I’ve been thinking about the style and genre of popular movie’s and books that are out these days.
Not being one really all that interested in statistics, though I think the statistics on this issue would be really interesting, I’ve not even looked into that side of this topic.
The statistics aside, have you noticed Reader that in a time when, particularly here in Australia, we have no real threat to our existence, we love to read books or watch movie’s that fantasise and sensationalise war, hunger, deprivation? Or take us deep into an alternative reality. I know there are individuals who live in dire circumstances, who’s day to day life is a struggle, but generally, in Australia, we have a pretty easy life. Even the homeless man who has been wandering around Maitland for the last twenty or so years is well nourished, he’s pretty dirty and smells, but he’s not starving.
I once saw a segment on a tv show stating that women of a certain age, I think they meant middle aged, in the mid 1900’s liked to read romance.
and women of the same age bracket, now like to read crime stories.
I’ve been chatting to some young friends, ranging in age from mid teens to mid twenties, and I’ve noticed a real draw to fantasy in the girls, romance of course, cue “Twilight” and even “The Hunger Games”. As for boys, well boys still love blow ’em up and smash ’em down. But the games they play on play stations and Xbox and whatever other game consoles are out there, are so graphic and violent it amazes me.
We seem to crave a view into a life that’s different from our own, a fantasy world one way or another, an escape from the boring hum drum of our own reality. When I think about it reader, even the book I’m writing is a fictionalised and romanticised telling of life in the new colony of New South Wales. Writing it is an escape from my world of bookkeeping and trucks.
We all like to read stories and watch films about an alternative life or circumstance to how we live and what we know. So I wonder, what does this say about our social and economic situations? Do our reading and viewing choices reflect the contrast with our reality?
Just saying . . .