I Want My Book TV
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 11.04.05 | 1:31 PM ET
In my admittedly nerdy fantasy world, where books are cool, MTV isn’t the cable channel featured in the anthemic Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing.” It’s Book TV. 
As in (cue the Mark Knopfler riff and Sting vocals): “I want my Book TV.” A guy can dream. Anyway, I check out the weekend schedule often, and this weekend, the channel has a few shows that might interest World Hum readers.
One features a discussion of Mark Twain. Another has author Anthony Swofford discussing his Gulf War memoir (and inspiration for the new movie) “Jarhead.” (Side note: It’s not online, but Lawrence Weschler’s “Valkyries Over Iraq” piece about war movies in the November Harper’s is fascinating; he explores whether it’s even possible, given the power of combat images, to make an anti-war movie.) Finally, there’s a discussion of Ross King’s “Brunelleschi’s Dome” for fans of Italy and, in particular, Florence.
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
Internet TV 02.16.08 | 5:03 PM ET
I wholeheartedly agree, there is an apparent dumbing down of culture that is gearing up towards a more visual stimulant culture, and that is actively working or at least attempting to make literature antiquated or outdated. For example the push to digitize books or to make them into movies, as is the Hollywood trend.
Contemporary culture at times seems to portray reading as boring, valuing a visual culture of television as superior in terms of entertainment of course. Literature still remains the most scholarly of multimedia.