The televisions are bent on pure dominance.
Friendly to all that may be dominated. Or
Transmitted within formal patterns. Dished
Out. What's on the television is more real,
Right there, than where it is happening. Ah,
Televisions sprang into being, like a rip
In the fabric of perception. Televisions, in
The plural, must be everywhere. Cannot
Be stopped, but are bleeding from eternity.
The end of prophecy. Children recognize
Them, as children come from afar, like from
The galaxy. Understanding the circuitry.
Try to think of the past on video. Imagine
War correspondents at the battle of the Alamo.
Camera tripods in the Roman Senate.
St. Jerome at the computer! You can't turn it
Back because inventions are precisely that.
The absolute. The present as an anomaly to
Everything that ever happened. Disappeared.
There is chronology. It's boxes inside boxes . . .
This had no warning. Is not an updating of
The dispatch. But a beginning. Not an ending.
But a beginning, from which flows endless
Archives. The whole film archives of reality.
Out of which the whole thought of capturing
Life can flow.The point of view of some new
Absolute beginning. Blurring of history and . . .
News. The aim and achievement of science!
This is nervous excitement. The fever pitch.
The television has no content problem, like
Those ancient modes of . . . communication.
It has no decisions to make. Is ubiquitous,
The very being of all seeing. And hearing.
It's a phenomenon that breaks the brains
Of anyone not fed internally, with its claims.
To whit, 'twas all imagined, the trip here.
We're all in the same place, at the same time.
The television shall never become quaint.
No world looks back on the time of computers.
No remains of microchips in the yellow sands.
But now we face the facts. The frightening
Shafts of truth like otherworldly presence.
You think some tinkerer in his lab makes
Careful experiments? No. The cathode breaks
And technology . . . leaks in. The stain
Spreads out. The monster has a face. Now!
Now one can only listen to the commentators
Of the ending century. Ending millennium.
Top of the mountain reached. Mouth agape,
The rabbit-eared, all digestible medium minus
Touch. And whose idea was it? None of us.
The generation that despised it's first
Promptings and it's actors has--backed down!
Let the sports commentator go senile before
Pulling him from the air and sitting him down
For his farewell dinner. Which is poisoned, as
In a Shakespearean farce. What! They haven't
Pulled him from the air yet? The change is very
Minimal, you just notice he's slightly gone.
Gone from being enthusiastic to merely silly;
Getting all excited about things while other,
More exciting things, are happening. He says,
"I've said this before, but I'll say it again . . . "
The game is gobbled up by the video cameras,
And spewed out in segments for all eternity.
That's the way we get, in our living room,
Everything that is vicarious. Leaving us free.
Where all the chairs are placed askew in
View of this richly colored medium square.
I especially am fascinated by what repeats.
On Election Day we get these same volunteers
Who go around and remind people that . . .
Their vote counts. This is one of those hopeless
Maxims, but you can get somebody to look
Right into the camera and say it bluntly. But
Suddenly the local newscaster turns on the
Gentleman in the red parka and says, "Do you
Realize there is a person just like you doing
And saying exactly what you are doing, saying
In probably fifty cities across the country?" The
Gentleman in the red parka is abashed. "What?"
He says, stammering. The newscaster keeps it up.
"You are a complete duplication of an identical
Person in every mid-sized city in the country."
He sticks the microphone at the guy. To tell
Him:"Now how do you feel about this?"
The gentleman in the red parka defends himself.
He says "No two people are exactly alike."
Which used to be true. Before the televisions.
So the newscaster says, "Well maybe so, maybe
Only the essence of what you are doing and
Saying is exactly repeated, I concede that some
Of the details will be variable." He shoves the
Microphone into his face again and the gentleman
Says, "thank you." Which causes the newscaster to
Say, "But doesn't that make it even worse?" Huh?
In order to test out that theory I call my friend
In Baltimore and ask. Are they showing the clip
Featuring the voter concerned about the apathy?
"Yes," she said, "as a matter of fact they are."
But he's wearing a green parka, in Baltimore.
Where it is raining slightly. When you see the
Wind in the hair of the newscaster you think,
I'm lacking a sense of physical touch. Bring me
A drink. In Rochester, he's wearing a red parka.
Come, contemplate that! Televisions are the end.
And they are everywhere. I'm hooked myself in
Fascination. Books are falling off my shelves,
Like autumn leaves. Bring dinner to my room.
It's possible life did not originate on this planet.
Edward Williams
from "One Soul Diverted"
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