Thursday, January 4, 2007
Big Brother, the extreme
It just dawned on me that maybe the reason Americans are so entertained by Big Brother is that it provides the extreme opposite of the lives they live. Reading Bickford's article sometimes brought images from the Big Brother house to mind. While we live in sometimes utter seclusion and convince ourselves we like it that way, we are enthralled by watching strangers live and sleep and eat in quarters closer than we ever were with our own families.
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Bickford says "Attempts to satisfy the desire for security and safety can simply intensify the longing; the more homogeneity among those lived with, the more threatening are any indications of difference that manage to creep in (through television, the news, visitors, etc.)" (364). I often wonder why we allow TVs in our homes when we work so hard to keep "bad things" away -- we still get wars and murders in our living rooms. That's part of why I don't have one, I think; I want beautiful and noble things around me, and not celebrity gossip and Adam Sandler.
But it strikes me that Big Brother is a fascinating inversion -- we're allowing our TVs to enter our homes, and they're allowing their home to enter our TVs.
While it is true that we have TV's in our homes that bring war and murder into our living rooms, TV's also bring something else... choice. It is a tool/information gathering device - however warped it may be. We can choose what to watch even though much of it is regulated by the very democratic polity that Bickford discusses.
The remote control could be argued to be a gate.
I would also postulate that the very device I am typing on and using to study is a much more dangerous and less noble thing. The internet is the best and worst of mankind.
In the end I suppose it comes down to the individual to determine their own boundaries.
Ann and herb this comment and post propelled a comment I was going to leave but it got so lengthy I posted it on my blog! It def goes off on a tangent...but it was reading this post and comment that propelled me to correlate the ideas of how our society and architectural citizenship dictate and conform our lives into specific entities...when in reality we are all so very unique individually we should embrace that...and express that in our Architecture, and in our society and stop trying to PIGEON-HOLE our lives and who we are to be something that is perceived "acceptable"
Hi Anne! I tried leaving you a comment...but Apparently the first time it did not register! Bummer it was good!
I just wanted to say that your article and herb's comment inspired me to respond and think deeper about how we choose to live our lives and how our architectural citizenship is reflected in the way our society shapes who we are supposed to be. That brought me back to you talking about Big Brother and how I examined the fascination with these types of shows being with the fact that it pits different people from different backgrounds into one house to observe. The comment ran on and on...so I posted it on my page!
I am not sure if it is the "opposite" so much as it is a condensed version (of their lives).
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