Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Episode 157: MFA Without the Slightest Belch

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In Jerry Mander's first of his Four Arguments, I look at what he feels happens to us when the doors of perception are all but closed to nature; through our unnatural media, autocracy rushes in to fill us. Hence, Episode 157: MFA Without the Slightest Belch.

(A Jim NB: I've decided to label the series episodes when I can with a TLA that indicates which of my current ongoing series I'm attacking. For example, this MFA is on Mander's Four Arguments. Got it? I'm not going back and re-doing names or anything like that; just from now on and such.)

In this episode, I read from: Jerry Mander's Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television; Upton Sinclair's Between Two Worlds (1941 [reprint Simon Publications, 2001], pp. 453-454.); and from Aldous Huxley: A Biography, by Sybille Bedford (Carroll & Graf, 1985, p. 92.). I played a bit of an interview with Aldous Huxley, shared on the Psychedelic Salon. Thanks very much to listener David M for recommending that interview to me. Thanks David! It's a couple of interviews with Huxley for which I would also highly encourage a listen.

Musically, I got lazy again and played only Podington Bear: first you heard "Lone Road"; then "Happy Transit"; then "Smolder". I opened the show with Bernie Sanders sharing Jerry Mander's concern about the future of concentrated media ownership, Bernie backed by KMFDM; and I'm closing today with Mistle Thrush.

I'm releasing this and all my episodes under a Creative Commons 4.0 attribution, share-alike, and non-commercial license.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the shout out and using that amazing Huxley interview. I didn’t know about his influence on other dystopian authors, but I can see the impact after you highlighted it.

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    1. Thank you, David, for forwarding the interview! I still get the best material from listeners.

      —Jim

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