Prof. John Stackhouses Weblog
To start, or extend, the conversation
If Its on TV, It Must Be Unreal April 10th, 2007
We used to joke that if its in print, it must be true. But now we seem to think that our dominant medium, TV, makes things unreal. I dont think that this is just a function of the distrust of authority wave that has swamped cultures around the worldnotwithstanding the King of Thailands pathetic outlawing of disrespectful videos on YouTube. I think the line between fact and fiction on TV has blurred weirdly in the direction of fictionas it has in the related media of film and popular music, and celebrity in general.
I got thinking about this driving home this afternoon from the studios of Global TV. For those outside Canada, Global TV is one of our national networksindeed, a network that jumped from its regionally modest name of CanWest to the ambitious Global in one fell swoop. Yes, a bit unusually megalomaniacal for a Canadian company, I agree.
I was there to tape a short segment for Canadas finest Christian TV show, Listen Up, hosted by Lorna Dueck. (I sympathize with those who think that to call it Canadas finest Christian TV show is to damn with faint praise. But Lorna is a fine journalist by any measure and this is a pretty good showdespite her occasional lapses in the selection of guests
!)
Anyhow, while I was getting made up, I found myself between one Global news anchor, Deborra Hope, and another, Kevin Newman. And while they looked a little unreal in their perfect makeup, hair, and clothes, they were nonetheless real people getting ready to go to work. They bantered with the make-up artist, they politely made conversation with the odd duck in the room (yes, the theological professor), they discussed a current event or twojust like people at your job.
And I came away thinking, Why am I surprised at this experience?
I got on an elevator in a Winnipeg hotel a few years ago and the only other occupant was Kiefer Sutherland. It was late, we were both tired, and we said hello just as if we were ordinary peoplewhich, of course, I assuredly am, but then, so is he.
Backstage once at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver, my wife and I got to meet Diana Krall through a mutual friend. She was courteous to us and posed for a photo, as the star she is. But before she did, she giggled with her family who were over from Nanaimo for the performancejust as every performer Ive ever seen has done offstage of a high school musical or a church concert.
On the set of Fantastic Four, I was chatting with my one single heavyweight Hollywood friend, producer Ralph Winter, when a young woman went by, glad to take a little juice break as everyone else was. She was just like the rest of us, except she was in a blue jumpsuit with a big 4″ on it and her name was Jessica Alba. As she passed, she did what any polite person does: smiled, nodded in greeting, ducked her head, and headed for the snack trailer.
There is something odd going on with the rash of magazines now that try to tell us that celebrities are just like us, except that they arent: everything they do seems to be remarkable, if not sensational, while precious little that I do, or you do, isright? In fact, they seem not just larger than life, but other than life, as if they are just dramatis personae: Paris, Jessica, Anna Nicole, Brad, Jay, Beyonce, Denzel, Oprahnot real people, but mere characters whom we can enjoy observing and gossiping about. They are not actual human beings for whom we might, for instance, pray.
I remember how in the 1970s television undermined Americas confidence in its government as the news showed body bags and coffins coming back from Viet Nam. Now, however, I just cant quite believe things are really as they are in Darfur or North Korea or Myanmar. Too many well-made movies and TV shows have rendered the whole troubled world a mirage. And after lonelygirl17″ and other YouTube frauds, we cant trust that anymore, either. What is real has shrunk down to my little horizon of personal experience. If I havent been there and seen it, then its not real.
Israel used to be just Bible Story Land to me until I went there. Now its realbut Saudi Arabia isnt. China is real (been there), but Japan is just a bizarre mental kaleidoscope of samurai countryside and neon Tokyo. France is real (mmmm), but Germany isnt. And so on.
And it (whatever it isor he or she) is especially not real if I have seen it on TV. Rather than bring the world to me, as the news shows promise to do, it has pushed the world away. What is happening internationally or even in another municipality is now as real, and no more, as the next DVD I pop in.
So I dont pray much, or donate much, and I certainly dont grieve much. In fact, Im as likely to get teary over a well-produced TV drama or movie as I am about a World Vision program or a newscast clip. And then I push the button, the Bad Things go away, and I can get about my business.
And that would mean Im insane, wouldnt it? Literally failing to distinguish between reality and unreality?
These musings evidence that Im no Marshall McLuhan or Neil Postman, and I promise to get back to subjects I actually know something about soon. But the emotion of mild surprise of meeting two TV people in the make-up room today itself surprised me. Why should I have expected anything otherwise? Rationally, I wouldnt have. But theres something irrational going on here, and I dont like it
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Do you feel it, too?
Posted in Media |
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Ioan Gruffudd and Chris Evans competed for the biggest codpiece on the set of Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer. Gruffudd admits his character Reed Richards' (Mr. Fantastic) package was too big in the last "Fantastic Four" movie, producers agreed it should be smaller in the upcoming sequel.
