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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
informative
slow-paced
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
This one was a bit slower for me since I don’t normally read nonfiction and I was cycling through some other books. It was incredibly informative, well-researched, and I appreciated the care that the author extended to the genre. So often, it feels like reality TV is shunned, laughed at, or ignored. Nessbaum treated it like the influential media form that it is and if nothing else, I appreciated that.
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
"Reality television is cinema verite filmmaking that has been cut with commercial contaminants, like a street drug, in order to slash the price and intensify the effect."
The only reality television I have ever watched more than a short clip of is Top Chef, Project Runway, Season 1 of Survivor, and the first two seasons of The Real World. I enjoyed those offerings, but have never seen anything else that tempted me, and have seen a number of clips I found repellant. I find that continuous schadenfreude gets old and dull, and also makes me feel pretty lousy about myself, sprawled on my couch judging others and participating indirectly in unhealthy behaviors. And so I was not sure I would like this, though I enjoy the author's work in the New Yorker, and when I read those pieces I nearly always find them brilliant and insightful.
Happily, this was as well researched and reasoned as Nussbaum's other work and it tells us a great deal about where we are at this cultural and political moment, how we got here, and how comprehensively fucked we are. We allowed that slow boil, about 70 years of heating with a constant rolling boil for the past quarter century, to kill our understanding of what is right and acceptable. This is devastating cultural commentary, but it is also often funny and always informative. I have already pressed this on my son. (My new "E's Book Concierge" shelf was started at his behest so if you are interested in what books I force on my 20-something a list can be found there.) I can't force this on others, but I urge y'all to get your hands on a copy.
The only reality television I have ever watched more than a short clip of is Top Chef, Project Runway, Season 1 of Survivor, and the first two seasons of The Real World. I enjoyed those offerings, but have never seen anything else that tempted me, and have seen a number of clips I found repellant. I find that continuous schadenfreude gets old and dull, and also makes me feel pretty lousy about myself, sprawled on my couch judging others and participating indirectly in unhealthy behaviors. And so I was not sure I would like this, though I enjoy the author's work in the New Yorker, and when I read those pieces I nearly always find them brilliant and insightful.
Happily, this was as well researched and reasoned as Nussbaum's other work and it tells us a great deal about where we are at this cultural and political moment, how we got here, and how comprehensively fucked we are. We allowed that slow boil, about 70 years of heating with a constant rolling boil for the past quarter century, to kill our understanding of what is right and acceptable. This is devastating cultural commentary, but it is also often funny and always informative. I have already pressed this on my son. (My new "E's Book Concierge" shelf was started at his behest so if you are interested in what books I force on my 20-something a list can be found there.) I can't force this on others, but I urge y'all to get your hands on a copy.
This is very disturbing but an intriguing look at the history of reality TV and what does on behind the scenes. It takes all the way back to the days of Candid Camera through The Bachelor.
funny
informative
medium-paced
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
My historian and reality TV-loving heart were pulled fully into this audiobook - In all honesty, I would have given a left pinky to be a research assistant on this project. Nussbaum does a fabulous job showing how this genre evolved, starting with 1940s and 50s radio, and ending with its political implications having introduced many future constituents to Trump on TV.
It was fun to put early memories of seeing opera & ballet shows on Bravo and connect it to its current web of real housewives franchises (my personal favorite having seen every season of RHOC). The only thing I wish received more of a story were the early VH1 reality shows, but then again - leaves a gap in the scholarship for future work.
It was fun to put early memories of seeing opera & ballet shows on Bravo and connect it to its current web of real housewives franchises (my personal favorite having seen every season of RHOC). The only thing I wish received more of a story were the early VH1 reality shows, but then again - leaves a gap in the scholarship for future work.
reflective
relaxing