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Brian Eshleman's Reviews > Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
by
by
Brian Eshleman's review
bookshelves: other-nonfiction
Oct 24, 2011
bookshelves: other-nonfiction
Read 2 times. Last read June 20, 2017.
I don't know how many commentaries in our culture it could be said to be more relevant now than when they were written 25 years ago, but this one can. If we were distracted and distractible then, demanding television-style stimulation even on serious subjects, we certainly are now. Television's defining role has simply been replaced by stimuli from many different directions. Postman rightly cautions us to be wary of the impact of how a message is delivered on the message itself.
I was disappointed, though, that he didn't offer remedies or inspire a countering vision. Especially as someone who makes some Christian references, this seems to me to be an obligation. Is not Christ is still sovereign? Did He not use the format available to Him when He walked the earth, even with all of their limitations? He told stories in a culture that told stories. He celebrated festivals in a culture that celebrated festivals. He used the tools available to foment change, and some encouragement in this direction would have been nice.
I was disappointed, though, that he didn't offer remedies or inspire a countering vision. Especially as someone who makes some Christian references, this seems to me to be an obligation. Is not Christ is still sovereign? Did He not use the format available to Him when He walked the earth, even with all of their limitations? He told stories in a culture that told stories. He celebrated festivals in a culture that celebrated festivals. He used the tools available to foment change, and some encouragement in this direction would have been nice.
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Quotes Brian Liked
“Parents embraced “Sesame Street” for several reasons, among them that it assuaged their guilt over the fact that they could not or would not restrict their children’s access to television. “Sesame Street” appeared to justify allowing a four- or five-year-old to sit transfixed in front of a television screen for unnatural periods of time. Parents were eager to hope that television could teach their children something other than which breakfast cereal has the most crackle. At the same time, “Sesame Street” relieved them of the responsibility of teaching their pre-school children how to read—no small matter in a culture where children are apt to be considered a nuisance.... We now know that “Sesame Street” encourages children to love school only if school is like ���Sesame Street.” Which is to say, we now know that “Sesame Street” undermines what the traditional idea of schooling represents.”
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
“The clearest way to see through a culture is to attend to its tools for conversation.”
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
“Writing is defined as "a conversation with no one and yet with everyone.”
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
“In every tool we create, an idea is embedded that goes beyond the function of the thing itself.”
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
“We do not measure a culture based on its output of undisguised trivialities, but what it claims as significant.”
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
“It is not necessary to conceal anything from a public insensible to contradiction and narcotized by technological diversions.”
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
“enchantment is the means through which we may gain access to sacredness. Entertainment is the means through which we distance ourselves from it.”
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
“With television, we vault ourselves into a continuous, incoherent present.”
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
― Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Reading Progress
October 24, 2011
– Shelved
October 26, 2011
– Shelved as:
other-nonfiction
June 1, 2013
–
Started Reading
June 1, 2013
–
48.91%
"Lowering the proportion of information we take in that we act on leads to intellectual numbing."
page
90
June 2, 2013
–
Finished Reading
June 20, 2017
–
Started Reading
June 20, 2017
– Shelved as:
to-read
June 20, 2017
–
0.0%
"Cicero remarked that the purpose of education is to free the young from the tyranny of the present, which cannot be pleasant for those, like the young, who are struggling to do the opposite, that is accommodate themselves to the present."
page
0
June 20, 2017
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-4 of 4 (4 new)
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by
Roger
(new)
Jun 02, 2013 10:32AM
This was a great book. I have read it 3 times. Another great book in the same vein is "The Vanishing Word: The Veneration of Visual Imagery in the Postmodern World" by Arthur W. Hunt III
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enjoyed it so far, if that's a permissible word.
It always seems a lot easier to criticize and warn than to see a way forward. That vision thing, I guess!
