The Counterforce and TV

[Mr Craig Clark]

All this talk about uncomfortable TV reminds me of one of the most 
uncomforting films ever made, Sidney Lumet's _Network_ (1976),a 
satire about network television based on a screenplay of ferocious intensity
by Paddy Chayefsky. Andrew Dinn's comments about the way They extend 
us the illusion of opposition to Their hegemony, coupled to Pynchon's
description in _GR_ of how double-minded the Counterforce are in the
presence of money, recollects one extraordinary scene in this film: a
Symbionese Liberation Army-type outfit, whose anti-capitalist guerilla exploits 
in urban America have become the basis for a TV network's prime-time 
show "The Mao Tse-Tung Hour" show (!), are locked in a squabble with the 
network's corporate lawyers over the percentages due to them when "The 
Mao Tse-Tung Hour" goes into syndication...

I recommend this brilliant satire to anyone who has not seen it 
(those who have seen it will need no further encouragement). It's
worth the price of the rental just for two monologues. One is 
delivered by the deranged news anchorman Howard Beale (Peter
Finch's last and greatest performance) on the insidious power of the 
Toob: he delivers this to a live studio audience who applaud because that's
what studio audiences do in Toobland, and they no longer retain the 
ability to question the Toob as Beale is pleading with them to do. 
The other monologue is by Ned Beatty as the ultimate Boss of Bosses of
the network, on how capitalism is "a primal force of nature", stronger than 
any of the paltry forces described by physics. A film of rare intelligence and 
power, which should appeal to Pynchon fans everywhere.   
Craig Clark

"Living inside the system is like driving across
the countryside in a bus driven by a maniac bent
on suicide."
   - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"