January 10, 2005
We shot the TV last February, but remember our days of devotion. A while ago we proposed that blogging was a natural for television.
Mr. Snitch has more varied ideas.
Regrettably, we are not a candidate. The dramaturgical truism is that Good, and Happy
is seldom so interesting to dramatize as Snarky, Troubled, Worried, and
Inconstant. Reminding us of the homilist's lament in one of JF Powers'
novels: "How can we make holiness as compelling as sex?" A query with
which we sympathized until a recently-encountered homilist -- a teacher
of homilists, for Pete's sake! -- demonstrated an uncanny skill for
making everything uninteresting.
We suspect he's not a blogger.
Link via Instapundit, who's now podcasting
with Dr. Helen (who was smart enough not just to marry a lawyer, but
one who knows how to have fun, in a geeky sort of way). How long until
pod-and-video blogging simply overtake television, for certain
audiences?
Update: Tangentially connected to television, as well as Will Wilkinson's ongoing discussions about economic development and happiness, and too good to forget, another comment from Econolog, discussing what different levels of intelligence feel like.
One of my favorite Simpsons episodes, "Crayon in the Brain", is an homage to Flowers For Algernon, in which Homer briefly becomes as smart as Lisa. It even includes a smart rat. If you haven't seen it, you should.
Homer:
Why am I sad, Lisa? I thought being smarter would make me happy.Lisa:
Oh, not at all. Look, I've graphed the relationship between intelligence and happiness [shows a graph where as intelligence goes up, happiness goes down].
(chuckles)
I make a lot of graphs. --Patri Friedman
So do we here, but
- it doesn't necessarily signify intelligence -- though we did love it that Northwestern Winds, a smart ISTJ blog out of Canada's Fraser Valley, called us a smart blog by a lawyer out of Texas...
and
- intelligence, the mind, stories, thought patterns, can be happy. Or unhappy. Your choice.
[LifeCoaches of the best ilk exist to delineate and enable the difference.]
Good and Happy might not sustain a full half hour, but it would be dynamite as a series of shorts. Pithy, fact and fun filled pieces that leave the audience wanting more.
And since we're in the process of breaking out of the television/shows on the half-hour mode, length will no longer be a plus--people will want a quick blast on their way to the gym, class or home.
You might soon have a hit on your hands. Just promise us you won't accept commercials from anything with 'lite' in the name...
:)
Posted by: Wahrheit | January 10, 2006 at 02:37 PM