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bonnieg 's review for:
Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV
by Emily Nussbaum
"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.