We live in a time of startling stagnation. The basic design of the automobile and airplane haven't changed in my lifetime. Medicine has made only baby strides in the fight against cancer, which is the black plague of modern times. Life expectancy has risen, but primarily because of the introduction of antibiotics, immunization and sterilzation, which dramatically reduced childhood deaths decades ago. It's a disgrace that the United States ranks 50th in the world in life expectancy, just behind Wallis and Futuna. As of 2004, the U.S. ranked 29th in the world in infant mortality. Those figures are a shameful indictment of our horrendous medical establishment. See Michael Moore's Sicko- it does a great job of illustrating this.
Hollywood has become almost incapable of producing anything original. When will they stop torturing the public with awful remakes of old television shows? How low will they go with the non-stop juvenile fart and potty humor "comedies?" When will they stop remaking movies that are barely a few decades old? When they reshot Psycho scene for scene a while back, that convinced me that there was little or no hope for them. How could they think they could top Alfred Hitchcock? It must be frustrating for all those struggling waiters and waitresses who have a gem of a screenplay at home in a drawer, but no one to peddle it to.
Message to Hollywood and the publishing world; not every story has to be centered in New York or Los Angeles. There are 48 other states in the union. Not every character has to be a lawyer or doctor. Some people aren't divorced, and get along well with their biological children. Some large men cannot be punched out by small women. Just some food for thought.
Sorry for being so grumpy- some days are like that. Our culture is just becoming so dumbed down that it's hard to stomach sometimes. The movie Idiocracy didn't paint such a far-fetched picture at all, in my view. What would Charles Dickens do in today's world? Imagine agents looking at some of his opening chapters, with their long sentences and deliberate pacing. It would be a miracle if he became published at all. Even a writer as recent as Vonnegut wouldn't have a chance either; "where are you going with this- it's all over the place" or "I don't know what you're trying to do here" would be some of the typical responses he'd get.
Sometimes it's hard not to feel as bitter as Ambrose Bierce, who of course would have no chance of being published today, either. I can only imagine some of the entries he'd have in a modern version of The Devil's Dictionary. Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken would be like kids in a candy store today, with the plethora of juicy targets for their poisionous barbs. They'd have no one willing to give them a public vehicle for their criticisms, but they'd certainly have plenty to comment on.
Okay, now it's back to watching the Disney Channel with my kids....
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