Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Best analysis ever
I was looking for Neil Postman's discussion of media mind control, and found a BEAUTIFUL essay in an unlikely context: A blog on Jazz!
The core point:
Do we need multiple angles and resolutions for a simple interview? Do we need a montage of shots held for less than a second each to introduce a program? Is it possible for any Hollywood suit to approve of a movie trailer that doesn’t end in an orgasm of glimpses? This fragmented presentation is no more an example of style (in any meaningful sense) than smashing a guitar to bits against a howling amplifier is an example of “controlled feedback.” The attempt to communicate via the mind is abandoned for an indulgent assault on the recipient’s senses. MTV has cultivated its own audio-visual language, with snippets of songs and disconnected video clips being the main tissue of the channel’s reality-oriented shows. Nothing is developed in linear fashion (although it may be edited to give such an impression); no mood is sustained for longer than a few seconds; and Nononono / Time / isallowedfor Re-FLEC/tion or ac.tive. thoughtproc-esses. It’s entertainment for the mentally impaired. (And this same channel presumes to tell people how to vote.) My question is what the cut-up sensibility (oxymoron) will do, in the long run, to how people receive and process information. I suppose the long run will tell. In the meantime, I’m convinced that jumpy presentation is one way to make the viewer believe in information that isn’t there.The verbal illustration of ASYNCHRONOUS TIME is brilliant and concise. You can hear the same tricks in the output of professional talkers like Rush and Beck. I've been focusing lately on star beacons and clock-like mechanisms in an effort to pray a counterforce against asynchrony.
Labels: Equipoise, infinite GOOD
¶ 4:26 AM
