Sunday, June 5, 2011

Deus Ex Machina


Last week I read the book Deus Ex Machina by Andrew Foster Altschul. It's a kind of heart-of-darkness account of reality TV about a fictional show that seems a lot like Survivor, though I have to admit I've never actually seen Survivor. The book was funny, thoughtful, intense -- you know, things you like books to be. Though, I have to admit, that I feel like some part of it was over my head. Like there's a subtle subtext just outside of my reach that I'm just not getting. And that's not a good feeling. I thought the same thing about The Canterbury Tales when I had to read them for class, and I asked my teacher what was going on. The stories were so simple and base, what was it? Well, he explained, they're really old, just read them and try to understand what's literally going on. And I suppose you could say that about a lot of things. I've watched tens of hours of rugby and I have no idea how the game works, I just enjoy people running around clobbering each other. And there's nothing wrong with that.

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