M&D truthtelling, history & I.F. Stone(WAS Publisher's Weekly (fwd)

[David Casseres]

Sojourner sez
>I respect and admire and value people who read more than they
>watch, who do more than they talk about, who walk more than
>they drive, who think more than they preach, who stand more
>than they sit, and who listen more than they hear.

I'm proud to say everyone in my entire family has always read far more 
than they watch, and watched TV once or twice a week at most, often going 
weeks at a time without bothering.  But a number of us are seriously fond 
of movies.

I maintain movies and TV are fundamentally different, even though both 
are "passive."  For one thing, a movie is intended to be a whole unto 
itself, to be experienced once (and perhaps revisited, like a book), 
while TV is meant to be a habit, with a regular schedule for seeing the 
same thing again with minor variations.  As a result, the culture that 
produces movies is quite different from the one that produces TV.

Obviously there are exceptions, with some movie-like things appearing on 
TV and too many movies these days looking just like TV.  But I think the 
distinction is crucial.  That's why Pynchon is loaded with movie 
references, but TV (as far as I can recall) is referred to only 
sparingly, in Vineland.


Cheers,
David