A Curious Process of Detachment

I made it through Episode 3 of Stranger Things before getting completely bored.

And I thought: What is wrong with you?

Stranger Things hits all the right notes: Plucky kids – check. E.T. homage – check. Stephen King homage – check. Small town America – check.

And on a shot-by-shot basis, it holds together well. Demonstrates an admirable economy in visual storytelling. Tells just enough without telling too much.

Plus it’s the zeitgeist. Every 20-something I know – and many 30-somethings – are utterly obsessed with it. The beautiful Marissa put aside her engineering studies for 48 whole hours not only to watch Stranger Things but also to watch Beyond Stranger Things, the director’s commentary.

Stranger Things is something that’s going to continue to obsess their imaginations – and therefore their actions – their entire lives.

But my own imagination refused to engage.

Five years ago, I would have loved it.

Maybe a year ago, I would have loved it.

###

I was trying to explain it to B. “It’s like I can’t do convoluted backstory anymore. Or something like that. I’m watching less television, fewer and fewer movies. And what I watch is really unsophisticated. Like I can make it through an hour of Bluebloods or Law & Order SUV and be mildly entertained. And, of course, reality television, I can watch endless episodes of The Real Housewives of New York!”

B was aghast. “Does that mean you’re not watching Mr. Robot?”

###

Is this something else that happens to you when you get old?

I feel as though I’m starting to view all the artifacts of our shared culture through the eyes of a particularly intelligent cat or dog. Like they’re moving shapes on a screen but without any particular relevance to my own life or my own thoughts.

Some process of detachment.

###

I’m reading a lot. Mostly history. But also one very interesting book on the science of taste called Flavor. Taste is the least studied of the five acknowledged senses because it exists mostly as a subcategory of smell.

I don’t think reading is an inherently superior means of absorbing information, by the way. It’s just what I do.

###

Anyway, lunch with Amanda and a tromp around the old fishing shacks of Hudson is on for tomorrow.

Today it’s all Scut Factory, all of the time.