Is meaningless entertainment meaningless and oxymoronic?
Is entertainment meaningless? Not if it is entertaining - otherwise it would evoke no feeling or emotion, and would therefore go unnoticed. Is all entertainment the same? No. Entertainment that increases one's ability to be entertained rather than dulling the senses like a drug that requires higher and higher doses seems, in my way of thinking, to be a superior form of entertainment. A fine wine, for instance, is crap - you are thereafter unable to enjoy "lesser" wines. Fine literature, on the other hand, is more complicated: it can make you more appreciative of everyday life, and it can make you reject more poorly written works.
I believe Steven Pinker said something along the lines that music is cheesecake for the ears - extremely satisfying to certain senses that did not evolve for enjoying cheesecake. From an ignorant perspective, I am inclined to disagree with Pinker, thinking that heartbeats, walking
footfalls, and the universality of music in other cultures is a little too convincing to disregard so easily. I also believe music is sexy - a dynamic of sexual selection, like birds singing; it is an indication of reproductive fitness.
Is entertainment meaningless? Not if it is entertaining - otherwise it would evoke no feeling or emotion, and would therefore go unnoticed. Is all entertainment the same? No. Entertainment that increases one's ability to be entertained rather than dulling the senses like a drug that requires higher and higher doses seems, in my way of thinking, to be a superior form of entertainment. A fine wine, for instance, is crap - you are thereafter unable to enjoy "lesser" wines. Fine literature, on the other hand, is more complicated: it can make you more appreciative of everyday life, and it can make you reject more poorly written works.
I believe Steven Pinker said something along the lines that music is cheesecake for the ears - extremely satisfying to certain senses that did not evolve for enjoying cheesecake. From an ignorant perspective, I am inclined to disagree with Pinker, thinking that heartbeats, walking
footfalls, and the universality of music in other cultures is a little too convincing to disregard so easily. I also believe music is sexy - a dynamic of sexual selection, like birds singing; it is an indication of reproductive fitness.
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