Bread and Circuses
I am not immune to the evils of tv. I turn it on just to give myself something to keep my attention while I eat dinner and I end up leaving it on until it's time to go to bed. I lie down on the couch and stare vacuously at the magical glowing box.
I should be doing something productive instead. I have so many ideas for novels that I can stay busy writing them for many years to come. If I ever want to see one published, I need to *work* at it. But no, I lie back and take my entertainment passively.
And now to get to the title of this post. If a society gets their entertainment and food every day, they won't think it's so bad. It's how the Roman Empire lasted so long with such a disparity between the wealth of the few and and poverty of the many: the poor had bread to eat and circuses to attend. In America, we have tv and so much more mindless entertainment; we have more food than anyone should or could eat. We're a bunch of passive, fat lemmings.
The revolution will never come from within. The masses are just too content. *I* am just too content.
8 comments:
Do like I did and unsubscribe from cable tv for a year (and don't watch broadcast tv either). And never have a tv in the bedroom. I didn't really miss the cable, and now that I have it back I still hardly ever watch it.
Make yourself write every day, even if it's garbage. Eventually you'll start writing something you think is good and you'll get absorbed in that. The coolest feeling is when your characters start taking the plot in a different direction than you had planned. Then they're alive and you know you have something.
Um, I never subscribed to cable in the first place! I've unplugged my antenna but still get a couple channels. I'm just hopeless, that's all... (-:
Yeah, my characters changed their minds and are forcing me to rewrite several chapters. It was about halfway through that process (a couple weeks ago) that I stopped writing. Rewriting is a lot easier than writing from scratch. Maybe it's just because I've been working at this book for seven (egads!) years, I want to be polishing it off, not staring at a blank screen. (I've done plenty of other stories in that time, so it hasn't been solid on this one, but I do want to finish this book first.)
Sotosoroto, I just wanted you to know that I recanted my silly comment. Thanks for stopping by. I do appreciate the debate and the comments.
The Misanthrope
I agree we are a bread and circus society and government loves it that way because they can feed us the information they want us to know.
Okay, it sounds like a minor block then. I get the feeling you'll get back to it soon :) Do you outline at all? Have you ever submitted/sold anything? I wrote a novel many years ago, and a whole bunch of short stories, but I never tried to sell them. At the time I thought my novel had no market, but now when I read it I don't think it's that good! I think I'm a good story-teller, but need some work on the technique. I have a couple of novel ideas I'd like to eventually get started on, but I've got too much else going on right now.
S, why'd you think I blog? 'Cause I'm too damn lazy to write!!
And as you no doubt have noticed in almost 3 years, I have a short attention span.. Blogging is perfect for that... You feel somehow more 'creative' than being a tv-junkie, but it's a big fat lie. :-)
I hear ya, and i completely agree. We're just a generation of lazy buggers. Anyway, nice blog. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, Seema!
Chandy, maybe I have this blog to blame for not writing my book. After all, I haven't written anything since I started this! It's taking up all my creative energies! Aaaaaaaaaa!!!
Anyway, a good ep of Survivor last night... (-;
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