The are of my journey with TV starts with a heavy, wood-veneer, cathode-ray Sylvania television set, manufactured in the early 1960s, atop of which sat a set of rabbit-ear antennae and the side of which withstood untold accounts of corporal abuse for vexatious horizontal picture lines. That beast offered four watchable channels. One version of the narrative could have the are ending when I donated my late twentieth-century, nineteen-inch Panasonic to the Salvation Army in 2008-the last television set I would ever own. Another version, and the one that is more accurate, puts that TV-set-liberating moment at the apex of the arc. I am now somewhere on the descending segment, in some golden age or another, frequently binge-watching "content" on numerous devices, the largest of those smaller than a breadbox. A parallel arc, or perhaps more appropriately, a proverbial full circle, illustrates the evolving role of TV in my life, transformed from something seemingly purposeless and nundane into something meaningful and a source of pride and unabashed pleasure. My story, resting largely on memory as the primary source data, is evidence that TV matters. After having pressed my TV love into academic service, helping me get up those six flights of stairs, I'm grateful to return to it with feeling as well as the wider lens it deserves.
The are of my journey with TV starts with a heavy, wood-veneer, cathode-ray Sylvania television set, manufactured in the early 1960s, atop of which sat a set of rabbit-ear antennae and the side of which withstood untold accounts of corporal abuse for vexatious horizontal picture lines. That beast offered four watchable channels. One version of the narrative could have the are ending when I donated my late twentieth-century, nineteen-inch Panasonic to the Salvation Army in 2008-the last television set I would ever own. Another version, and the one that is more accurate, puts that TV-set-liberating moment at the apex of the arc. I am now somewhere on the descending segment, in some golden age or another, frequently binge-watching "content" on numerous devices, the largest of those smaller than a breadbox. A parallel arc, or perhaps more appropriately, a proverbial full circle, illustrates the evolving role of TV in my life, transformed from something seemingly purposeless and nundane into something meaningful and a source of pride and unabashed pleasure. My story, resting largely on memory as the primary source data, is evidence that TV matters. After having pressed my TV love into academic service, helping me get up those six flights of stairs, I'm grateful to return to it with feeling as well as the wider lens it deserves.
From Rabbit Ears to the Rabbit Hole: A Life with Television
208
From Rabbit Ears to the Rabbit Hole: A Life with Television
208Hardcover(Hardback)
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781496832290 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University Press of Mississippi |
| Publication date: | 03/02/2021 |
| Edition description: | Hardback |
| Pages: | 208 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.00(d) |