on the death of Prince Philip illustrates how humanity has totally lost all ability to balance. We had it with Brexit. We had it with Covid (what - no "2 people died with Covid today but remember weekends..."). We had it with sex abuse. Bonkers extreme superficiality reflects the media inability - like most of the public - to cope with anything other than tabloid slogan news. I despair. I bet Talking Pictures, Film4, Sony movies are getting more viewers than ever these days.

You think it is a touch ott?!

"Duke would want to be remembered as an individual" is the striking revelation on the top of my BBC news feed. Just shows how Royalty is different from the rest of us who like to be remembered as statistics...

Could this superficiality be a symptomatic response of the old feeling threatened by the new technology-based structures emerging?

JK2006 wrote:
on the death of Prince Philip illustrates how humanity has totally lost all ability to balance. We had it with Brexit. We had it with Covid (what - no "2 people died with Covid today but remember weekends..."). We had it with sex abuse. Bonkers extreme superficiality reflects the media inability - like most of the public - to cope with anything other than tabloid slogan news. I despair. I bet Talking Pictures, Film4, Sony movies are getting more viewers than ever these days.

Talking Pictures has some good stuff on it, but so many adverts, and usually about depressing things, like walk-in baths, stair lifts, and walking aids. How can you escape in a film, when you are reminded every 15 minutes of the grim reality of your future.

I am interested to see some of the programmes about Prince Philip. But not over and over on two channels at the same time.

When has the media ever been balanced?

Some of the programmes were excellent and fascinating. But as always - the media simply cannot resist going over the top into an extreme. In that it reflects the majority of humanity; only able to think in simple terms. It's an aspect of the new Century. Many younger people cannot understand the difference, for example, between The Beatles and One Direction. "They sold as many copies", they reply. They cannot understand that the tiny amounts from Streaming and Downloads make mere curiosity a reason to pay a trifle to hear something. The truth - that many artistes of all kinds had far more depth and deeper rewards than the "equivalents" of today - cannot sink into modern brains. Just as most lives are empty shells, accomplishing nothing, experiencing nothing, doing nothing, appreciating nothing.

When your life is dull and empty, you cannot comprehend that it could be richer. That explains criticism of the Royals. That explains belief in false allegations. That explains the Covid panic. That explains Brexit. That explains Trump.

Caricatures. Easy to understand. Easy to react to (in extreme, simplistic ways). I blame humanity.

JK2006 wrote:
Many younger people cannot understand the difference, for example, between The Beatles and One Direction. "They sold as many copies", they reply.

Caricatures. Easy to understand. Easy to react to (in extreme, simplistic ways). I blame humanity.

I had this experience with literature a couple of years back chatting to a (incidentally stunningly beautiful as well as very bright...) young Russian woman.

We got talking about books and shared a huge admiration for Tolstoy (she had read him in school) but she then started talking about Dan Brown in exactly the same terms. She could not conceive of any difference.

Now I read "high lit" but equally enjoy a "populist" Robert Harris or Stephen King; but I know the difference compared to Tolstoy, as I am very sure Mr Harris & Mr King do.

Dan Brown is shit though

But Dan Brown, whilst being almost unreadable, has one great talent. Cliff hanger chapter endings. His books are almost impossible to put down. Every time you think "I shall go to sleep after this absurd chapter" he hits you and you think "Just one more..."

JK2006 wrote:
But Dan Brown, whilst being almost unreadable, has one great talent. Cliff hanger chapter endings. His books are almost impossible to put down. Every time you think "I shall go to sleep after this absurd chapter" he hits you and you think "Just one more..."

Yep I read the whole Da Vinci Code...appalled at the sentences but turning pages. Incredible really; best thing is to never start one..!

Making historical conjecture believable, Brown has sold as many books as Grisham and Spillane. Translated into 70 languages and made into three awful movies.

If a fiction writer has the ability to make you see it and feel it as if you are there, in my view they are brilliant.

Dickens, Agatha Christie, and Enid Blyton might well be for plebs, but there is a good reason they are popular.

I re-read a couple of Agatha Christies recently and was amazed by how good a writer she was,

Wyot wrote:
JK2006 wrote:
But Dan Brown, whilst being almost unreadable, has one great talent. Cliff hanger chapter endings. His books are almost impossible to put down. Every time you think "I shall go to sleep after this absurd chapter" he hits you and you think "Just one more..."

Yep I read the whole Da Vinci Code...appalled at the sentences but turning pages. Incredible really; best thing is to never start one..!

A charity shop near me once had sign saying ‘No more Dan Brown.’ They had stacks of his books, I never read any of his books because they don’t appeal to me in the slightest.