reality.

In class, we talked about retro, reinvention, and the intertextual. Along with these concepts what has reality come to be defined as. Everyone wants to identify with another time. Having not lived in a time period, we are used to the images online and on TV that define an era. The picture of the girls playing checkers whilst their brother read a magazine and their parents sat nearby is a picture everyone wants to buy into. The feelings of this family are removed and all we are greeted with is a picturesque representation of a nuclear family. We ignore the fact the mom was probably at home cleaning and preparing dinner all day everyday (how very quaint). We want to believe in something so simply perfect. But why? Reality TV is another story. I can watch hours of it and go online researching contestants to find out they are just normal people trying to chase an acting career. But, while I watch the show I set this information aside and delve into the situations at hand. Recently I was watching a show on MTV which is clearly scripted although it claims otherwise. My boyfriend walked in the room, questioning my choice and asking me to admit that this show was in fact, scripted. Of course I know the dramatic scenes are well-calculate and the quirky comebacks are the result of a writer, but I don’t want to see that when I am enjoying my hour of reality TV. I just want to believe this is all real, because I want to remove myself from my hectic reality to play spectator in theirs. I want to completely remove myself from reality, if only for half an hour. And this phony TV show has been used to define reality. And we accept it, because sometimes you just want to remove yourself from thought and believe in the absurd distortion.
Kelsey Pike 9/2