On page 12, Schecner says, “TV news seems to me to be a paradigm of that peculiar kind of in-between or liminoid performance genre we are getting more and more of.” I found this interesting because while reading the pages that preceded it, I didn’t even think of news as a kind of performance. He makes an interesting comparison, and although I don’t want to agree with it, I think I do. He continues with, “There an
heroes and villains, but these are not seen as agents of larger social forces even of "destiny" as such. Then there are the stars of the political sports entertainment worlds.” This is related to his mirror with life on one side and art on the other. The two bleed into each other, and some art is just like real life, while some events in real life can be looked at as art/theater. This goes back to an earlier quote: “The people at Belle's—players, spectators, and spectator-participant—are playing and they are not playing” (300).
Viridarium Novum
8 years ago
1 comment:
Terrick--
I am particularly intrigued by your discomfort w/Schhechner's news argument. Can you tell me more about your inclination to resist his formulation? What about it repulses us? Schechner has always has the problem of bad taste--is his account of the aesthetic not Kantian enough (too little transcendence, too much carnality?)
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