I missed Jersey Shore but last night I caught the premiere episode of "Geordie Shore" set in Newcastle in the North East of England. I've been to Newcastle and was frankly terrified by the place. By the skin of my teeth I avoided getting seven bells knocked out of me by muscly, tanned, drunken rampaging gangs and of course the men are worse...badum boom. Geordie Shore celebrates chav life: drinking, fighting, having casual sex, watching TV, drug taking, more drinking. There is no reading, no reflection, no attempt at understanding one's place in the universe. At first I thought Geordie Shore was going to be like Viz comic, but the kids on Geordie Shore wouldn't get Viz because they have no sense of irony. They have been utterly failed by the culture. The British educational system encourages teachers to impart information - the idea being that this may be the last chance these children will ever have to read Shakespeare or hear about Admiral Nelson, so, by God they are going to get Shakespeare and Nelson shoved down their throats whether they like it or not. I understand that motivation but what I would like to see is an educational system that teaches children to think for themselves, to be skeptical of their peer group, to love learning, to be confident enough to rebel against knee jerk anti-intellectualism, to have the ability to argue their case......
For several years I taught in a Waldorf School that follows a different pedagogical approach, where critical thinking is taught and children are encouraged to revere learning for its own sake (although it must be said that some of the kids at Waldorf do NOT thrive on the lack of structure). I've also always admired the Baccalaureat which teaches French high school students rhetoric and philosophy. In France children are given an intellectual tool kit at the age of 16 and although most of them probably never consider philosophy again in their lives, at least its there in the background, a resource to be tapped if they want it.
...
I think I've mentioned Neil Postman on this blog before. In the 70s and 80s he was considered to be an alarmist, but I think his classic work Amusing Ourselves To Death is more relevant today than it was when it was written. Yes I know the counter argument: everyone said writing would be the death of oral stortelling, plays would be the death of books, radio would be the death of literature, cinema...TV...the internet etc. and all those media are still alive today; but something has changed in recent decades, the djinn is out of the bottle and if Geordie Shore represents the future then we are probably doomed.
33 comments:
"... we are probably doomed." Depends what you mean by "we". The more you restrict its scope, the more optimistic you can be.
I think Mark is right. The concept that we are all part of yhe same "we" is fairly recent, isn"t it? Seems to be an idea that never really took hold.
Now, if we feally are only as strong as our weakest link...
The thing that's always bugged me about people like Postman and Allan Bloom and their comments about the coarsening of public taste, lack of interest in the classics, the dumbing down of culture, not enough flossing after meals, etc., is that they presuppose there was some Golden Age when people were not Philistines. If only. In, say, 1900, most people in the Western world were either completely or functionally illiterate. And the literate were mostly reading penny dreadfuls, pulp novels, or syrupy tosh written by authors like Marie Corelli (the Danielle Steel of her time). If anything, public taste is probably more sophisticated than ever. A perfect example is crime fiction; in the so-called Golden Age of crime fiction, 1920-40, the vast majority of writers were producing the literary equivalent of crossword puzzles. Today, there are literally dozens of writers in the field (take a bow, Adrian) writing at a very sophisticated level. This can only happen if there's an audience of equal sophistication. Sorry about the length, but people like Postman and Bloom give off a whiff of elitism and snobbery that always gets my back up. As for Geordie/Jersey shore, yobbos have always been with us, and I imagine an equally tacky show could have been in the 1950s featuring Teddy boys and girls.
Mark
I suppose so.
John
I guess I'm an old romantic at heart.
Cary
Its a fair point and you may be right.
However I think the crucial difference between now and say 1960 is that there's no way out for the bright kids. The destruction of the Grammar Schools and the consensus between the parties that they are never coming back effectively means that if you're trapped in that culture there's no escape route.
England will continue to be dominated and ruled by the 5% who went to private school and the rest will just get by.
Postman is an elitist but so is everyone who has a sincere opinion. There are people who like to argue for the sake of arguing but there are also people who really believe that their values and the things they cherish are superior to the alternatives...
you count me in the latter camp.
Yer big jessy!
The fact that you were watching Geordie Shore kind of puts you on the wrong side of Postman, doesn't it?
Paul
Wye aye.
Seana
Yeah I dont really know what I was expecting. I suppose a cross between my own experience there, Viz comic and Get Carter...
but it was worse, much much worse.
Perversely, I'm feeling like I'd like to see it--where do you watch it?
Seana
It was on MTV. Will it be on MTV USA? I dont know.
IF you cant find it just watch Jersey Shore - I imagine the tropes are identical.
For some reason I feel like I probably know the Jersey Shore culture, but it's probably not true. Probably just stereotypes from movies.
I lived in Newcastle for five years and this abomination is far from representative of the city.
True, there are many people like the numpties in the show but they are in a very small minority.
What they seem to have done is find a city where young people like to dress up and have a good time and picked the very few hateful people who will help create the Modern Bedlam the producers are looking for.
Newcastle has a reputation as a hard partying city and it is a reputation well earned but The myth about the threat of violence is too widely propagated. I used to go out to the Bigg Market (the main city centre pub area) almost every Friday, Saturday and Sunday and only got into one fight in five years and that was with some students, not locals. I see more drunken fights here in a small Queensland town than I ever did in Newcastle.
Hey man,
I'm missing out on this reality TV crap, by choice, but the resultant world you describe as a consequence of its oblivious culture is a scary one indeed.
Just dropping by initially to make sure you didn't miss this recent Herzog interview I discovered yesterday.
Also, great Gilliam bit. He really wraps it up succinctly.
I once wrote a paper about how different A.I. would have been had Kubrick finished it, as it was his baby first. The two had a dedicated fax line for a while, sharing ideas about what the film could be. Kubrick eventually handed it over to Spielberg after deciding that the story fit his sensibilities a bit better. Spielberg gradually but reluctantly agreed, if you can believe Kubrick's assistant Jan Harlan. Anyway, I wish he would have held onto it.
PS. Really loved Falling Glass. Posted my review.
And, oh yeah, Michael Caine is pretty awesome in HARRY BROWN, which we just got on netflix. He's still kicking ass once in a while.
Apropos of this post and Seana's comment, my two fellow tipplers and the bar owner last night talked in loud and disdainful tones about the Casey Anthony murder case and about the disgraceful media coverage and how could that awful, awful Nancy Grace say all those terrible things? But they fell silent when Nancy Grace appeared on the screen.
I pointed this out to them. I don't think I got a satisfactory answer.
My question about a show called The Geordie Shore is how the hell anyone will understand what the characters are saying.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com
Rob
You're right. I am in no position to generalise about Newcastle. I've been twice and actually had a good time both times (although I did get shoved down a flight of stairs the first time...)
It also should be said that I hitchhiked to Geordie land from Coventry both times and both times on the way back the Geordie driver took me all the way back to my door! which I've never experienced anywhere else.
Peter
I dont know how much you've been following the Cheryl Cole story...but apparently they wouldnt let her appear on the US X Factor because no one could understand her accent.
HB
Fantastic! A Herzog interview is always a rare treat for me.
And thanks for the review man, I really do appreciate it. More importantly I'm glad you liked Falling Glass...
Seana
I've only been to actual Jersey Shore once and had a nice time surfing.
If anyone makes a Glasgow version of Jersey/Geordie Shore, they could call it Bonnie and Clyde (get it?). Now, there's an accent that will not admit of easy comprehension for some viewers.
This is the second time the Casey Anthony case has come up today, and though I have seen the name often in the last few days, I really have no idea what the case is.
Also, I saw my sisters over the past few days and I asked the one who lived near Santa Monica whether there had been a big reaction to the Whitey Bulger discovery.
She said no.
She seems to be distracted by Japanese game shows and I'm distracted by, well, I don't know what, from keeping up with breaking news stories.
It's funny about 'higher education'. Although I think it's really important that there be a way to get it for those who want it, I'm not entirely sure that everyone does want it. And I'm not entirely sure that they are wrong.
I've refined the title. It's now Bonnie on the Clyde.
What's the Casey Anthony case? A mother either killed her child, or didn't.
Seana
A mother in Florida killed her child but the jury wasn't instructed properly so they couldn't tell the difference between "reasonable doubt" and "doubt" and they therefore acquitted her. In Scotland they almost certainly would have returned a verdict of "not proven".
I saw a picture on the front page, so I figured some of it out. Legally, it is probably interesting. On other levels though, it simply seems sad.
Seana
If she'd been a minority she would have been found guilty pretty quickly...actually if she'd been a minority the DA would have had her cop a plea of manslaughter and it would never have gone to trial.
She certainly killed her daughter just as OJ certainly killed Nicole Brown Simpson, but juries are wary of circumstantial evidence and like I say the concept of "reasonable doubt" should have been explained to them by the judge.
They're going to a Mersey Shore, which scans better.
They should have done it in Hartlepool. Really, but that probably would have been far too much for delicate middle class sensibilities.
Last time I was back in Hpool, I did most of my drinking in the Working Man's Clubs. Mainly because they're cheaper and also because they're not as scary as the 'wine bars' of the town centre. And they don'y serve women in the bar, either.
I've had some rough times in Hartlepool, but then they did elect a monkey called Hangus as their mayor.
The monkey story is one of my favourite 'Great Idiots in History' stories.
Paul
I heard that when the camera crew turned up for the first day of shooting on Mersey Shore the housemates had nicked everything in the house and scarpered.
...ok low blow and obvious but I'm a Liverpool FC supporter so its kind of an interior critique.
Rob
I hope no one tells Karl Pilkington.
Britain is doomed full stop. The morons who make no attempt at understanding one's place in the universe, have taken over. I dont have an idealised image of the past either. The school curriculum of Nelson and Shakespear isnt the problem though. The issue is that children are taught just enough to pass exams, which doesnt give them any idea of how to be decent human being in the world. The 5percent public educated lot, may, if they can spare a day away from their yacts, pollo games or just posh nobbering around, be our only chance.
It's such a shame that it's come to this. I live in Newcastle and, although some claim that it's a minority who are like this, lots of the urban youth of Newcastle are like this. Some of the schools have highly adequate teaching, but it's the attitudes of the chavs that are the problem. They think that drinking and smoking are cool.
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