PARTISAN REVIEW
363
goes on between us and the TV screen, we don't have any dialect with
which to describe that.
PHILLIPS: I'm not sure that's true. Do we have any?
I
don't do much
talking about it. Do you discuss it?
WOOD: No, no, that's my point.
I
mean we don't, do we? We have all
kinds of languages
to
talk about books when we've read a book, you
see. You read a book and you can talk about all kinds of things.
PHILLIPS: What's the meaning of your distinction between art and
entertainment?
WOOD: Exactly the same as Bob's, but
I
think it can be found in more
places than, than perhaps we think.
PHILLIPS: What can be found?
WOOD: Well, if we simply assume that there is no art in television
because of the way we watch it ...
PHILLIPS: Do you have examples of art in television?
I
mean, so we
could be concrete.
WOOD: Well, for example, any decent movie seen on television,
I
would say.
PHILLIPS: Well, that's not what we're talking about. That's reproduc–
tion.
WOOD: No,
I
mean, let's be clear.
If
we're talking about the structure of
the American television industry, then we're talking about one
thing, and if we're talking about television as a medium, potentially
in other hands or used in other ways, it, it doesn't seem to me a final,
vital question.
BRUSTEIN: Don't you think there's something inherent and limited
about the medium, though?
WOOD: No,
I
don 't, no.
BRUSTEI: Just let me elaborate for a moment on that. That point is
important. The fact is that the film is a romantic medium in the
sense that you get absorbed ii-lto it, you get pulled into it; whereas in
television, you sit in front of it and you don't register. You can see a
film on television, but it's a different experience from seeing a film in
the theater. First of all, you're alone, usually, secondly you'd feel silly
if you laughed or silly if you cried or silly if you had an emotional
expression in response
to
it. So what you're doing is sitting there as
flat as the screen you're watching.
LWNARD KRIEGEL: All during the discussion
I
was fascinated by what
seemed to me
to
be essentially two diametrically opposed views from
Professor Brustein and Professor Wood and
I
want to make a few
comments about that because my own sympathies are so much with
Professor Brustein . You kept on referring to the judgmental qualities
