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2002-01-03 | 11:19 a.m.

Before I die, I want to make a Yule log.

Okay, Jonathan Franzen, I take your point. Just read Franzen's New Yorker piece, "Meet Me in St. Louis" (via Rita), and it moved me to tears. This is not difficult to do, I admit, but his account contains much to like. Best of all, he nails the insulting silliness and fundamental truthlessness of television non-fiction.

Let's be honest: TV really, really sucks. Oh, I watch it and I enjoy it. But I don't watch it much because it is such a colossal waste of time, and an inefficient way to acquire information. Especially daytime TV. Maybe four or five percent of all TV programming is not complete vomit. Anything that's any good on television is immediately destroyed or threatened with destruction. Pretty much any show that manages to be watchable and survive in the ratings becomes---in an inversion of the standard pattern---less likable and less liked as time wears on. Authenticity and television are repulsive to one another.

But anyway, I guess I will try to pick up a copy of Franzen's book, after all.

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