Opinions

[kokopelle]

I enjoy the show 'A Haunting', but find that I have to take it in small doses. The entertainment canned presentations of the occult and spirits sometimes clash with my experiences and sensibilities. This rang true tonight when I watched an episode about a gentleman who was supposed to have opened a door to bad spirits by using witchcraft. The producers of the show allowed the gentleman to give a stern warning at the end of the show. He proclaimed that inquiries into the occult opened doors to bad places and bad things.

This is an old challenge for me. It is both a wonderful thing and a frustrating thing when people have different opinions. I suppose I am glad when I have lessons like the show to demonstrate that I have more work to do towards more often seeing different opinions as a wonderful thing!


Another Columbus GA Riverwalk picture

Comments

[chimerae.livejournal.com]

I worked with a young kid recently, and heard myself talking in answer to his questions about my perspective that "The Occult" is much like "The Wild"

If you go for a walk in the tall grass beyond the suburbs you're apt to get ticks. Remain beyond the pale, and sooner or later you'll have a snake encounter. Sometimes you're unlucky and POOF you enounter snakes, ticks, and all sorts of other feral bogeys simply because you stepped out of your vehicle during a breakdown. Or you're driving down the highway and hit a deer. A deer, in and of itself, is not a "bad ghost" but the intrusion of human cultural extensions into the natural territories of deer, means that sooner or later unfortunate encouters will happen.

Entertainment is interesting as a presentation. There is a ritual rhythm we have come to expect in television and other experiences. Those of us who are simple viewers forget that, presented with a production, we become distracted by a smattering of authenticity and forget that the entire thing is stage managed not just to fit in a 22 minute time slot with commercials slotted in but also for ritual rhythms of prologue, growing anticipation, episodic creshendo, payoff and moral. Shows that deviate from our unconsciously expected ritual do poorly.

And then, one of my pet peeves, we become so acclimated to the ritual rhythms of canned entertainment that we lose the ability to really experience what we're in, instead reframing it as an episode in a TV show in our head and editing for presentation.

[greensh.livejournal.com]

I've seen the same story of a haunted place on multiple TV shows, and "A Haunting" definitely goes for the trauma-drama. I have to take what they present and then tone it down one or two notches to get an idea of what REALLY happened. The interesting thing is that this is a common phenomenon for both entertainment and some people who like to speak in an "entertaining" way. Aren't we neat as social animals?