I apologise in advance for the foul language used in this post but this annoys me. This really fucking annoys me.
Take a look at this link…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4790978.stm
Some of you may not know who this person is. He plays football for a team in the UK Premier League. That’s right, he gets paid a ridiculous (and I mean ridiculous – we’re talking tens of thousands of pounds a week here) amount of money to kick a ball around a football pitch. That’s not my gripe, although the fact that football players here are paid so much is, in my humble opinion, completely perverse and wrong.
What annoys me most about this story is what this kid ball-kicker gentleman has signed. A book deal for five million pounds! For an autobiography and four further books over twelve years. An autobiography? At 20 years old? And it’s going to be ready for publication in July?! Fuck me, the kid’s a quick writer. Unless he’s not writing it…?
This is depressing. It seems that every aspect of the media is in terminal decline. But why? Have people stopped having good ideas? Are we no longer able to come up with new and exciting entertainment concepts? Has every spark of inspiration and originality in the world suddenly been snuffed out? Of course not. It’s just that now, more than ever, profit comes before any artistic worth or entertainment. It’s all about product.
Switch on the radio. You won’t have to wait long before you hear some manufactured boy or girl band crooning in studio-adjusted harmony. Or, as seems to be the fad at the moment, the chorus of some much-derided 80’s track or other played on a loop over a new beat. Or manufactured punk – shouting, sneering idiots missing the whole point of what the Pistols and the Clash etc. were all about. It’s all fucking product.
Go to the cinema. Remember that great 80’s horror film you loved? Stick around and you’ll be able to watch a pointless remake of it before long. And then how about a sequel to the remake? Or a remake of the remake? Have writers stopped sending screenplays into studios? I don’t think so. It’s all fucking product.
Watch the TV. Watch reality TV. Alternatively put a mirror in front of the TV and watch that. Watch yourself. I’m sure you’re a hell of a lot more interesting than the freaks, geeks and idiots fighting to prostitute themselves, their morals and their self-respect on national TV. Or why not watch a talentless talent show? Or a celebrity talent show? Then go and buy the inevitable follow-up CD or get a ticket for the equally inevitable tour and watch the karaoke bullshit ‘live’. It's product. Product and follow-up product.
Go get yourself a book. Walk into a bookstore and head over to the best-sellers chart. Don’t try and look for anything too extreme or original or thought-provoking. Instead why not help yourself to a celebrity cookbook, or the autobiography of a sports person, a reality TV star or a manufactured pop idol or some other prick, or why not pick up a children’s book written by a singer?
I’m angry. Maybe I shouldn’t let it get to me but I can’t help the way I feel. If I’m honest, I’m not deriding the quality of any of the stuff I’ve mentioned, just the fact that it’s so available, and that it’s clearly available at the expense of the countless bloody good books, films and musicians which go undiscovered and forgotten. How many masterpieces are overlooked? For every truly great film produced, how many equally great features disappear into development hell or never even make it that far? And for every 'Harry Potter' or 'Da Vinci Code' sold, how many other books are rejected?
It’s a damn shame, and it makes me more determined than ever to take my completely independent books and shove them right in the middle of the mainstream as a two-fingered salute to the money-grabbing whores who control the media around the world.
Give me a hand please…
2 comments:
I whole heartedly agree. I often voice my opinions to anyone who will listed, (Normally being accused of "Ranting", or being told to get off my soapbox!!)
I honestly think there is real talent still working away (The autumn books are testament to that) but it's the corporate, quick turnover, money grabbing bastards at the top of every industry that stop it being a success on the same level as the manufactured, recycled crap that is filling every aspect of the entertainment industry and the arts.
Why would a TV exec even bother to read a script, when it would involve paying script writers, actors, directors and the multitude of other people involved in actually "Creating" anything.
It's far easier to stick a bunch of social rejects into a big house with hidden cameras, ensure the only bathroom has glass walls and force feed them cheap wine.
Time for me to put my soap box away again. No doubt it will be making another appearance soon enough.
I agree, too. I am a writer also, and it's very discouraging knowing that no matter how hard I work I may not ever get puslished. I actually wanted to express interest in your self-publishing techniques and wondered if you cold give me any tips. I'm a fan of your Autumn novels and have some writing in a similar vein. Visit my blog, if you'd like, and if you cold get back to me I would greatly appreciate it. Keep stickin' it to the man!
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