Art lover.

[Slutty Rimmer]

What is it with serial killers, and gangsters, and paedophiles, and terrorists, and medical traumas and all that shit which now fills narrative drama ?

It seems like every time I finish my tea and switch on the TV there is some new ‘must see’ dark drama being played out tediously over several weeks.

Luther, Kiilng Eve, The Bodyguard, Casuality, Silent Witness, blah blah blah. I switch it off immediately as I do not need reminding there is enough real trauma in the World without needing to turn it into entertainment. Why is it so popular ? Do people feel they might be able to contain it and protect themselves from it by having it cast into the aspic of narrative ? I don’t know.

It is a sickness in society not to be more mature about it. There is no entertainment to be had in sensationalising misery. Those weirdos who frequent the ‘real life crime’ sections of the book shops or have tattoos of serial killers or name their pets after them; where is it coming from and why ? Is this dark obsession a sickness only of Western culture and of modern times ?

There is no drama in it. When I was at school we had a teacher that everyone thought was a bit weird and mad. She used to go off on one everyone now and again for random reasons and start head butting the wall, especially when confronted with a locked classroom door that had not been unlocked that morning by the caretakers. We all thought she was just a bit of an unstable nut, but it later turned out the lock and the exclusion was important and far from random. We didn’t know it at the time but she and her husband had suffered the disappearance of their only child without any resolution or closure. She’s gone, we can’t find her, go back to work. It was only as an adult I listened to the news one evening and heard the name listed as one of those bodies discovered walled up. What horrific f*cking torment she and her husband must have endured in silence all those decades. How would they feel whenever they turned on the TV after their evening tea, or witnessing people glorifying similar killers ? Don’t people or programme makers care ? Don’t people feel a need to connect with or be responsible for reality anymore ? It isn’t just individuals that are being fed poor unhealthy diets, but society as a whole needs to consume healthier narratives lower in saturated miseries and refined pains.

Yet, there it all is on endless TV and box sets, and films, being hungrily ‘enjoyed’ for public pleasure. I despair at humanity.

Not all art forms are infected, and save for the occasional bit of failed experimentation*, music seems to be inherently optimistic and positive and shuns such narrative. This makes me wonder why lyrical narrative can better free itself from hurt and suffering. The spoken word takes us down but the rhyming word brings us up.

Just rambling of an evening after switching on the TV and once again being force fed other people’s suffering for my presumed pleasure.

Kind Regards,
The Fireman.

* The only song I am aware of which attempts to narrate a very dark soul is the Kinks Art Lover. The words and production are very creepy and ‘off’ in their first person view of a paedophile in a park on a Sunday afternoon. It is interesting and possibly brave, but not one for the Desert Island playlist. Presumably Ray’s title is a nod to themselves for attempting to broaden the artistic limits of popular music. Don’t listen to it.

[geordiesouth]

As I’ve got older and don’t need as much sleep as I used too.
I’ve taken to listening to the radio when I’m lying in bed. Funnily enough I like silence when I’m reading but afterwards (When I’ve put down some crime novel and some dick is attempting to solve yet another murder in a coastal town) I turn on the rad and listen to whatever takes my fancy.
Mostly music of sorts.

Sometimes I nod off and wake up to find it’s still on. But as it’s a piss break it’s ok.
Then there’s the trip downstairs later to get the glass of water I had fuckin forgotten to get when I went to bed. The wireless might still be on.

Then of course there’s the time I’ll wake up to have sex. Only if I’ve remembered to blow her up the night before. The music might still be playing.

Then I get up.

Knackered.

[geordiesouth]

I have no idea what that post is all about.

[posh-sub]

Originally Posted by geordiesouth

I have no idea what that post is all about.

Made a lot more sense than some 30 paragraph long posts on here lately ...

Peace & Love
poshie

[Barstool]

Originally Posted by geordiesouth

As I’ve got older and don’t need as much sleep as I used too.
I’ve taken to listening to the radio when I’m lying in bed. Funnily enough I like silence when I’m reading but afterwards (When I’ve put down some crime novel and some dick is attempting to solve yet another murder in a coastal town) I turn on the rad and listen to whatever takes my fancy.
Mostly music of sorts.

Sometimes I nod off and wake up to find it’s still on. But as it’s a piss break it’s ok.
Then there’s the trip downstairs later to get the glass of water I had fuckin forgotten to get when I went to bed. The wireless might still be on.

Then of course there’s the time I’ll wake up to have sex. Only if I’ve remembered to blow her up the night before. The music might still be playing.

Then I get up.

Knackered.

Blow her up !! OMG that is sooo yesterday, get yerself one of those realistic jobbies which seem to be the rage now, not seen one personally but for all intents and purposes they are very life like and don`t answer back either...

Slutty makes a good point though, I hate the acceptance of mindless violence in the media, a severed arm or gang/religious violence does nothing for me entertainment wise.

Look at all the knife crime that exists now for example, kids have become de-sensitised surely..