Interruptus Interruptus

Last Sunday's "Parade" magazine, which is a poor man's supplement of the Sunday Los Angeles Times (itself a poor man's Sunday New York Times, but I'm getting too parenthetical here) published an essay by, of all people, Norman Mailer. The topic, appropriately big for a man of such repute, was How to Resolve the Major Problem of our Culture. This he defined as the dismal state of American education and literacy.

Fair enough. Arguments can be made for global warming and epidemiological threats, but it's hard to disagree that there's a declining level of education and achievement in America, supplemented by the glorification of ignorance and superstition and marginalization of the intelligent as nerds and geeks (unlike, say Japan, where academic achievement is actually respected). And as a Jew (speaking for both Mailer and myself), I have a particular respect for education, so fundamental to the success of our subculture.

Mailer's article was well-written (duh) and heartfelt, but his basic remedy is simplistic and ludicrous, relying on Rube Goldbergian logic. To summarize, our children are poorly educated because they are not motivated to read, and they are not motivated to read because of the distractions in their world that break their concentration and discourage committment to any extended material. The major culprit in this equation is commercial television; commercials have trained our children to ingest information in small bits that don't cohere because of all the interruptions. It's hard to follow narratives that are constantly being broken up by irrelevant demands to buy a Suburban SUV or sign up for Verizon cell phone service. Attention spans decline, which impacts on studying habits, etc. Ergo, the Big Fix: get rid of commercials.

Now I have muted respect for Mailer. He is an iconic American man of letters, even if his best writing occurred during the Truman Administration. As a cultural critic his record is more checkered. This was the guy who lauded the graffiti defacing the New York subway system as a model of urban art, and whose idea of coping with domestic discord was to stab his wife. And here his reasoning is equally specious. Of course, in a Utopian world, it would be nice not to have commercials. I personally refuse to watch any movie on a TV station that insists on commercial interruptions (goodbye AMC), and also resent it on episodic TV, though episodic scripts are often designed to accommodate commercial breaks with false climaxes and cliffhangers. This is why I have a VCR and others have bought TIVO.

What Mailer doesn't acknowledge is the economic realities of commercial television. It's a very simple system. Corporations pay networks for advertising, networks pay studios for program fees, and the studios pay the artists to create programs. No one does this for spec, Normy. Okay, there is public TV (which is also endowed by taxes and by corporations seeking tax breaks). And there's ad-free cable (supported largely by my $100+ monthly bills). "Free" TV, that most accessible to the poorest, who are most in need of educational uplift, still requires commercial sponsorship. I suppose a less obnoxious system would have commercials lumped together before or after a program, like Ford does when sponsoring "Schindler's List," but those ad blocks would be much easier for viewers to avoid or TIVO out.

Some situations obligate us to experience commercials. Sporting events, which need to be viewed live, force us into submission. The point then is to appreciate what artistry there is (for instance, in those snazzy Hewlett Packard photo ads) or to actually learn something (as in the Osh ads that supply helpful household hints, like removing a broken light bulb base with a raw carrot. That's cool). Wow--commercials can be educational too! Not to mention the PSAs (good when promoting reading, a bit less so when spouting War on Drugs propaganda).

I'll tell you what pisses me off--commercials prior to movies. This has given rise to one of the major euphemisms of 21st century cinema entertainment--the "Pre Show." $11 a pop to see a grainy Coke ad? Give me a break. Or in this case, don't.