I sent this out by mistake. What appears below is corrected & completed.
Svengali wrote:> Have you ever watched a young child who is watching
cartoons like this?
Their eyes glaze, their jaw goes slack, and they stop EVERYTHING and even
breathe more slowly. Once again, I am not a fan of TV per se for this very
reason, and especially for young children.<
It's interesting to me that my son (the guy with a dose of autism) _hates_
TV and refuses to watch it. I asked him why (since it would be nice if he
watched it once and awhile) and he said it was because the TV tended to
take his mind over. Having a milder case than his, I can understand this: I
have a hard time _not_ watching TV if there's one on in a restaurant, since
it grabs my attention. (Also, probably because he doesn't "do" social
relations very well, my son seems to want social contact with me or my wife
_all the time_ when we're around. (He doesn't get much out of each ounce of
social contact, so he wants as many ounces as possible.) He always wants
attention, except when he walls himself off in some obsessive solo play. TV
cuts him off from others. However, he is willing to watch theater movies
and videos -- including (yuk!) Pokemon -- as long as one of us is there
watching it with him. I've seen the new Pokemon movie, which is a psychotic
dream.)
Anyway, my point was that there's something to Svengali's perspective
(quoted above). The problem is his conspiracy theory. But Hollywood
produces dreck (1) because people want it, (2) because Hollywood wants to
attract those audiences -- e.g., children -- who are most susceptible to
advertising (which is currently part of the TV show: Pokemon _is_
advertising), and (3) the companies compete with each other, in an effort
to out-do each other.
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
