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| I own this edition, just a lot more beat up. |
I was looking forward to the next bit from the moment I woke up, and it had arrived.
Getting back into my heavily tattered old paperback copy of 'Salem's Lot.
In a few minutes I was back in the old Maine town, the creepy Marsten House on the hill overlooking the small-town characters and their petty affairs and gossip, and the horror that would soon be visited upon them from messieurs Straker and Barlow. I know this story very well, but nothing in it is diminished. I still get the old thrill from the terror that comes on Danny and Ralphie Glick on the shortcut to Mark Petrie's house. They were planning to see his Aurora plastic monsters collection (remember those?) but Ralphie would never be seen from again. And Danny would be... changed.
Accompanying this was the realization that if I never had to turn on the television again, I'm quite certain I would survive.
I watch essentially zero television. With amazing intensity and the conviction of born again Christians I hear as people talk about Breaking Bad, or The Office, or Ozarks, or The British Baking Championship, or whatever show happens to be the most awesome/best show ever/you can't possibly miss this/I can't believe you haven't seen this! fad of the moment (inevitably such show gives way to the next such show, which cannot be missed but I can't believe you haven't seen The Sopranos!). It's a language I don't understand. I smile, and listen, but can't participate in it.
I don't think I'm superior to them, I don't begrudge their habits (I have my own), I would even admit that TV has probably gotten a lot better from the days when Harlan Ellison wrote of the glass teat and the banality of The Mary Tyler Moore show.
I just prefer reading. It's my go-to medium for entertainment. It's amazing how much joy I can still wring out of a $2 Signet paperback.
I would miss horror movies. I will say that I'm pleased to have introduced my 15-year-old daughter, a budding horror movie fan, to the likes of Scream, The Shining, Silence of the Lambs, and The Ring. But for pure joy even these films don't beat old Stephen King, or Lovecraft, or Poe. Words on a page that can captivate, and terrify. I wish I could get her into these stories, man.
Work in progress.
8 comments:
Right there with you on t.v. I know there are lots of good shows out there, but between all the books to read and and all the writing I never get ahead on, I feel like I just can't justify hours spent watching television. (even shows I like)
I watch too much TV and don't read enough anymore. I've been working to rectify that, but the glass teat is a hard addiction to break. That said, 'Salem's Lot remains tied with The Shining for my King favorite and I'd be happy to see a good movie of it.
I'm with you guys on television. Just too much else to do.
I have discovered that, with a full-time job, family commitments, housework, etc., I am only capable of reading a book a week at most. That's 52 books a year, absolute best.
Given my age (47) I figure that means I'll be able to read 1,500-2K books before I take the eternal dirt nap. A very sobering thought. It's helped me prioritize reading and writing over TV.
Good point. I used to have that edition of Salem's Lot. It's a good one. The Shining and IT are also favorites of mine. There's not a lot shows I watch anymore, but we do watch a lot of movies. The short story collection _Grotesquerie_ by Richard Gavin is a good one I've read recently.
I tend to read a lot of horror fiction around this time of year. Currently, I am in the middle of the Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwoods.
Well said, my friend (and non-judgmentally). Some movies and shows can have great power. But I think the enduring power of literature (and art) is that we add more to it. It is an interactive process, whereby we co-create it with the creator each time we experience it. With movies and television, everything is provided, and we are more passive receivers.
What I've observed consistently about this so-called "Golden Age of Television" is a pattern of people fervently watching a show that hooks them with a long-term story arc, which they analyze over and over, dreaming of the possibilities of where it's all going, only to be crushed and enraged when the series finale arrives and it's clear the writers never had a clue where they were really going. And then they move on to the next show and repeat the process. Not only have I never watched The Sopranos, I'm pretty sure none of the people who were so ga-ga over it when it was new have ever gone back to watch it because none of them could stand how it all ended (and even if you did like it, that's quite a time commitment to re-watch the whole thing).
The only thing I keep my TV service around for at this point is pro wrestling. Two hours every Wednesday and I'm done.
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