Hollywood has been developing a culture that welcomes AI-generated content with its tendency to pressure writers to fit a formulaic narrative structure instead of encouraging them to pursue real creativity and collaboration.
Well, this is hardly new. Mass entertainment has always been a repetitive product, and that’s a good thing. Humans need entertainment. It’s a basic part of life. Most of us can’t afford box seats at the opera, and most of us get no enjoyment from bleak soul-destroying avant-garde “theatre”.
In entertainment as in art and technology and food, elites explicitly encourage and subsidize ANTIart and ANTIentertainment.
From puppet shows to dime novels to tabloid papers to network radio to adventure serial movies to TV, mass-produced “boring” entertainment has given good value to ordinary people for an affordable cost.
I’d rather have “boring” Campbells Soup than “exciting” nouvelle cuisine. Campbells is reliable and nourishing and cheap. Medallions de porc aux champignons in a mushroom demi-glace sauced with a veal reduction are empty and expensive.
The real advantage of reliable cheap food and entertainment is that it leaves room for your own creativity! Fancy restaurant “food” and fancy theatrical “art” are specifically unchangeable. They are commands, not observations. If you ask the chef to hold the mushrooms he’ll kick you out. If you step in front of the movie screen and act out your alternative ending, same result.
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During the current unending hell, I’ve come to appreciate (yet again) the value of a very old brand, Campbell’s CONDENSED Soup.
As soon as the muzzle mandate started FIFTEEN FUCKING MONTHS AGO, WITH NO FUCKING END IN SIGHT, I scrambled to minimize Time Under Muzzle. Previously I had been making three store trips per week, with easy loads. The trips were enjoyable, a chance to interact and converse with real humans.
Now that each trip is pure torture, I reduced to two torture sessions per week, with heavier loads. The loads then had to be reduced. Part of the reduction was ordering coffee and barley online.
Previously I had been using Progresso soup, which is uncondensed. At first I switched to Knorr rice mixes, but those were unsatisfying. Then I tried good old Campbells CONDENSED. This turned out to be optimal in two different ways. (1) Campbell actually has more solid food and more varied food. Progresso is mostly liquid, which adds unnecessary load weight. (2) I always ‘fortify’ soup with barley, vegies, and cheese. The liquid in the Progresso had to be drained off to reach a practical serving size. Wasteful. The all-solid Campbell comes out just right with a small amount of water.
The interactive radio show Calling All Detectives was also condensed, with the same qualities as Campbell’s. Each episode on the transcription disk (the can) is just 8 minutes long, but the writers packed in enough solid material to make it feel like a half hour of story. No unnecessary banter, no long pauses, no music. As always with radio, the listener supplies the water, filling in the visual aspect of locations and characters. This show was uniquely fortified by local announcers (chefs) who added an interactive quiz with a substantial reward. Because the quiz was based on a detail in the episode, the fortification boosted the attentional (nutritional) value of the show itself.
This episode is about a restaurant with no customers. The detective investigates what seems to be a gang front, and finds instead that the owner is renting out the kitchen to amateur cooks so they can practice and enjoy in a fancy kitchen.
At the end the narrator says:
Man can’t live by bread alone; but if it’s bread he makes himself, he’s willing to try.
Or as I’m fond of saying,
A MAN NEEDS TO MAKE THINGS. IF HE CAN’T MAKE THINGS, HE WILL BREAK THINGS.
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Addendum: Fortunately the “unending” hell did come to an end, and after fifteen months WITHOUT muzzles I’m starting to believe it’s done. Emerson wins.
The checks to a new evil do not appear at first, but they exist and will appear.
Polistra's Mill 