Judging by the canonization of Cormac McCarthy, who writes about scalpings and coin-flipping symbols of death and babies roasted on spits and the Apocalypse Blooming From Every Man's Evil Heart, nihilism is now so universally confused with profundity that even the serious literary establishment can't see that Cormac McCarthy is really just Stephen King without the entertainment value.
It examines the questions of whether the media is to blame for Americans' extremely violent tendencies from a personal level, and wisely gives no hard and fast answers. It does go as far as to argue that there are two things the media is not: completely innocent or completely guilty. Thus its members bear a frightening responsibility to decide how much is too much and where the line is - which of course is impossible to know.
It also touches on other profound elements, like how violence is exposed to children, how the truth is violent, and how at the center of every church there is a man being tortured to death.
Ah, reminds me of my mass media theory days. This guy named Gerbner did a research study that found the more TV an individual watches, the more likely that person believes that the world is a "mean and scary" place (ie they estimate a higher level of crime and violence in taking place in their neighborhood as compared to individuals who watch less TV).
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the key questions about media - is it a reflection of what is going on in the world or is it portraying something that then influences what goes on in the world. Which came first? The media chicken or the public egg?
Interesting. I'll have to give it a read.