Program scripts from week of September 23, 2013
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Well Excuse Me
Let me start off by saying I have no delusions about the impact of my commentaries. I know I have an audience among WRFA listeners because some of you have made the point of telling me you enjoy these programs. And I know I have a small following of the blog that is connected to this show. Just Google “The View From the Phlipside” and you’ll find it. There you’ll not only find the scripts to each week’s programs but reviews of movies and books.
It’s that last fact that spurs today’s program. I review movies and books because I love them. My hope is that I can point folks in the direction of examples that they will enjoy, even help them choose from the enormous universe of these particular media. Again, I have no illusions about what I do. I do it because I enjoy it and because I’ve gotten some positive response from authors and publishers.
There’s a website called NetGalley that links up reviewers with publishers and vice versa. You go on, fill out a bio sheet and then request titles. Over the last year or so I’ve done about 8.
Last week I received a very politely worded e-mail from the folks at Viking Publishing telling me that I didn’t meet their standards as a reviewer and therefore they declined to offer me a copy of the book I’d requested.
For the record NetGalley deals in digital books, ebooks. So there was no question about postage and handling and publishing costs and the like.
I’m not really angry about this rejection as much as I’m puzzled and bemused. The cost of letting me review their book is effectively ZERO. So from a cost to benefit basis it appears that Viking is saying my review has a negative value. It’s just not worth anything to have me review the book.
In an age when legacy publishers like Viking are screaming about the future of their industry, when fewer people are reading, when ebooks are becoming the larger part of the publishing industry, when the Internet is becoming a bigger part of how all of us make decisions on what we buy will someone please explain to me how getting a review that costs you nothing and might just result in sales or word of mouth is worth nothing?
I’m not going to mention the book because I don’t want to punish the author. But I think this is a case of the publisher being penny wise and pound foolish.
At least that’s the thought in this tiny and apparently unimportant little corner of the world.
Binge drinking? VERY bad thing.
Binge viewing? That’s an interesting topic of conversation.
Have you come across this concept before? Binge viewing is watching episode after episode after episode of a TV series or movie series. You might call watching a marathon on one of the cable networks binge viewing. You could certainly do it if you bought an entire season of a TV show on DVD or Blu-ray. But binge viewing really took off with the advent of services like Netflix that allowed you access to not just episode after episode but season after season of TV series for a single low price. You can just plug in and take off for an entire day. No commercials, no disc changing. It’s not a marathon, it’s a binge.
The dictionary defines binge as an unrestrained, immoderate period of self indulgence. The words uncontrolled and excessive also appear in definitions.
So this is generally not associated with behaviors that should be a regular part of our lives. See binge eating and binge drinking.
So what’s the down side on binge viewing? Well there’s that whole circles-under-the-blank-staring-eyes-of-a-zombie look. It’s followed by the inability to talk about anything else for days which is then followed by a complete collapse into catatonia as your brain attempts to go back to processing real life. So there’s probably no real long run negative effects.
But I’d like to argue against making binge viewing a regular part of your media consumption. There are things that you have to give up when you go on a binge. That’s any opportunity to savor what you’re seeing. If the show you’re watching is just eye candy, like Baywatch or Dancing With the Stars, then go for it. Gorge yourself.
But for shows that offer some depth, some story telling, some deep characterization do yourself a favor and take a break. After every episode or two stop and give yourself the chance to revel in the quality of what you’re seeing. Letting the show appeal to more than just the short term rush of enjoyment. It’s the difference between just getting high and full engagement with an experience at every level.
So when it comes to media bingeing it’s mostly about picking your spot.
This week, the week of September 22, is Banned Books Week. Each year the American Library Association highlights the attempts around our nation to ban certain books from libraries, especially school libraries. What kind of books? Books like these, all of which appear on recent lists compiled by the ALA:
Harry Potter by JK Rowling, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, The Kite Runner by Kaled Husseini, Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeliene L’Engle, the Goosebump series by RL Stine, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Hadden and just to fill out our irony quotient for the week Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. A book that is about book banning.
Banned Books Week is designed to celebrate our freedom to read. The freedom to explore ideas, even odious ones. Let me be clear about two concepts.
First I believe that people that want to ban books, to limit other people’s access to books they believe are somehow “dangerous” are intellectual and cultural terrorists. Having no faith in the strength of their own point of view to stand up to a challenge they try to insure the supremacy of that view by banning opposing ones. It’s pretty much the same technique used in political spheres by bomb throwing terrorists. And should be fought against with the same energy and determination we bring to the bomb throwers.
The other thing is that I think this protection should extend to all books. The most odious, vile, evil book I can think of is called “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”. It is a hoax created in Russia in 1903 that has been used for a century of violence and hatred aimed at Jewish populations worldwide. There is not a micron of truth in this horrible book.
But it should not be banned. Ideas need to be dragged into the light, to be examined, weighed and judged. Only those who fear ideas want them hidden away. Only those who do not trust humanity want to place blinders on their fellows. Only those who can not compete in the market of thought will demand that theirs be the only thought permitted.
Pick up a book and read it. Fight back against the terrorists of free thought and read a banned book.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
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