Entertainment's Role in our Lives

Paper Summary:

This paper takes a look at "Entertainment" and how it allows society to have a very distinct high and low culture mentality present without really questioning it which can lead to our civilization turning to machines for the answers to everything.

From the Paper:

"Entertainment is liable to sweep what is left of reality by the wayside and usher in a new world that could be similar to Ray Bradbury's or George Orwell's fantasy futuristic times. As Richard Dyer points out about entertainment's meaning in the first chapter of his book Only Entertainment, "Part of its meaning is anti-seriousness... It rejects the claims of morality, politics, and aesthetics in a culture which still accords these a high status" (2). Strangely enough people who seem to be getting diverted from reality do not realize the entertainment they enjoy is only historically and culturally constructed as common sense. For example, what would a mother think is she came to a McDonald's today and there was no equipment for the soccer team she brought with her to play on. It is common sense the play place will be there. However, would anyone consider McDonalds to be a highbrow place? No, not even if rich people do happen to bring their kids there to eat and play after school twice a week, because McDonalds is a fast food eatery and fast food is common sensibly known to be part of low or mass culture. Michael Wolf comments on, ?The "E" factor having to be present in everything,? (LECT, 1/17) as pointed out by Professor Banet-Weiser in class, and that there will always be a differing of opinion between what appeals to the elite and the masses. "

More papers on Entertainment's Role in our Lives:

• Analytical Essay # 142625 : "In Our Time" by Ernest Hemingway"
• Analytical Essay # 141678 : "Effect of Music on Our Lives"
• Book Review # 115994 : "Amusing Ourselves to Death"

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