Television

I just made a works cited entry for an excerpt of John Fiske's Television Culture. It reminded me of two things: I need to buy the book and read the whole thing; and perhaps I really should be watching television, given my cultural studies leanings.

We have a television, but we don't even get the basic channels, so I haven't really watched any television for a year, except for the first two seasons of the X-Files (which Jon owns), Queer as Folk (which Char generously lent to us), a few episodes of Teen Titans (which Jeremiah rented), and a smattering of other owned, borrowed, or rented programs. The problem with these programs is that they're already over and that it's expensive and time consuming to rent a season and watch it before you have to bring it back to That's Entertainment (our alternative video-rental store).

On the one hand, I'm starting to feel left out of the seemingly hilarious conversations people have about the newest stupid reality show. On the other hand, I'm really glad I don't waste time watching television, because I don't have a lot of time to waste and I already spend all of it and then some on the Internet or asleep. However, I'm beginning to think I should be keeping an eye out for shows that might be useful academically. For example, someone told me about The Flavor of Love yesterday, and it sounds like something I'd want to deconstruct (though apparently it almost deconstructs itself). There are also documentaries I know I would want to watch if only I knew about them, on archeology and romance fiction (like "Who's Afraid of Happy Endings"...I had to go over to Jon's parents' house and tape it there, an option that will not be open to me in a few months). I also miss cartoons. However, the deciding factor for me won't be entertainment, but whether I'm actually suffering in my field (cultural studies) because I'm not keeping up with television programming. We'll see.