exists. Critics (the Chicago School
and television critics alike) often
forget that Aristotle wrote the
Poetics
after
studying the Greek
tragedies.
Flatly put, television cannot be–
come "a great art" nor is it likely
to produce much great art. But
that is not to write it off. Any–
one who has reached the age of
five in this country knows that,
for better or worse, television is
here to stay. A whole new genera–
tion of more exacting viewers may
yet spring from the present de–
votees of "Lassie" and "Robin
Hood." Where our generation
could see a movie at best once a
week or for special treats, the
present one sees television shows
mornings, afternoons, evenings, at
home and in school. Boredom,
carping, and even the contempt
which familiarity is said to breed
are inevitable. Television may be
a drug, as its opponents maintain,
but it is a mild one to which a
remarkable tolerance can be built
up. Eventually, like the chronic
aspirin-taker, the drugged viewer
becomes inured to the effect of
it all and demands something else,
not necessarily better but differ–
ent. But this will all take time, so
much time that the initiative for
better programs will have to come
from another source than that vast
undifferentiated mass, the "view–
er." Forms (or perhaps one should
say formulae) do not die easily,
as witness the incredible devotion
313
of the viewer to the "acts" on Ed
Sullivan's show-the very trapeze
and hoop-balancing turns that
used so to embarrass me as a
child at Keith's Vaudeville of a
Saturday afternoon.
The harsh reality is that tele–
vision is a limited medium and
that no amount of ingenuity in
the way of technical improvements
over some present features like the
small screen or the poor quality
of reproduction
In
the color–
receiving sets will change the na–
ture of the
given
in the medium
itself. The color possibilities of
television have been much over–
touted both by the industry and
by well-meaning but unthoughtful
laymen. Color, per se, is only an
addition to what is already im–
plicit in the medium; it in no way
changes
what can be done with
the medium just as technicolor or
other color processes did not
change the nature of the motion
pictures. At best, color can en-
Lectures in America
By GERTRUDE STEIN
The things in paint–
ing, literature and
music which seem
to
Stein important for
herself and Ameri('a.
Paperback $1.45
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