(TV) Re: TV Digest V1 #475

[DAYKARAK@aol.com]

Leo wrote:
> One (plausible?) interpretation of Hornby's t-shirt remark
> could be that Hornby regarded Television as one of those
> terribly over-rated, 'arty' rock bands.  Hornby then shows 
> his own (and his main character, Rob's) contempt for this 
> type of music by having a character in the book------an 
> EX-FLAME [emphasis added] of Rob's named Charlie-----
> described as "..put[ting] on a Television t-shirt", thereby 
> making Rob feel vindicated and smug about the fact that
> this particular relationship didn't last.  After all she (Charlie)
> could never make-it in Rob's pantheon (or top 5 list) of 
> former  lovers in his life, certainly not with her pretentious
> taste in music like Television.


I do have a comment about your thought on Hornby including the Television 
shirt in the novel, though (which may/may not get posted to the list; if it 
does, expect a mainly cut-and-paste affair). In the book, I saw Charlie 
portrayed more as a seemingly-authentic pseudo-intellectual poseur type; in 
the film, it's way obvious what sort of person she is as she's actually shown 
in flashback and seeing her general mannerisms are a tip-off that she's an 
out-and-out fake. In the novel, she strikes me more as a "band-wagon" person. 
No doubt that, even to this day, there are in fact people who claim to like 
Television because of their cult status and the fact that they're generally 
thought of as "intelligent music". This is even *more* true in the case of, 
say, The Velvet Underground just because of the now classic line about how 
"few people bought it, but everyone who bought the first VU record started a 
band". No doubt you've heard PLENTY of morons trying to talk about music and 
landing on something like that; I've also found that another favorite phrase 
among these people happens to be "corporate America". ;) Anyway, despite all 
this, that doesn't make the VU suddenly "bad" just because some shallow 
idiots who want to appear to be smart pretend to dig them, does it?

Two other things on the t-shirt thing...the character Rob would most likely, 
in hindsight, disapprove of something like a band t-shirt. I see the fact 
that it's a Television t-shirt as something he would've viewed at the time as 
a positive thing, i.e. "wow! this girl's really intelligent AND beautiful AND 
likes great music!", but in hindsight, would've viewed it as "wow! she was 
beautiful, but she's such a fake 'cause she has to be obnoxiously out-spoken 
and wear a band name on her chest just to show how smart she is!". A joke 
like this would've been too involved for the film, and I'm guessing that's 
why it was all simplified to a Pretenders t-shirt -quick, efficient, and 
to-the-point.


Just my thoughts, at least.


-nick
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