About this title: A brilliant powerful and important book....This is a brutal indictment Postman has laid down and, so far as I can see, an irrefutable one. --Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World
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"With the lunacy of American political discourse lately, I asked myself, "How has discourse in this country come to be this irrational?" This book, despite being written over 20 years ago, answers that question succinctly.
Don't confuse Postman for a Luddite. He is not out to assault television as a medium. Television is a great source for casual entertainment. However, Postman argues that this is all TV can be. It is restricted by the confines of the medium. It does not invite rational/logical thinking as print media does. Aesthetics confuse the viewers' concept of truth.
Essentially, Postman makes an argument that news, religion, and education should not be taken seriously on television. Programs masquerading in these arenas should be taken as purely entertainment, as that is exactly what they are. I agree with him 100%."
"It's about how the rise of TV has affected what we see as important in day to day life. For example, President Taft was a big, fat guy. The author, Neil Postman, says Taft wouldn't be able to be president now (or when the book was written, in 1985), because of the idea of "image".
Most of the book's filled with dated references (it's >20 years old), but the message is the same. I wonder what an updated version, talking about the influence of the Internet would say.
The writing isn't very clear; it's too wordy.
One interesting part: Postman talks about how different cities have been the "focal point of a radiating American spirit." He talks about Boston as the center of the Revolution in the 1770s, New York as the center of the idea of a "Melting Pot," and Chicago symbolizing the industrial energy and dynamism of America in the early 20th century. He says that today we must look to the city of Las Vegas as a metaphor of our national character, the spirit of entertainment..."
"How strange that the 'nonsensical answer' Postman provides in the last chapter has come to fruition in the form of The Daily Show w Jon Stewart and Colbert Report.
"The nonsensical answer is to create television programs whose intent would be, not to get people to stop watching television but to demonstrate how television ought to be viewed, to show how television recreates and degrades our conception of news, political debate, religious thought, etc. ... the idea being to induce a nationwide horse laugh over television's control of the public discourse." (161-162)
This book was better than Technopoly. It would also be immensely helpful to have read Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World. Too bad that Postman is no longer around to mull over how Facbook et al is changing the society's definition of friendship and staying in touch."
"This book has changed and is changing the way I think about information, mainly the news -- not just the presentation of the news, with its hot and sexy anchors, but the relevance of the news. Postman has caused me to evaluate the way my mind has been shaped by television's decontextualization of information, and the way I teach in my English classroom to minds also molded by what he calls the "now ... this" nature of television where day-to-day we are barraged by endless streams of disconnected and irrelevant information.
His analysis of the Huxleyan and Orwellian visions of the future are vital for fans of BRAVE NEW WORLD and 1984. I think Postman was one of the first to argue that Huxley was right. I'm curious how this book will continue to shape me, and I hope to read more of Postman's works.
If you have no interest in the study of media ecology, forget about this book. I read Amusing with my English Advanced Placement (Language and Composition) class this year. Most of them hated reading it. Of course, Postman's language is complex at times (especially if words like epistemology are new to you). I rewarded them on the last day of school with a Postman bonfire. All semester we joked about a Postman book-burning, so I created a fake fire in the middle of my classroom. They gladly threw the books into the "fire" and I gladly put them on the bookshelf in my classroom for future torture."
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