Consumption

[Henry]

I've always said that unlike the plastic arts, linear art, e.g. books, film,
and music, is consumed, much like food.  (Untutored as I am, I make no claim
that I am alone in this assertion.)  You can order another helping, but it
has a start and when it's the end, it's over. 

 

It sure feels like, happy ending or not, Election Day will feel like
finishing a long, engrossing book..

 

Last Chapter of a Storybook Campaign
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/23/AR2008102302
883.html 

 

In a week and a half, it'll be over. What will we do to fill the void in our
lives? 

 

Opinion surveys, voter registration totals and cable television ratings
indicate that Americans have been engrossed by the marathon presidential
campaign. That's no surprise, given the first-in-history nature of the
candidacies, the host of crucial problems we face and the sense that the
outcome may determine the course -- and the prospects -- of our nation for
many years to come. 

 

But there's a fine line between being engrossed and being obsessed, and many
of us have crossed it. 

 

.

It feels as if we've been making our way through some great epic novel, by
Tolstoy, perhaps, or Thomas Pynchon -- a book peopled by indelible
characters who act against the backdrop of sweeping events. Just think back
to where we started. On New Year's Day, the conventional wisdom was that the
general election would be an Empire State contest between Hillary Clinton
and Rudy Giuliani. 

 

So much for the conventionally wise. The Iowa caucuses were the equivalent
of the famous opening line of "Gravity's Rainbow," Pynchon's masterpiece: "A
screaming comes across the sky." 

 

In the course of the long narrative, some characters emerged from nowhere --
Joe the Plumber, for example -- had a dramatic impact, and then disappeared
-- Jeremiah Wright, for example. Others went away but returned unexpectedly,
such as Giuliani, who came back to lead Republican convention delegates in
the unforgettable chant "Drill, baby, drill." Or John Edwards, who dropped
out of the race but later resurfaced at a Beverly Hills hotel, hiding from
National Enquirer reporters chasing a tip that he was visiting his mistress.


 

As for plot twists, I can think of few in literature that compare with the
sudden emergence of Sarah Palin. If you look closely at the video clip of
her appearance on "Saturday Night Live," when she's in the hallway talking
to Alec Baldwin and SNL honcho Lorne Michaels, a man dressed like Abraham
Lincoln is in the background with what appears to be a llama. 

 

That's the kind of year it's been. 

 

We're now at a bittersweet point that's analogous to reaching the middle of
the final chapter. We want to race ahead and find out what happens. We want
to know if our hero -- Obama or McCain -- is victorious. But we also know
that when we finally get the answer, we'll have to exit the alternative
reality of narrative, atmosphere and emotion that we've inhabited for
months. We'll be bereft. 

 

We'll have something to savor, though. After Election Day has come and gone,
we -- at least those of us who bother to vote -- will know that the time we
spent obsessing about the campaign was worth it. That's because we'll be the
ones who decided how the story ended. 

 

Henry Mu

Information, Media, and Technology Management Consultant

Please have a look at my blog,
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/henrymu and support and
contribute to the campaign (it's not over until the polls close):
http://tinyurl.com/henrym4obamafundraising