Classical Dilemma

Steven Spielberg is adapting a movie version of the bestseller sci-fi, Ready Player One.  The adaptation, which had originally tapped Christopher Nolan, is well under production with the main casting having been wrapped up.  The USP of the book:  a treasure hunt featuring clues based on pop culture references based on the 80s.  Comedies like The Big Bang Theory have long decided to forgo good jokes, substituting credible jokes having good payoffs with lazy pop culture references.  They rely on cracks about other TV shows, comics and movies to do their heavy lifting for them. 

At one point, that is the only relevance that classics will eventually have.  So that we can be aware of the pop culture references based on them.  We will binge watch and binge read classics so we can binge watch other pop shows.  Besides, no one is going to ask what u grasp or understand or take away from each.  You only plow through to tick off lists on Goodreads and Facebook.  Going through the motions so that you can get in on the conversation.  Besides, who even needs originals anymore when you have re-imagination, rehashes, reinterpretations.  Which is basically taking one egoistic interpretation and forcing it upon the world.  Again, something we humans have expertise in (See: Religion, Classics, Philosophy, Star Wars)

Which, when you think about it, is a bigger crime.  Reading and watching stuff like cramming for an exam.  Its like visiting the landmarks and not soaking up the culture.  Which, by the way, is another thing that today's tourists are fond of.  Especially, Indian tourists.  It enables us to indulge in slugfests under the guise of commentators and experts.  We are all commentators in today's era.  Reacting to stuff rather than relating to them - a tinder swipe in lieu of a long term commitment that could alter and affect your perspective and life for the better.  Because this way, you can move onto the next TV show/movie that is crowding your DVR or taking up space on your hard drive.

My Friend, My Enemy, My Imagination

We have transferred our emotions and daily trauma to imaginary personalities and larger than life personalities.  We laugh and cry with them, feel anger and pain with them.  While we focus on a constant assault of overwhelming stimuli based on pop culture and work pressure, we have effectively outsourced the human side of things.

And so you have emotions that you experience during your day, that you may try to suppress with an influx of pop culture bombardment.  You let out your anguish and frustrations on imaginary villains and monsters, conjured up by someone's imagination, nurtured by your own.  Think yelling at the screen times thousand.  Lashing out at made up monsters that you can't punch.  Which perpetuates a circle.  Feel good movies, to make you feel better, video games to take pressure off, comedies when you have had a bad day.  All good in moderation, probably.  But we binge.  We binge work, we binge watch, we binge drink, we binge eat.  If someone recommended moderation to us, we would binge on it for a week and then give it up.

We all now move around with imaginary friends and ideal situations and so call ideal scenarios stuck in our head, trying to make up for the dissonance and disarray that abound our personal lives.  Relying on F.R.I.E.N.D.S. more than friends, hanging out in Leonard and Sheldon's apartment, weeping over Hodor's death with equal or possibly more fervor than thousands of others that perish in mindless violence around the globe.

Fantasy and escapism have become the mantra.  Which is ironic because most of these works have the reality and real world occurrence at their core.  Just that core taken and polished with idealism, blended with gratification and topped off with low calorie wit and banter.  Kind of like taking taking healthy stuff like wheat and barley and turning them into beer and scotch.  Or, for a more pop culture relevant analogy, using Superman's DNA to create Doomsday.