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Reading Notes on "Entertaining Till Death"

“There are two ways to wither the spirit of culture, the Orwellian way—when culture becomes a prison—and the Huxleyan way—when culture becomes a farce. "This is the opening line of the book "Amusing Ourselves to Death." My understanding is that culture either imprisons people's thoughts or entertains the public, both of which prevent people from thinking further.

What Neil Postman wants to tell us in the book is that it is Huxley's prediction that may become reality, not Orwell's prediction. There is a passage in the preface of the book. The first sentence says, "What Orwell was afraid of were those who forcibly banned books. Huxley was worried about losing any reason to ban books, because no one would want to read anymore." I I think Huxley was right to worry. In this materialistic era, fewer and fewer people are really willing to study. What surrounds us is the pursuit of fame and wealth. Who would stop in front of the benefits at their fingertips, calm down, read a book, and think about it.

"Orwell was afraid that the truth would be concealed, and Huxley was worried that the truth would be submerged in the boring and cumbersome worldly affairs." Still worried, where is the so-called truth? They have never been hidden, they have just been submerged in the crowds and in the words of the year-end summary written by people. I think most people think that common sense is the truth! At least no one spends too much energy on things they think are insignificant. Finding the truth may be boring and tedious in their eyes, right?

"What Orwell fears is that our culture will become a controlled culture, and what Huxley fears is that our culture will become a vulgar culture full of sensory stimulation, desire and irregular games." Orwell's fear is always It's a bit redundant, but Huxley's worries are real. Take TV as an example. Sensory stimulation is inevitable, and people passively accept it and enjoy it. Those classic works that have been remade and adapted have lost their original appearance in order to constantly cater to the tastes of modern people. Such irregularity is actually a rule, and a rule that caters to the public is the truth. "In short, Orwell worried that the things we hate will destroy us, while Huxley worried that we will be destroyed by the things we love."

"Amusing Ourselves to Death" 1 The book mainly uses the United States as an example. Neil Postman said in Chapter 6 of the book, The Age of Entertainment Industry, that what he actually wanted to talk about in the book was not the entertainment of television, but that television has turned entertainment itself into The form that expresses all experiences. He later wrote that "news programs are a form of entertainment, not intended to educate, reflect, or purify the soul, and we cannot blame those who position news programs as such." This is true for news, not to mention other types of programs. ?

Of course, the book didn’t tell us this at the beginning, because the world people lived in at the beginning did not have the many media today. The chapter "Media as Metaphor" gradually begins to explain the changes that people are constantly experiencing. "Clocks represent time as an independent and precise sequence, words make the brain a monument of written experience, and telegraphs turn news into commodities." Every kind of product we create Tools have meaning beyond themselves, don’t they? With continuous development, "like language, each medium provides a new positioning for the way of thinking, expressing thoughts and expressing emotions, thereby creating unique discourse symbols." We will gradually lose some thinking ability as a result. , when we watch TV, we are not interested in how our brains are affected by these behaviors, let alone think about how TV affects our understanding of the world.

In my understanding, the "hide-and-seek world" is the "pseudo-contextual world". This is a world created by people, a superficial world. I actually don't quite understand the true meaning of this. I know that telegraphs, photos, and television are swallowing up the world expressed in words step by step, and "TV has only one unchanging voice—the voice of entertainment!" The entertainment industry era is coming, and different TV programs are coming one after another. I think the author The example is used to express that the production of TV programs is actually the production of entertainment.

"Okay... now, go to Bethlehem, stretch out your hand and cast a vote!" Inadvertently stringing them together, I found that just like TV programs, the connection between different programs is natural and coherent , may be the first news program to report on various unfortunate disasters, but it does not prevent the subsequent laughter-making talk shows and the TV series you expect to be broadcast on time every night. None of this is the point, the point is "But we always ask the question: what is lost in the copying process? The answer may be: everything that gives education an expression of importance." So what is left? entertainment!

Not only is television entertainment, Ronald Reagan said: "Politics is entertainment as well. Especially with the advent of so many media, the current President of the United States also has Facebook to interact with fans. It can be said that everyone I understand the importance of appeasing the people by providing them with entertainment. I don’t want to go into details about politics.

Teaching is an entertainment activity that I can’t wait to talk about. At least I have a deep understanding of it. The importance of music. But looking back, many people may have remembered music and forgotten what they learned. "Sesame Street" is the best example, and the book also spends a lot of space on it.

"Research shows that learning is most effective when information is presented in a dramatic form, and television can do this better than any other medium." But it is ultimately not as thought-provoking as the printed word. What the media needs is not thinking, but the attention of the audience. "They know that learning is a form of entertainment, or rather that anything worth learning can and must be presented as entertainment."

Finally, a warning from Huxley, That's the sentence at the beginning of the article. "In short, if the people degenerate into passive audiences and all public affairs become a sideshow, then this nation will find itself in danger and the fate of cultural destruction will be inevitable." Then, what we need to work hard to do now is, Think rationally without being swallowed up by this colorful splendor every inch of our spiritual land.