Sometimes I feel as if modern entertainment is robbing us blind. Even the most gripping and revolutionary of entertainment. And what I feel it takes from us is the magnificence of the world.
Turn the channel and you'll find you're in the Pyramids at Giza, or on the edge of the suicidal waters of Niagara Falls. With your television alone, you can explore the world. And this seems wonderful, that anyone can experience these things without any trouble at all.
But you see, when you watch these things from afar, you only take in the feeling of seeing whats on the screen- you can't feel the wind breathe across your skin or smell the mist of the falls; you can't feel the heat from the sun as you float in the water of the pacific, or experience what it's like to stand on the edge of that towering cliff where one wrong step sends you falling an unimaginable distance. So you are able to see these fascinating things, but when it comes time to experience it for yourself, you find that you're slightly less impressed than you thought. You won't admit it to anyone, even yourself. And it's because the full experience has been taken from us, leaving us with only fragments of how it should be. You've seen it all already so only the other sensations are new to you, taking away our true first experiences.
Modern entertainment, in some ways, also sets us up for disappointment. Watch a romantic movie and it gives us expectations for what true love feels like. Watch a teen angst movie, and it give you expectations for your life as a teenager. Expectations that in many ways cannot or will not be fulfilled, no matter how much we want them to be, and in this way entertainment robs us of going into situations with an open mind, being willing to experience what comes at us for better or worse.
I think this is one of the reasons I've always loved books. They take you to far away places with new people and adventures that are left up to you to imagine and create. They can't take away that first experience, though they can create expectations. Everything is so hard-set when it comes to things seen on a screen. When you fall into the world of a book, the world becomes yours to craft and shape.
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I think i will stop the rambling here before my ideas become any more disorganized. Summer is slowly on it's way out now, just as the weather is starting to shape up to resemble something somewhat decent... I have so many things I want to do before it's disappeared completely. I hope you are all doing well! And I'd better see you soon!!
