Lost.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Never seen a single episode. I once saw Ace of Cakes WITH the cast of Lost making a Lost cake for their 100th episode or some such nonsense. It was actually not one of their most impressive cakes. Except for the water. The way they made melted blue sugar like water on that cake was cool. I’m guessing it wasn’t Duff who did that but one of those kick ass rocker chicks who is both beautiful and looks like she could rip your face off in a fight.
What?
Right. Lost.
In Poetics, Aristotle defined the elements of theater, actually, he defined the elements of tragedy, but most of the original text was lost (hey!) so I’m adapting his elements of tragedy to cover the elements of all theater. Hey, man. Relax. It’s my not-a-blog, I can do whatever I want.
What?
Right. Poetics.
The elements of tragedy/theater, according to Aristotle are plot, character, thought, diction, melody, and spectacle.
Last night at dinner my parents disagreed in their assessments of a play they’d each seen. One liked it, one didn’t. The play, War Horse, is, uh, I don’t know, I think I was in the kitchen doing something but it’s a play in London, big horse puppets, cool, not much plot, something something. My dad said he didn’t like it because it had no plot, but was mostly spectacle – GOOD spectacle, but merely spectacle. My mom was OK with that.
What?
Right. Spectacle.
And then my dad said something that made me go, “Ooh! Ooh! Say that again!” He said something that I’d been trying to articulate for a while but couldn’t, not even in my teensy brain all to myself. He said, “Popular culture’s emphasis on entertainment that consists of merely spectacle with no substance is leaching upward into higher culture.”
Exactly.
Now discuss.
bonus tracks:
People have been asking, so…the journal I’ve been using is Keel’s Simple Diary.
