(That's the corollary dodge of the TV writer; intellectual snobs in Canada pretend not to like TV, and writers pretend not to be smartypants.)
La Doyle picks up the Michel Arpin baton today in the Globe. And he manages to work in another dig at my ex-show, which I'm gonna be giggling about all the way onto the plane from Vancouver.
To track how this all started, click here.
To the battlements, citoyens.
Now, to be charitable, it's possible to speculate that Arpin was, ah, pulling the reporter's leg. Being a wag. Just goofing around. That's implausible, I think. Me, I've see Arpin in action at CRTC hearings. All pursed lips and bristling skepticism, I saw him treat what he calls "the unions" with the air of an impatient parent hearing out the teenagers on the some newfangled trend in music or technology.
Besides, a lack of interest in television, specifically what Arpin calls "televised fiction" is the proudest boast of the Canadian intellectual snob.
And it's a curiously Canadian boast. In Canada, declaring ignorance of television, and, in some cases, pointedly declining even to own a TV set, marks the speaker as a serious person. It is also bizarrely old-fashioned, in a crackpot kind of way. A considerable number of people who consider themselves thoughtful and no-nonsense will declare that they watch only the news on TV or, perhaps, the occasional documentary. As if, you know, to be cultured is to be certain that most television shows rot the brain and are best ignored.
It's the way it is with culture snobs. But for a vice-chairman of the CRTC to take this position is outlandish.
3 comments:
I tracked your posting re Arpin's comments after reading John Doyle's bit in the G&M this morning. I couldn't agree with you more. I took the liberty of linking your site to my one followup posting on my own blog http://lifeistoshorttodrinkcheapwine.blogspot.com/
Well done Doyle...but are there no comments allowed at that Globe article?
Sometimes the reasons why people don't have television (or a television set) are cultural, but sometimes it's a matter of circumstance (a matter too complex and personal to get into here, but suffice to say that we don't watch "television".)
Which is not to say we don't consume any amount of popular culture. Through DVDs, zip.ca and online viewers, we have access to a tremendous amount of content. I'm grateful to the various networks branching out to the web for distribution (though I want to smack Global for their segmenting of shows, which means I either watch sitting at the computer or get up every six minutes to reset it to full screen, which seriously interrupts my knitting).
I know CBC doesn't have the same constraints, but viewing their shows is considerably more pleasant.
Some shows are crap. Many "kid" shows are astonishing crap. But some are amazing, and comprise a good section of my DVD collection. Good serial drama and comedy finds its way onto my zip queue, and now iTunes.
That said, I think it's unconscionable that someone who is involved at that level in the industry should be out of touch with the medium and proud of it.
Post a Comment