Thorne 1 Tyler Thorne VID324 March 4, 2013 Critical review Richard Dyer talks about The Idea of Entertainment

in his book Only Entertainment. Dyer says that entertainment is hard to define because it varies in all the different cultures. If you look at people that are live in America entertainment could be things like watching baseball games, going to see movies in a theater or play video games. But in a different country they might not have all the different options to choose from. He also talks about entertainment varies from person to person because we all have a specific taste in things. Someone can go see a movie and really enjoy it, but a different person can go see the same movie and think it is a terrible film. So when we talk about the film we try to explain why it is a great example of entertainment but the other person would not understand because they define entertainment differently (Dyer 5). Dyer also talks about how the play writer Moliere was the one to define entertainment as something that brings one pleasure (Dyer 6). In an article by Oliver and Rainey they talk about how media is a source of pleasure and as a source of truth seeking (Oliver 984). This means that people are looking to enjoy this thing but they also try to base this piece of entertainment on real life. Some people think that things that happen in our entertainment is actually truth, because they think that if it seems like it is real it must me real. This intrigues some people and they start to enjoy what they are watching.

Thorne 2 One-thing Dyer talks about is how entertainment is a part of leisure (Dyer 7). This means that we dont have to do it out of obligation we enjoy doing it. In our modern world we often try to multitask when it comes to our entertainment. Think about how people go out to eat, not only are they eating there but if there are TVs people will start to focus on the TVs rather than the people they are having a meal with. Or when a student is doing homework, they are often listening to music or watching a movie/TV show rather than focusing one hundred percent on what they are doing. Dyer talks about how the television is used as a way to escape the present rather than as a means of enjoying art (Dyer 7). I think that what he is talking about is correct. There are so many things that can be classified as entertainment for many different people. It is very diverse and it is because of how we are raised and what our interests are. For example My roommate and I a have very different tastes in things. My roommates parents are quite a bit older than mine so his taste in things isnt the same as mine. I really like listening to metal and jazz music, but my roommate would rather listen to more popular music and acoustic stuff. Also our taste in movies is very different too, he really enjoys older movies, musicals and comedies and I really enjoy Sci-Fi, action, and thrillers. Based on what he grew up with most of the things I enjoy would not be considered entertainment to him. Another thing he talks about is how entertainment is something we use to escape from reality. I agree with this completely, it seems that this becomes more and more true as our technology advances. Instead of using it as a way to appreciate the art of it we use it to remove ourselves from our surroundings. Dr. Patton talks about how we should not go to the TV when we are bored, this is because when we go there to waste time we

Thorne 3 arent appreciating what we are watching. What happens is we are letting the television remove us from our surroundings. It has gotten bad enough that when we go out to a restaurant there are televisions everywhere. And when you are there you cannot keep from glancing over to the television to see what is on. The last thing that is talked about is how we use entertainment to define truth. The movie Speed is about a group of people on a bus that has an explosive on it. They cannot let the bus get below 50mph otherwise the explosive will go off. There is one scene where they have to make a sharp turn on the bus without losing speed. So what they do is have everyone move to the same side of the bus to act as a counter weight. Seems pretty fake right? Well some people would actually believe this could actually happen in real life. And then there are other people like Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman that will go out and test these myths. When they do this they are giving the viewer another form of truth, one that is more logical and scientifically proven. I have a friend who is really into How I Met your Mother and he has told me that he uses that show as a way to see real life situations. In other words he uses what the characters do as a way to treat situations that happen to him. It is interesting to look at how people will take something fictional and try to relate it to their life. Even though we choose a certain kind of entertainment, what you choose and how you let if effect you really tells a lot about who you are.

Thorne 4 Bibliography: Dyer, Richard. Only Entertainment. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2002. 50-55. eBook. Oliver, Mary Beth, and Arthur A. Raney. "Entertainment as Pleasurable and Meaningful: Identifying Hedonic and Eudaimonic Motivations for Entertainment Consumption." Journal of Communication 61.5 (2011): 984-1004. Print. Speed. Dir. Jan De Bont. By Graham Yost. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, and Sandra Bullock. Twentieth Century Fox, 1994. DVD.