Thursday, September 02, 2004

Fascinated With Ourselves



I just got through reading the latest in the Stephen King Dark Tower book series, and the way he's put himself into the story has made me start thinking more about the entertainment around me.

We as a society seem to have a huge amount of fascination about our own lives and trials than at anytime before. Be it the plethora of reality TV shows, stories like King's where he puts himself in as a key part, autobiographical comics or heck even blogs like this one.

It just seems strange how we can't seem to have purely fictional stories or heroes to emulate, instead putting our own selves in the starring role. Perhaps this is just a reflection of today's society where from the President on down to heck even comic book superheroes, there is a lack of heroic figures that we care or want to put our faith in.

Which has led to the interest to do things ourselves or only look to ourselves for things we want in our entertainment.

I know I'm "guilty" of this a bit as well, this blog is in itself a testimony to my own inner fascination with the thoughts I have on what I read or watch. No one else seems to offer a true option for discourse of ideas that are like mine enough to satisfy that burning need, so I felt the need to do this myself.

Yet I wonder what future generations will think of us when they look back at us. Will they find us to be a society of self absorbed fools, who only looked inward and not outward or ahead?

Only time will tell I suppose.

2 comments:

Jon Silpayamanant said...

I posted something related a while back, and there's sort of a discussion about it at the Emaki forums regarding the differences between US comics and Japanese Manga.

James Schee said...

Thanks for the interesting pointers!

I'm not entirely sure if the focus on ourselves is that bad a thing really. I guess if we do it too much we could forget about those around us too much. Yet on the other hand it might lead to more of an understanding as to who we are.

(I really need to update my blogroll)