MSN and the Foibles of Mankind
I love MSN.
Now I'm not one of those that uses it on a constant basis, that hashad their life (what life?) subverted by an evil online mechanism, or one of those who can't get people to talk to them otherwise. I use MSN sometimes, when I'm taking breaths in between homework, and I have time to emerge from the shell I call schoolwork.
Yet there is something to be said for the facade it provides, an utterly impassive layer that can hide emotions and reveal others. One is apt to say something on MSN, that one wouldn't dream of saying/doing in real life. In this world of social necessity, its refreshing to have something to retreat behind- and sometimes, even to have something to venture beyond.
Speaking of facades, I watched The Swan the other night. I watched it, slowly growing from bemused to shocked to utterly dismayed. Here is a program that aims to exploit mankinds greatest foibles, that aims to take them and plaster them against a wall for all to see, as if they were cheap artwork. Here is a show, that does not merely deny the politically correct, but stamps and tramples upon it. Here is a show that does not deserve to grace the already sullied coffers of the television set.It takes perfectly normal people, and converts them (through a 'council' of experts) into swans, beautiful and fanciful creatures who flutter their eyebrows and proclaim their inner rejuvenation that happened to accompany their outer transformation. I had to restrain myself from throwing my coveted Wagon Wheel at the screen, and from screaming outloud with frustration at a world that has become overly preoccupied with appearance.
Humans are, in the end, not much more than a mass of cells and yet complex at that. That paradox- the way the complex overlays the simple- has eluded me for a long time and will yet.
Now I'm not one of those that uses it on a constant basis, that hashad their life (what life?) subverted by an evil online mechanism, or one of those who can't get people to talk to them otherwise. I use MSN sometimes, when I'm taking breaths in between homework, and I have time to emerge from the shell I call schoolwork.
Yet there is something to be said for the facade it provides, an utterly impassive layer that can hide emotions and reveal others. One is apt to say something on MSN, that one wouldn't dream of saying/doing in real life. In this world of social necessity, its refreshing to have something to retreat behind- and sometimes, even to have something to venture beyond.
Speaking of facades, I watched The Swan the other night. I watched it, slowly growing from bemused to shocked to utterly dismayed. Here is a program that aims to exploit mankinds greatest foibles, that aims to take them and plaster them against a wall for all to see, as if they were cheap artwork. Here is a show, that does not merely deny the politically correct, but stamps and tramples upon it. Here is a show that does not deserve to grace the already sullied coffers of the television set.It takes perfectly normal people, and converts them (through a 'council' of experts) into swans, beautiful and fanciful creatures who flutter their eyebrows and proclaim their inner rejuvenation that happened to accompany their outer transformation. I had to restrain myself from throwing my coveted Wagon Wheel at the screen, and from screaming outloud with frustration at a world that has become overly preoccupied with appearance.
Humans are, in the end, not much more than a mass of cells and yet complex at that. That paradox- the way the complex overlays the simple- has eluded me for a long time and will yet.
posted by gah at 4:54 PM
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