big "oh, brother"

is nobody else concerned about the impact of these shows on our intelligence? i swear, everyone starts off being hooked by just how stupid these people are, and then two weeks later already identify with their characters and think of them as "geniuses".

or think that someone with talent and a brain would need television to make it.

reality television: the great reality re-writer.

a friend of mine responded to this sentiment as follows:
make it as what? you know, i feel roughly comfortable making the gross generalization that the people who find themselves on this show know that they are there for the chance to make it as being be famous. that seems to have become the thing we want most as a society now a days, to be recognized and worshiped and adored.. it's like everything is one big popularity contest.

and also, reality re-writer? let's not forget that it's a part of reality.. and it's ours to write ^_^

and about watching it myself, i found it amazing how intimate (one sidedly, but still) i felt with frida hecht after watching her for a few moments on the show. i know how she makes an omlette via extreme close up. i don't know my own mother -that- well

to be famous, and have lots of money. screw principles, screw relationships, and let's not get distracted from television reality by our politicians driving us into the sea even more effectively than the arab world can.

as for being ours to write - you know as well as i do that unless you're producing a show, you're not rewriting anything. at least (personally - the guy's a great singer / songwriter) you're talented enough to have a chance of affecting change, but should you have to be big on tv in order to do so? fuck that.

i don't have a clue who frida hecht is, nor how she makes an omelette - but i think i'd rather watch someone i have reason to care about in the kitchen instead of getting intimate with people who don't even know i exist.
what i read into this is that we're becoming so inept and uncomfortable with intimacy that we need to find it on the telly, and that leaves us with a disturbingly voyeuristic bond with everyone else who watches the same thing.

this is like that photo of the four japanese peeping-toms watching a couple having sex in the bushes, only they meet afterwards over a beer to discuss their technique. i think i'd rather be one of the couple in the bushes. i'd definitely rather be outside of the photo, having sex in the privacy of my own home with a girl i can be intimate with, and not with someone who i only picked up in a bar because she was drunk.

jesus, i'm weird.

--- 11.19pm ---
*has a reflexive moment*

you know what? i suspect myself of being just as fascinated by all the interest in reality shows as the viewers of those reality shows. it's like we're all doing the same thing, only i'm not watching a television. it's all very mise en abyme.

i feel dirty now.

[continued in stressmonger]