Our modern times are saturated with media: print media, broadcast media on radio, TV and on-demand media via the Internet and mail-order video services like Netflix. We have video billboards and ads running on monitors in grocery stores and banks. Go to any drug store and find the drug store's generic brand product styled just like the name brand one, taking deceptive advantage of the visual recognition that the brand name style commands. Pop music and music videos also provide extensive consumables to us that, though they are more about entertainment and some underlying meaning, many fail to convey a meaning of significance, either to the author's personhood or to that of the listener/consumer.
As in my other posts, let us look for a moment at the etymology of the phrase we use to encapsulate all of these things: "media." From the Wikipedia article on Media, we find that there are many varied topics concerning the term "media" and that the one thing they have in common is the idea of a "go-between." Terms like "immediate" and "intermediate" may further help us to characterize what "media" means. Immediate refers to the lack of something "media" and "intermediate" refers to something that is "between the media." "Media" itself refers to the middle of something. Applying this to what we call media nowadays, be it in print, audio, video, or a combination of those, they all fall "in the middle" of something. For us who consume media, our side of "the middle" is the receiving end, and on the other side of the medium is some meaning or significance. So the medium (media is plural) conveys or translates or embodies the meaning or significance intended and brings it to us, who read, listen, or watch it.
It would seem dysfunctional should the case arise in which one side of the medium is nonexistent, namely, the recipient/consumer was unaware of the presence of the medium, in which case the meaning would not be communicated, or if there was no significance or meaning at the source of the medium, in which case words, sounds, and images would be received but as arbitrary sensory stimulations only.
This post is motivated by the occasional incidence of pop music into my life. Songs like that which was performed at the Superbowl Half-time show this year, "Tonight's gonna be a good night" tell of the bliss of the party scene and the fleeting pleasure of sexual encounters. So many "pop sensations" are just that - all feeling with no sense of enduring value, virtue, or faith. Art need not be expressive of the infinite to be of value; certainly through the mediation of something finite (such as nature), the infinite may be implied and the participation of the finite in the infinite by its nature gives value to its expression in some form of art.
Those of you who know me know that I enjoy a lot of country music. Some country music is about a farm boy lusting after a girl while he plows the fields. Some country music is about grandpa sitting on the porch pondering the meaning of life. Some country music is about a single mom caring for her baby in the face of great trials (Carrie Underwood's "Jesus Take the Wheel" and "Temporary Home"). Rascal Flatts' "Why" sings in disbelief of one who committed suicide, wondering figuratively what would "make you leave the stage in the middle of a song." Some country music is about fighting to conform our human nature to its divine purpose (Brad Paisley's "Letter to Me") taking the advice of those older than ourselves and even taking the advice of our own clear-headed selves in times of trouble or despair. These speak of enduring values and experiences that are pleasurable, gratifying, or significant, even to the point of death.
It is often not worth our effort to analyze media and artwork that may have little value to prove precisely how little value it has or to perfect it; there is plenty out there that does have obvious value and yields great fruits when that value is explored further. However, there are iconic and "sensational" works that demand the attention of scholars in order that the masses are not led astray by the errors of those works (e.g. Dan Brown's da Vinci Code, the Harry Potter series, the fascination with vampires, etc). It is in these cases that humble scholars and holy people like Fr. Lanteri (founder of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary) and Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta and so many doctors of the church (St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, etc) rose to the occasion of addressing the truth and falsity of these widespread errors for the populace.
Let us guard carefully our own hearts and minds and those of our children and our peers that we might be worthy in all that we do to receive the unfading crown of glory in heaven by our pursuit of virtue in this life, above all the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love; Verus Amor.
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
No comments:
Post a Comment