There is a great Jerry Seinfeld wisecrack that gets at the root of why we are so glued to the remote control – men don’t care about what’s on TV; they only care about what else is on TV. In the days of the single channel, we saw what we were given, but now that the shoe is on the other foot, now that we control what we want to see, we channel-surf in desperation, worrying that somewhere else lies a programme we’d rather watch, we should not miss. Something similar is happening with reading. In the days before the Internet, we pored over every single word in the few available magazines, like nomads in the desert descending upon a fattened cactus. But today, most of my reading occurs in front of the computer screen and I find – to ever-deepening dismay – that my attention isn’t fixed to what’s there but drifting to what else is out there.
Read this essay, someone says with a link. Read that book, someone else says. And Google Reader – my Argus-eyed agglomerator – keeps refreshing and renewing itself with updates from around the world. And in order to keep up, I keep racing through my reading. I cannot recall the last time I paused on a sentence and dwelt on it and did things in my mind to it that if filmed would never pass the censors. Instead, I’m at a constant rush to reach the end of the column, the end of the paragraph, the end of the article, so that I can begin racing through the next article in queue. Does anyone have a solution? Should I discipline myself, like a man on the mend swearing he’ll have only one drink in the evening, to something like ten Internet pieces a day, plus 25-50 pages of a book?
PS: If this post sounds like a half-hearted CPR to keep Bitty Ruminations from fading into the mists of memory – like that other sorely missed column named Arre O Sambar, for the return of which, I hear, distraught fans are holding up placards and signing petitions in blood – it kinda-sorta is.
PPS: And sometimes, I do savour the odd piece, like this spectacular ode to food and to moms and to mom’s food. Towards the end, I misted over, dammit — and what I loved about the piece was that it was sentimental yet tough, a male weepie, the culinary equivalent of Field of Dreams. I wrote a very inferior variant on this subject many eons ago, when I was apparently a very different kind of writer, someone I don’t like all that much today.
Shazia
May 11, 2011
hey
I cant help but compare to what women have been doing for ages.. Ever seen a woman in a shop? The shopkeeper shows her the most fanciest pieces but she gazes at the folded clothes on the racks and wont choose till the whole shelf is in front of her and the whole shop a mess.. Malls and pick what you like has solved this now.. Although I dont really know how your problem could be rectified!!
Nice post though..
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bran1gan
May 11, 2011
Shazia: Not quite sure we’re talking about the same kind of problem, unless you’re saying you want to buy up the whole shop just like I want to read everything 🙂
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Shazia
May 11, 2011
The idea is to buy up the whole shop, although there is never enough money!
The point which made me compare is the fact that what else is there? And that we shouldn’t miss anything!
Of course, reading and watching is almost same but buying is a different ball game altogether. Its the psyche of us which I talked about, of not wanting to miss out on the best!
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rabrav
May 11, 2011
whenever I have the uncontrollable urge to read everything, my brain recalls subconsciously, the final scene of “Indiana Jones – Kingdom of Crystal Skull”, where Kate Blanchett tells the alien “I want to know …. everything” and then her brain asplodes 😀
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Madhurima
May 11, 2011
You are right about the article in Esquire. It made me blink the tears away. As for your own article way back in 2005, I agree that it is not on par with the current stupendous standards, but it still is unmistakably you. Another confession, I strongly dislike your bullet point reviews. For someone who is passionate about politics and not in the least bit about films, I enjoy reading your blog. Most times, it isn’t just about the movie, it is about a particular context, or a particular quote or a particular book that so called movie had evoked, which makes the review engaging and brilliant. Somehow, the bullet point thingee does disservice to the Baradwaj Rangan brand.
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Aurora Vampiris
May 12, 2011
Hahaha! BR, I think Shazia just accused you of possessing a woman’s psyche. 😛
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bran1gan
May 12, 2011
Madhurima: Thank you. Like I’ve mentioned earlier, the Bullet-point Reviews are something i do so that I don’t miss out on writing about new films in the little available time I have. Drafting proper reviews (for Hindi/Tamil films) takes too long and when I’m not getting paid for them, the incentive is not there. Hopefully there’s some bite in the bullet points — at least that’s the aim, the idea…
Ironically, it’s what you call “the Baradwaj Rangan brand” that made me start writing these Bullet-point Reviews, because even though I’ve started writing about other things, I’m still known primarily as a film writer 🙂
Aurora Vampiris: With Jerry Seinfeld, I think I’m in good company – what? 🙂
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Gradwolf
May 12, 2011
Totally with you on that chase to not only read everything dropped on our lap but actually going out of the way for more good stuff to read. My Google Reader is so overflowing now, and if I get a Kindle, even more so. Like I see two pieces on my favorite topics, one excellently well written piece on football and this on Raavan/Khalnayak one fine morning, and my workday gets pushed further down. And even if I see one good piece of writing, I end up adding the site to my feed. I might be too young for this, but have you wondered about the end of geek/nerd culture, how everything is so accessible now and how it’s extremely difficult to find ignorant people?(!) Like this guy here.
See this is so meta. I just gave you three links to read.
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Gradwolf
May 12, 2011
Here is the last link, I think I messed up the tags: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/ff_angrynerd_geekculture/all/1
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bran1gan
May 12, 2011
Gradwolf: Thank you for confessing this: “And even if I see one good piece of writing, I end up adding the site to my feed.” I’m like that. I keep meaning to sit down one day and pare my feed down only to those I consistently read, but of course I never find the time to do that, and therefore I spend more time clicking “Mark all as read.” 🙂
About “how everything is so accessible now and how it’s extremely difficult to find ignorant people,” I agree in a sense.
My “expertise,” so to speak, is in movies and music — and that comes from seeing/listening from a very young age. But frankly, today, anyone with access to the Internet can write about — for instance — Carnatic music or Hindustani music or Shantaram’s films or Sivaji’s acting without ever having experienced any of this in a meaningful way. If they’re clever writers (as in, with good editing, sentence-forming and logic-linking capabilities), they can just follow a few discussions here and there and write a fairly informed piece with this “borrowed knowledge.” So there are so many “experts” who sound like experts on paper (or on your laptop screen), but if you talked to them you’d know they’re not all that informed.
Of course, by the same token, I could write about politics or business, which I don’t follow — it’s a different matter that I won’t because it’s too much effort and I’m always scared writing about things I don’t instinctively have a feel for. This may also be a personality thing.
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Jj
May 12, 2011
Areyou saying that there will be no more movie reviews on your blof?
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rameshram
May 12, 2011
Branigan,
one day if you have the good fortune of talking to me , youll realize that Im an expert on everything I write about. 😉
http://rameshram.wordpress.com/375/
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bran1gan
May 16, 2011
rameshram: Of course you are, man of course you are 🙂
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rameshram
May 18, 2011
kindal vera!
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tandapani
May 18, 2011
http://www.caravanmagazine.in/Story/872/Death-by-Dialogue.html
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Radhika
May 21, 2011
Totally agree with you about the problems of plenty. When I was a kid I was such a bookaholic that when my mother confiscated my reading at the dinner table I’d read the print on the newspaper packets that the local grocer used for wrapping thingies and rush through the meal so that I could get back to my book. Today there are no more newspaper packets (at least not with the supermarket I use) and the options for sidedishes of reading are infinite. I keep bookmarking links and sites and find them impossible to keep up with. I have tons of unread books that are piled up and stare at me accusingly if I open that cupboard (which I now cleverly avoid). What’s worse is that if it isn’t bad enough that there are so many movies that I’ve missed out, broadband downloading has now enabled a huge list of TV serials that I “simply must watch” – when did entertainment end up creating so much stress? 🙂
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Rohit Sathish Nair
May 4, 2016
Is Seinfeld the only sitcom you liked? The others (BBT, FRIENDS, HIMYM) never caught your eye?
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sanjana
May 4, 2016
The confusion is only in the beginning. Once we settle, we know what we want to read, to watch and what to discard. I came rather late to your blog and felt its a must for me. I prefer to read one page format, in bold print, with paras and with interesting input than read a book of thousand pages in small print. Those days are gone forever for me. And sometimes I like to read Shobhaa de whose writings are crisp and to the point though many intellectuals dont agree. I avoid watching films even if they are good. I prefer sitcoms.
It is like boys chasing many girls when they are young and then settle with wife. Girls chasing dreams and then settle with reality. China embracing capitalism after revolutions of all hues.
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blurb
May 21, 2016
Read this lovely piece on Scroll about why we don’t read as much as we used to. And I was reminded of this “Bitty Ruminations” post from you. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did:
http://scroll.in/article/808501/why-you-dont-read-as-much-as-you-used-to
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