Have we, as a society, lost the ability to recognize or demand 'better', having adapted to a steady diet of mediocrity? Or are we self-soothing our collective PTSD caused by the horrors of the world and are grateful simply for a distraction, irrespective of quality?
I'm struck sometimes by this phenomenon where I go read episode recaps of shows I might want to watch on places like Vulture and AVClub, where I used to be a regular in the Actual Golden Age of TV That Is Now Over, and it seems like every show gets reviewed by some new guest editor who gives everything, at minimum, a B-, and usually higher. And then I read the review and it's all about what characters everyone loves, and what characters everyone hates, and if the right things happened to each, where with the best Golden Age shows they used to be about Themes.
I used to think that was about the reviewers, but now I think it's about culture. We still like our shows to be a stream of hot goss as much as we did when SatC was running, it's just now we need to be able to pretend otherwise.
I watch and read so much bad stuff, my Goodreads ratings (and Netflix when you could rate things) are chock full of 1s and 2s. Yet I return over and over again, wallowing in my hymns played on guitars culture.
"amid a perceived declined in the prestige and centrality of literary studies in the broader culture."
Was there ever such a prestige and centrality of literary studies in the broader culture? When was the golden age of literary studies prestige?
"And then as I got older and young people stopped coming to church, certain churches started adopting a “come as you are” attitude. Our church tried it for a few months. "
You go to church? You are a Christian? Fascinating.
That evades the question of what is it not attempting to do. What it is attempting to do, more than anything else, is be pleasing. It seems to be good at doing that for a lot of people; not for me. Like Friends it's mainly a framework for setting up all the possible relationship permutations so they can flame out in entertainingly humiliating ways: shamesploitation. Everything else, the relevancizations about academia, literature, cancel culture, intersectionality, whatever all else, is just excuses for doing this same ordinary show AGAIN.
So what it's not trying to do is examine what it would be like if some non-puppet adult humans were trying to deal with real and imagined problems, some of which they cause themselves. And true, it's not good at that.
Excellent analysis, Brandon. The student/press/zombie horde, yes! And are we really not done with zombies YET? It's gotten worse than the vampires all over the place used to be.
I mean. Just because I don’t address everything you want me to address in my comment doesn’t mean I’m evading something. I could reply with other things I think it’s doing that you haven’t mentioned in this comment but I don’t really feel like it right now. I don’t disagree with your comment though regarding what it does and doesn’t do.
I will say one thing it seems to do is provide opportunities for people to have conversations about this kind of stuff which I guess it does well because I keep seeing people talk about it.
Have we, as a society, lost the ability to recognize or demand 'better', having adapted to a steady diet of mediocrity? Or are we self-soothing our collective PTSD caused by the horrors of the world and are grateful simply for a distraction, irrespective of quality?
Yes!
Loved this.
I'm struck sometimes by this phenomenon where I go read episode recaps of shows I might want to watch on places like Vulture and AVClub, where I used to be a regular in the Actual Golden Age of TV That Is Now Over, and it seems like every show gets reviewed by some new guest editor who gives everything, at minimum, a B-, and usually higher. And then I read the review and it's all about what characters everyone loves, and what characters everyone hates, and if the right things happened to each, where with the best Golden Age shows they used to be about Themes.
I used to think that was about the reviewers, but now I think it's about culture. We still like our shows to be a stream of hot goss as much as we did when SatC was running, it's just now we need to be able to pretend otherwise.
The Chair is just academy goss, in other words.
Great production value + world shatteringly transcendent, I keep watching and hoping...
So long. 😂😂😂💀💀💀
I watch and read so much bad stuff, my Goodreads ratings (and Netflix when you could rate things) are chock full of 1s and 2s. Yet I return over and over again, wallowing in my hymns played on guitars culture.
Well done, Brandon.
Well done. So true.
"hoard" should be "horde"
Good catch! Thank you. I just be typing.
"amid a perceived declined in the prestige and centrality of literary studies in the broader culture."
Was there ever such a prestige and centrality of literary studies in the broader culture? When was the golden age of literary studies prestige?
"And then as I got older and young people stopped coming to church, certain churches started adopting a “come as you are” attitude. Our church tried it for a few months. "
You go to church? You are a Christian? Fascinating.
'Nothing real to say' Sums up so much noise out there and that's hurting its own arguments.
I watched all of The Chair last night. I think it’s good at doing what it’s attempting to do. It’s not good at doing what it’s not attempting to do.
I think we have to disagree on the idea that it’s good at what it’s attempting to do, lol, but I did enjoy it, haha.
Maybe we also disagree on what it’s attempting to do. :)
That evades the question of what is it not attempting to do. What it is attempting to do, more than anything else, is be pleasing. It seems to be good at doing that for a lot of people; not for me. Like Friends it's mainly a framework for setting up all the possible relationship permutations so they can flame out in entertainingly humiliating ways: shamesploitation. Everything else, the relevancizations about academia, literature, cancel culture, intersectionality, whatever all else, is just excuses for doing this same ordinary show AGAIN.
So what it's not trying to do is examine what it would be like if some non-puppet adult humans were trying to deal with real and imagined problems, some of which they cause themselves. And true, it's not good at that.
Excellent analysis, Brandon. The student/press/zombie horde, yes! And are we really not done with zombies YET? It's gotten worse than the vampires all over the place used to be.
I mean. Just because I don’t address everything you want me to address in my comment doesn’t mean I’m evading something. I could reply with other things I think it’s doing that you haven’t mentioned in this comment but I don’t really feel like it right now. I don’t disagree with your comment though regarding what it does and doesn’t do.
I will say one thing it seems to do is provide opportunities for people to have conversations about this kind of stuff which I guess it does well because I keep seeing people talk about it.
There's nothing I want you to say or not say. You don't owe me a thing.
Well done, so true.
You post great stuff – I have a newsletter of poetry fiction and a podcast—check it out here! https://tumbleweedwords.substack.com