"Entertainment to Death" puts forward several main points. What are the specific points? Thank you.

Reading Notes: The Main Logic Series of Entertainment to Death

Category: one reading note per week | Label: "Entertainment to Death" Reading Notes Entertainment Times

2013-01-19: 32 Read (60 1) Comments (0)

Author: Xu Shuxin

This is not a reflection on "entertainment to death", but a series of contexts and main points of this book. Of course, the reading notes I made are not copying the sentences in the book, but rearranging scattered viewpoints and cases, and my personal understanding of logical relations is superficial, but I hope to discuss with you the understanding of this book. Welcome to correct me.

In the preface of Entertainment to Death, the author mentioned two important predictions: one is from George Orwell, who believes that people will be enslaved by foreign oppression and lose their freedom, and our culture will become a controlled culture; The other is Huxley, the author of Brave New World. He expressed another kind of worry. People will gradually fall in love with oppression and worship industrial technology that makes them lose their thinking ability. People will lose their freedom in pleasure. He thinks we will be destroyed by what we love.

What the author of Entertainment to Death wants to tell you is that it is Huxley's prediction that may come true.

Next, the author shows the readers how Huxley's prediction was realized through eleven chapters, that is, how this era changed from an era of interpretation to an era of entertainment. In the first four chapters, the author expounds the influence of media metaphor and media epistemology on the media, which lays a theoretical foundation for the influence of TV media on society in advance. In the third chapter "America under the rule of the printing press" and the fourth chapter "Thoughts under the rule of the printing press", it explains from a historical perspective how the printing press has developed and expanded in the United States, and how it has influenced American religion, politics, law, business society and other important social issues by controlling the public's time and attention. It paved the way for later comparison with the TV era. The fifth and sixth chapters show how the deductive era has changed into the entertainment era. From the combination of telegraph, newspaper and photography, the public discourse mode in the printing age has been constantly changed, creating a world of hide and seek. Finally, people began to live in a world of avoiding cats. Television is all presented in the form of entertainment, and the era has become the era of entertainment. Chapter 7- 10 expounds how TV makes them subordinate to entertainment from four aspects which are very important to social development: TV news programs, politics, religion and education.

Chapter One Media is Metaphor

The author believes that the public discourse model regulates and determines the content of discourse and affects the expression of ideas. Nowadays, the printing industry in the United States is declining, but television is developing rapidly at the same time. Television is a medium, which has changed the form of public discourse, the content and meaning of public discourse, and redefined and displayed the content in a way suitable for television.

Then the author puts forward the viewpoint that media is metaphor, and points out that this is different from McLuhan's media is information. He believes that information is a concrete and clear explanation of the world, and the media does not have this function. The media is more like a metaphor. Defining the world with a hidden but powerful hint often goes beyond the meaning of the thing itself. Moreover, the media that guide people to look at and understand the world often do not attract people's attention. In order to explain metaphor, the author gives some examples. For example, it is pointed out that the appearance of glasses in 12 century not only makes it possible to correct vision, but also implies that human beings don't have to regard talent or defect as their ultimate fate. The author even thinks that the invention of glasses has something to do with the study of gene division in the 20th century. Therefore, it can be said that the motivations or thoughts of nature, Chile and human beings we know are not their true colors, but their expressions in language. Our language is the medium, our medium is metaphor, and our metaphor creates our cultural content.

Chapter II Media is Epistemology

The author wrote this chapter to show that he did not simply "attack" TV in the following discussion, but focused on epistemology rather than literary or aesthetic criticism. Of course, it is more important to reveal what role the media plays in our understanding.

Epistemology is a complex knowledge about the origin and nature of knowledge. Related to this book are the epistemological definitions of truth and the sources of these definitions. The author is committed to proving that the definition of truth comes at least in part from the nature of the media that spreads information, and the media plays an important role in our epistemology.

Therefore, the author quotes Slopfry's concept of "* * * Ming" and thinks that any media has * * * Ming, and * * * Ming is an extended metaphor, which affects the way we understand and define truth. He believes that the way of understanding truth is closely related to the way of expression. Truth can't exist, it has never existed, and it has no modification, but it must appear in a suitable coat, otherwise it will not be recognized. Therefore, any epistemology is the epistemology of the media development stage, and truth, like time, is the product of people's self-invented communication technology and its dialogue.

And as early as the end of the chapter, it is pointed out that the emergence of various communication tools will reach a certain balance, and there will be gains and losses. This balance is not necessarily absolute, sometimes the gain is greater than the loss, and sometimes the loss is greater than the gain. So we should be very careful when destroying or praising, because the future results are often unexpected.

Chapter III America under the Rule of Printing Machines

From a historical perspective, the author comments that the United States under the rule of the printing press is very different from today, with clear and easy-to-understand words and serious rationality.

As early as16th century, great changes have taken place in people's epistemology, and any kind of knowledge must be expressed and spread through types. The British colonists who first immigrated to America were obsessed with fonts. As a result, there was no cultural aristocrat in colonial America, reading never became a gentleman's activity, and printed matter was widely spread among all kinds of people.

/kloc-at the end of 0/7, a local literary newspaper began to rise. Of course, this is inseparable from Americans' preference for printing presses. Along with the content censorship of newspapers, Americans struggle for information and freedom.

By the end of 18, the number of newspapers in the United States was two-thirds of that in Britain, but the population was only half of that in Britain. People are so addicted to newspapers and pamphlets that they don't even have time to read books. Through newspapers, the postman sends knowledge to huts and palaces without discrimination.

/kloc-in the 0/9th century, font-based culture began to form in all parts of the United States. Both the number of libraries and the collection scale have increased greatly, and the lecture hall is very popular.

Type has a lasting and powerful influence on the stage of public discourse, not only because of the number of printed materials, but also because of the monopoly position of type. At that time, people had no other entertainment and recreation, and printed matter was almost the only way to get information and recreation. Obviously, printing has influenced the form of public discourse, and the form determines the content, which makes people's daily speeches and speeches full of bookish atmosphere that is not available today. Printing machine is not only a machine, but also a discourse structure. It excludes or selects a certain kind of content, and then inevitably selects a certain kind of audience. The author tries to explore how printing, as a metaphor and epistemology, created a serious and rational dialogue between the public and how the United States later deviated from all this.

Chapter IV Thinking under the Rule of Printing Machine

The author begins with speeches and audiences in the Lincoln era to prove the natural power of words under the control of printing.

Printed words and spoken language based on printing have some contents: meaningful, interpretable and logical propositions. Once a language is printed, it will inevitably become an idea, a fact and an opinion. In the culture under the rule of printing, public discourse is often an orderly combination of facts and opinions, and the public is usually capable of such oral activities.

In order to illustrate his point of view, the author expounds how people carry out activities through printed words and printed culture from the angles of religion, law and commercial society.

In short, from 18 to 19 centuries, Americans used black and white to express their attitudes, express their thoughts, make laws, sell goods, create literature and preach religion. All this is achieved through printing, and it is in this way that the United States can rank among the outstanding nations in the world.

For the era when the printing press informed American thought, the author named it "the year of interpretation". Interpretation is a way of thinking, a learning method and an expression. All the characteristics of mature discourse are carried forward by the printing technology of love explanation: complex thinking with logic, high rationality and order, aversion to contradictions, extraordinary calmness and objectivity, and waiting patiently for the audience's response.

Chapter 5 The Hidden Cat's World

By the middle of19th century, the fusion of these two concepts provided a brand-new public discourse metaphor for America in the 20th century. It also greatly impacted the "deductive era" and laid the foundation for the "entertainment era". A relatively new point of view is that transportation and communication can be separated from each other, and space is no longer an inevitable obstacle to limiting information dissemination.

What broke this obstacle was the appearance of telegraph. The appearance of telegraph has destroyed the original definition of information and given new meaning to public discourse, making the content of discourse boring, weak in expression and scattered in form. The role of information no longer depends on its role in social and political countermeasures and actions, but on whether it is novel and interesting. Information becomes a commodity.

Without the cooperation between newspapers and telegrams, the potential of telegrams to turn information into commodities may never be brought into play. At this point, the wealth of newspapers no longer depends on the quality or use of news, but on the remoteness and acquisition speed of these news sources. Telegrams make things related to us irrelevant. Most news in life is useless. At most, provide a little talk, not our actions. The main advantage of telegraph lies in its ability to spread information, rather than collecting, interpreting and analyzing information. Printing is just the opposite.

The appearance of photography makes photos an excellent supplement to news and newspapers in a strange way. The news of the Daily Telegraph makes readers a lot of news that comes out of nowhere. Who participated in the facts, and the photos only provided concrete images for these dry goods. The context formed by photos and news is purely an illusion, just a pseudo-context, which makes the irrelevant and detached information used superficially. Photos have no grammar, can't argue with the world, and can't provide "how it should be" or "how it should be". Photos record feelings in different ways, often out of context and fragmented.

At the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, the participation of electronic media surpassed that of telegraphy and photography. Created a world of avoiding cats: one moment this, the other suddenly comes into your sight, and then disappears quickly. This is a meaningless world without continuity, a world that does not require us to do anything. But before TV appeared, no one responded to living in this world, but after TV appeared, people lived in it. Television provides the most powerful form of expression for telegraph and photography, bringing the combination of images and moments to a dangerous and perfect state. Television has become a kind of "meta-media", which not only determines our understanding of the world, but also determines how we know the world. The consequence of this is that the world presented by TV is regarded as nature, and the definitions of truth, knowledge and reality are accepted by TV. Boredom and incoherence become reasonable.

Chapter VI Entertainment Times

Television is a social and cultural environment created by technology, and it has its own tendency.

Television has turned entertainment itself into a form of expressing all experiences, all contents are expressed in the form of entertainment, and entertainment has become the super-ideology of all words on TV. Television, including various forms of discourse, is the most important way to understand our culture. The world shown on TV has become a model of how the world should exist. Entertainment not only becomes the symbol of all kinds of words on TV, but also dominates everything under TV. Nowadays, television controls politics, religion, commerce, law, education and all other important social affairs.

Chapter 7 Okay ... Now

"OK ... now" is often used in news or radio to point out that what we just saw or heard has nothing to do with what we are about to see or hear. This makes us have to admit the fact that the world outlined by the media has no order and significance. No matter how cruel the news facts are, as long as the announcer says "OK … now", everything can disappear from our minds. News TV programs have become pure entertainment, which is a performance to entertain the audience. The audience will not take what they see seriously, no matter how serious it looks, the advertisements behind it can dispel its importance. Television provides a new definition of news authenticity, and the credibility of stories determines the authenticity of events.

Television provides people with unfounded, disjointed and fragmented content, which makes people lose their ability to judge what information is and their perception of contradictory things. It gives people the illusion that they know a lot, but they are getting farther and farther away from the truth.

Television has become a model for us to understand public information and guide all other media (such as newspapers and radio) to be entertaining.

Chapter VIII Towards Bethlehem

In the TV era, not only news develops into entertainment, but also religion is not immune.

On TV, religion, like anything else, is clearly expressed as a form of entertainment. Religion becomes entertainment because of the tendency of TV itself, not because the so-called TV missionaries have defects. Television turns one thing into another, and the original essence may be lost. Several characteristics of television itself and its surrounding environment make it impossible to realize real religious experience. Because people can't mythologize the space of TV broadcast, TV pictures themselves have obvious realistic tendency. The biggest advantage of TV is to let concrete images enter people's minds, rather than abstract concepts stay in people's minds. The real danger is not that religion becomes the content of TV programs, but that TV themes may become the content of TV programs.

Chapter 9 Hold out your hand and cast a vote.

Politics is like entertainment.

His goal is not to be clear, fair, honest and noble, but to look like this. In America, TV advertisements have become the most important symbol of political discourse. Television advertising is an important tool for shaping and expressing modern political views. Political campaign has gradually taken the form of TV advertising, and TV makes Americans have to accept the philosophy of TV advertising. People have regarded TV advertising as a common and reasonable way of discourse, and TV advertising has also formed a unique view of communication essence different from other media (especially printed words). And we will take some political views conveyed or strengthened in TV advertisements as common sense. Politicians advertise themselves as entertainment materials, while television is a medium of light-year speed, focusing on the present, and grammar does not express the past tense.

Therefore, in the era of entertainment and video politics, political discourse not only abandons ideas, but also abandons history. As Huxley predicted, modern technology with mild surface can effectively make history disappear by providing people with a political image, instant happiness therapy and comfort therapy, and it will be more permanent and will not be opposed.

Chapter 10 Teaching is an entertainment activity.

In the age of entertainment, education is not immune.

Just like letters and printing presses, television gains the right to control people's education by controlling their time, attention and cognitive habits.

Educational philosophers believe that it is difficult to acquire knowledge because it will inevitably involve various constraints. Learning requires a price, endurance and sweat are essential, and personal interests should give way to collective interests. It is not easy for young people to acquire excellent critical thinking ability, but a hard and decisive struggle.

Television provides an attractive and creative choice, and puts forward three commandments of TV educational programs: no preconditions, no confusion, and avoiding refinement like the plague. If we give such an education a name without preconditions, problems and explanations, it can only be "entertainment".

Some people think that "when the information is expressed in the form of drama, the learning effect is obvious, and TV can do better than any other media in this respect." However, the author thinks this view is misleading. He believes that the meaning obtained from TV is often some specific fragments, which are not inferential, while the meaning obtained from reading is often related to our original stored knowledge, so it is highly inferential.

But obviously, education has been captured by entertainment.

Chapter 11 Huxley's warning

There are two ways to make the cultural spirit wither, one is Orwellian-culture becomes a prison, and the other is Huxley-culture becomes a farce. Obviously, Huxley's warning has become a reality. The author tries to find a solution to this problem. He thinks that if the users of the media have understood its danger, then the media will not be too dangerous. Only by deeply and persistently understanding the structure and effect of information and eliminating the mystery of the media can people gain some control over TV, computer or any other media. Therefore, he proposed two implementation methods. One is to make a new TV program to tell people how to watch TV. Of course, the author immediately denied the feasibility of this approach, so a second method appeared, namely school education.

Huxley's last sentence is over:

"What makes people feel pain is not laughing without thinking, but not knowing why they laugh and why they stop thinking."

Please adopt ~