Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Anything Goes...
In the "Uncanny Capitalism" section of Andrejevic's article, he writes that our savvy awareness of contrivance in reality TV has caused us to "demand more and more punishing contrivances in the hopes of squeezing out a bit of authenticity......". The way I see it, we are pushing boundaries to introduce greater and greater eruptions of the Real into our realities.
I am reminded of a song, Anything Goes, written by Cole Porter in 1934. Here's part of it:
In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking
But now God knows, anything goes
Good authors too who once knew better words,
Now only use four letter words
Writing prose, anything goes.
Anything Goes: no boundaries, no limits, no differences. Anything goes.
We've come a long way since 1934; revised lyrics today could go like this:
In olden days a glimpse of nipple
Was something quite abominable...." and so on.
The way I see it, savvy reflexivity is not confined to reality TV, which can be seen as an eruption of the Real over the Reality of scripted TV. Also, before reality TV, increasing levels of sex and violence (and blood) throughout the decades in scripted TV and movies have also been signs of eruptions of the Real. After all, who doesn't know that "it's just a movie" and "movies aren't real"?
While we are on the subject of not-real-yet-not-unreal, consider a situation when a man and woman connect on a dance floor. In 19th century (Industrial Revolution) England, the Waltz was a "scandalous" dance, because the man and woman embrace each other on the dance floor. The Continental Europeans scoffed at Puritan England: "It's just a dance". In other words, it's not real. Fast forward 200 years later (today). I readily admit to being a bit of a prude, but I have seen some salsas and tangoes that are so suggestive, I wonder how people can watch their significant others dance with other partners, and still say "It's just a dance". Regardless, isn't it interesting that the Waltz is now considered high culture, and salsa (a nightclub dance) popular culture?
I think I've degenerated into rambling. So I end by noting that there seems to have more and more of an "Anything Goes" mentality in our music, art, television, films, etc. Are we then slowly moving from the Symbolic, back to the Mirror, and finally the Real?
I am reminded of a song, Anything Goes, written by Cole Porter in 1934. Here's part of it:
In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking
But now God knows, anything goes
Good authors too who once knew better words,
Now only use four letter words
Writing prose, anything goes.
Anything Goes: no boundaries, no limits, no differences. Anything goes.
We've come a long way since 1934; revised lyrics today could go like this:
In olden days a glimpse of nipple
Was something quite abominable...." and so on.
The way I see it, savvy reflexivity is not confined to reality TV, which can be seen as an eruption of the Real over the Reality of scripted TV. Also, before reality TV, increasing levels of sex and violence (and blood) throughout the decades in scripted TV and movies have also been signs of eruptions of the Real. After all, who doesn't know that "it's just a movie" and "movies aren't real"?
While we are on the subject of not-real-yet-not-unreal, consider a situation when a man and woman connect on a dance floor. In 19th century (Industrial Revolution) England, the Waltz was a "scandalous" dance, because the man and woman embrace each other on the dance floor. The Continental Europeans scoffed at Puritan England: "It's just a dance". In other words, it's not real. Fast forward 200 years later (today). I readily admit to being a bit of a prude, but I have seen some salsas and tangoes that are so suggestive, I wonder how people can watch their significant others dance with other partners, and still say "It's just a dance". Regardless, isn't it interesting that the Waltz is now considered high culture, and salsa (a nightclub dance) popular culture?
I think I've degenerated into rambling. So I end by noting that there seems to have more and more of an "Anything Goes" mentality in our music, art, television, films, etc. Are we then slowly moving from the Symbolic, back to the Mirror, and finally the Real?
# posted by HuiMei Chew @ 6:41 PM 
