Due Feb. 26th by 11:59pm. 200-400 words.
On pages 11-13, Ted discusses his plan to air the same “old
crappy shows […] again and again until they sit in people’s heads like jingles”
(12). He then goes on to make a pretty
profound statement about the political impact of television (of course he ends
it with nonsense, but there is profundity in the middle). What is Ted trying to do to the political power
dynamic of network television, and what would rendering this media into nothing
more than jingles do to the brains of those that consumed them? In other words, what is Everett saying about
television in the postmodern age?
Ted’s non-sequiturs certainly lend an air of the absurd to his character in I am Not Sidney Poitier, but his view of the use of television in the postmodern age has a lot of truth in it. He asserts that any new shows made are just variations on the trash that has come before it. By that line of reasoning, he states that any of the old stale trash that the other networks don’t see fit to air anymore provide the same effect as the new shows with which they are constantly looking to reel in viewers. Ted targets “the Arnold and Webster model” on Diff’rent Strokes in particular; he finds the idea of a looming figure of a white man raising a small black child arrogant, an adjective he implies is synonymous with American.
ReplyDeleteWith this commentary, Everett is saying that the social norms displayed on television affect the political landscape of the time, making certain situations and ideas seem normal and acceptable to the numb, mindless viewers of these shows. In Ted’s trying to render these ideas impotent, he is attempting to break the hold of political powers on the media introduced on the television networks. He is desensitizing us to their influence by throwing the outdated, though politically relevant, shows of yesteryear at the audience at blinding speeds. This would make the audience immune to the same old messages being spewed out in new format on network television and transform the medium into one useless for the aims in contemporary politics.
Ted Turner is doing a confusing thing. He states that he wishes to run those old crappy shows all the time with the intent to make them mindlessly unimportant like jingles. Yet jingles, mindless as they are, stick in people's heads as that's their purpose. His idea is that replaying it will somehow save people from the content I think is mislead. While playing that type of content all the time would take the meaning out of it, the act also drills the information into the television viewers until they are the zombies of the corporations who made the content. If Turner were more concerned in the interest of people, the most obvious route would be to play interesting, new, thought-provoking useful media for the public. Turning the old crappy shows into jingles will most significantly make them catchy and therefore probable for talk around the water cooler. Everett is clearly saying that Ted Turner has succeeded in his plan, and that instead of creating new original material the television networks they just replaying the old. Which does in fact desensitize us to it. We as viewers need a lot of action or clever dialogue to get us to feel strongly about something on television as we're spoiled with it all the time. And the majority of it, I think, is contributing to the phrase "boob tube".
ReplyDeleteTed’s character seems to be one of an absurdist but he manages to see clearly at the television show industry in this modern age. He believes that all shows are just a deviation of those pre dating it. Even though he believes this he wants these shows to crappy shows to continue running. He doesn’t just want to run them for a season but he wants to run them over and over. He uses the word jingles to denote that after the shows have been run over and over they will stick in the minds of people. This leads into the political aspect of Ted’s argument. He wants to hammer the content from these shows into the viewers mind until normal. It’s like when we watch the news, hearing a different person being murdered everyday starts to get old. Something that should be traumatic to hear is essentially unaffecting to viewers. Everett is trying to relay the message that the shows put on the television by the media and political control are becoming the common standard to viewers.
ReplyDeleteThis excerpt comes when Ted and Not or talking in the “shared” garden of the mansion. Ted is talking about the dynamic between he and Not, saying that it is a very peculiar situation that they’re in, but saying that it is nothing like the father and son dynamic that is shown on the show Webster. Ted states that the idea of a black child being taken in by a “great white father” is arrogant, but that this is how America perceives the show and how they think that situation would actually turn out in real life. Ted does not agree with this contrived view, and he feels that in order to “desensitize” America, that he is going to repeatedly air shows like that which will overexpose the situation and eventually the idea of the orphan black child being cared for by the great white father will become meaningless. In other words, Ted is stating that network television has the power to take ideas of one person (or group of people) and, in turn, desensitize millions of viewers from situations or ideas that they find destructive or “arrogant”. Thus, this gives a SUBSTANTIAL amount of power to heads of networks, seeing as how mass media is such an integral part of the lives of Americans.
ReplyDeleteIn this scene Everett, through the character of Ted, is illustrating how he feels about television. The mass media has caused people to become desensitized from everything, even those things that used to be shocking. Television has rendered the abnormal normal. Media has the power to literally change the way people think. Ted does not want America to have a view of this loving white father taking in the black child because he knows it is a rare thing. This is somewhat ironic because of the fact that Ted is that character in the television show. Everett is illustrating how television in this day and age has the power to brainwash people. It makes up people’s minds for them and makes them believe the things they see on television are how the world really is. This is what Ted seems most aggravated with, the fact that people will think it is an everyday occurrence that a poor black boy gets taken in by the rich white man. He knows he is living outside of the norm but the television makes it seems like he is the norm. In real life Percival Everett despises television and this comes through throughout the whole novel and is focused in on in this scene. It makes it so people no longer have to really think about anything; it is making America stupid. Television gives a warped view of the world.
ReplyDeleteEdwin " Buddy" Trauth
ReplyDeleteMany quotes from Ted Turner’s character in the novel I am not Sidney Poitier written by Percival Everett seem to have some disconnect. The conversation he has with Not Sidney about the Webster television show is no exception. He condemns the show for the kind of “rubbish” that is shown but goes on to comment that it would be better to show such rubbish more frequently. I believe this conversation adds more to Ted’s Character than just the nonsense characterization he has taken on thus far. Everett shows the reader that Ted Turner does see through the entertainment aspect of the shows to the negative ideas that they can convey. This not only adds to the dynamics of Ted Turners character but also adds to the point Everett wishes to convey. The point is unveiled when Ted Turner goes on to say that in order to desensitize society he should “air that trash every day several times a day instead of only once a week” (Everett 11). Ted Turner is aware of the harm these shows could cause but seems to see it as an opportunity for business. He can use the power of media to his advantage. By desensitizing the people to more and more, the opportunities to create new shows will be endless. Each proceeding show would pave the way for the next show that would also continue the trend. The range of things society would view as acceptable would be never ending, as would the financial assets such a business plan would bring. Here Everett is exposing the money-motivated actions of the networks.
Good start, but I don't understand your "opportunities to create new shows would be endless" aspect, as Turner's intentionally (at least this version of Turner) removing the creative and political aspect by airing reruns only.
DeleteDuring this part of "I am Not Sidney Poitier", Ted states that he is going to keep playing his same old shows over and over again until they sit in people's heads like jingles. Here Ted is describing how network television has so much power over those who consume it, that it even has the power to leave a jingle inside their heads. This "jingle" he speaks of represents the catchy memory consumers are going to have when they think about his shows, a memory they shouldn't forget. Network television, when played over and over again, has the power to get stuck in the mind of it's consumers, like a jingle, until they are literally humming it. Imagine when you're watching a 30 minute episode of "Teen Mom 2" and the damn McDonald's commercial comes on 4 or 5 times, by the end of the episode you're chanting "ba-da-ba-ba-ba" and on you're way to get a big mac! Here one sees that when you are exposed to something over and over again, whether you like it or not, you get hooked. It's almost like mind-control. Another example of this would be when you're listening to a song over and over again and you can't get it out of your head and next thing you know your boyfriend's about to murder you because you won't stop singing it. This is the political impact that Ted is saying network television has over people. Repetition has a very profound effect on those exposed to it. Shows, commercials, songs etc. get stuck the minds of people and it becomes almost like second nature to them. Network television makes a huge impression on society and the only way it can affect anybody is through repetition. Through repetition, Ted is trying to brainwash the minds of his consumers.
ReplyDeleteGood start, but you're neglecting the impact of repetition on removing all meaning from the shows.
DeleteIn this excerpt from I am Not Sidney Portier the character of Ted Turner is discussing his views on television of the time. He says, "I'll take their stale old crappy shows and air them again and again until they sit in peoples heads like jingles." He says this meaning to emphasize the impact television has on peoples lives, the political impact. He is trying to eliminate the political power aspect of network television. He is saying that if he runs the old crappy shows enough, people would become desensitized to them and their message, like the message of the, "Arnold and Webster model," that irked him so. However, one cant help but wonder if this would actually work, as one of my classmates pointed out earlier, that a jingle is supposed to get stuck in your head, and as annoying as it might be, the message is portrayed to the listener. Although if these shows were to run for years on end the message might not still be relevant.
ReplyDelete-Reagan Gossett
Good thought.
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