlet expecting to get the usual, standard def channels (KFOR, KWTV, OETA, the Spanish soap opera channel, and the WB (if I could only be so lucky)). Lo and behold, my TV found about 50 channels: one-third being unwatchable home shopping networks (they’re only funny when “a piece of that tip just” gets them “…big time”), one-third being standard def basic channels, and one-third being impressive HD channels (namely OETA-HD, OETA-OKLA, OETA-YOU).

Bravo, Oklahoma broadcasters… at least OETA, anyhow.

Needless to say, we have watched a bit of TV lately. Conclusions thus far? You can’t truly appreciate just how strange-looking Conan O’Brien really is with standard definition.

It’s also started me thinking about the big cliche topic of television in our society. And, with a recent post by comrade Thomas Brewer on his blog, I figured I should probably blog about it.

Plenty has been said about TV and society. Neil Postman has loads of stuff to say on the matter, and he says it much better than I in his book. So, I won’t bother regurgitating it. Rather, I thought I would impart two concerns that I bounce between when it comes to living a life saturated with media.

The Allusive Concern

For a time, I lived with Justin Donothan. If you ever get the chance, I recommend it. He was assigned a book for a college class. He read it and passed it along my way, claiming I would like it. The book was/is White Noise by Don DeLillo, and I did enjoy it.

It’s narrative fiction, dark comedy. Two of themes in the book are the meaning and dissemination of information (mainly (the) media for my example) and meaning/purpose/self-worth. These two themes intertwine for a thematic climax halfway through the book. The scene is set in a tae kwon do center that is being used as a refuge for hundreds of people that just escaped a train-wreck-born cloud of poisonous fumes in a nearby town. The white, midwestern, middle class refugees are quiet and confused. The daughter of the main character mutters “Toyota Celica” to herself, a sooth mantra from advertising gurus that comforts her when she is afraid.

One of the refugees is walking around with a portable TV complaining that none of the networks carried the disaster and a local station only gave the disaster fifty-two words, but with no video or no special report. The man then asks the following rhetorical questions: “Don’t they know it’s real? . . . Shouldn’t we be yelling out the window at them, ‘Leave us alone, we’ve been through enough, get out of here? . . . Haven’t we earned the right to despise their idiot questions?” His audience applauds.

The “Toyota Celica” mantra is a bit over-the-top as an analogy for prayer and/or invocation, but–hey–it’s a comedy. Nonetheless, it makes it clear that DeLillo is presenting his character to have a relationship with the media as though it was divine. The more interesting example of this is the agitated man carrying the TV. He and his applauding audience feel that their experience is not validated, because it is not mediated. Not all unlike the prophets of Baal in chapter 18 of 1 Kings, the sacrifice was made, but it went unacknowledged by their god.

Brad Holland, an artist whose work I am completely unfamiliar with but who is the author of a quote I have been tugging around for a couple years, once remarked, “In Modernism, reality used to validate media. In Postmodernism, the media validate reality. If you don’t believe this, just think how many times you’ve described some real event as being ‘just like a movie.’ ”

It is almost as though the movie camera is not so much a passive machine that has outside imagery imprinted intp it, as it is a machine that projects importance and weight on its target.

The danger of this concern could be found in an unhealthy pursuit of “cinematic moments”–be it in imagery or conversation–that breeds a low view of the rest of existence. Monotony is monotony. I need not say “monotony is bad”, because, at least in my mind, “monotony” already means “bad”. But, the fact of the matter is an overwhelming percentage of my existence is spent doing very uncinematic things. What’s more is that it is ordained as such, and I would therefore argue that there is sanctificial purposes therein.

Does this mean we should seek out the small, unique beauties found in our day-to-day lives? Probably. But, it probably also means we should be expecting and okay with being in boring situations. I’ll also take this opportunity to encourage us to watch more ‘boring’ movies–how about some Bergman, Tarkovsky, and Fellini for starters?

The Elusive Concern

I find the elusive concern to be much more convicting personally. I call it the Elusive Concern for two reasons: (1) of my two concerns, it seems to represent a cultural-media effect much less discussed, and (2) whereas the Allusive Concern tends to allure people to mediated experiences, the Elusive concern seems make the effected elude mediated experiences.

Some three years ago, I spent part of a Spring Break visiting my buddy Matt Howell while he was an RUF intern at LSU. While there, we had the chance to attend a lecture the was part of the visiting Veritas Forum. We had the good pleasure of hearing William Edgar, Coordinator of the Apologetics Department at Westminister Theological Seminary, speak on the issue of engaging with entertainment and the entertainment industry.

He had a lot of insightful things to say, but, pertinent to this post, he talked about how the media makers, in establishing and inundating the public with cliche imagery, dialogue, action sequences, plots, have laid claim to certain experiences–at least in the minds of those that have adopted this second concern as truth. In contrast to the first concern, this one views the realm of mediated experience as invalid or plastic.

Our response, put simply, is cynicism. We are repulsed when put in situations that feel like a TV show or advertisement. If we find ourselves in an intimate family situation, we feel cheezy. If we experience the beauty of a mountain landscape, we don’t care to let ourself really take it in lest we look like some sap in an allergy advertisement. We joke our way out of moments of some of the most endearing realities of relationships, because it feels like a chick flick.

Hand-in-hand with the repulsion factor is the exhausted material factor. Thanks to TV (and especially High-Def) I can watch absolutely beautiful sunsets, one after another all day long. I’ve never been to Niagra Falls (“I have seen water. It’s water. That’s all.”–speaking of mediated experiences), but I have “seen” it many, many times and from more angles than I would ever be allowed if I was actually physically present at Niagra Falls.

“Another postmodern sunset, rich in romantic imagery. Why try to describe it?,” writes Don DeLillo in White Noise.