Meanwhile on television ...

Lots elsewhere about the Honda Civic TV commercial (run the video via this link). I hardly ever watch television so hadn't seen it myself, but anything that promotes choral singing must be great. I thought I would tag on to the thread by running a thought provoking quote about television from Christopher Rush's superb new book To Travel Hopefully:

'So the whirlwind of idiot hopes and idiot despairs comes spouting out of the pathetic little box, mixed up with all the soaps and meaningless froth of our sick society. Probably the pathetic little box is the real source of crisis, more powerful than any it mentions. It has the power to turn values upside down, to make fair foul and foul fair, to paralyse people into bored passivity for a quarter of their adult lives. Trapped in the triviality of everydayness, trapped in the treadmill of boredom and futility, they succumb. Or they look for an escape. Faust found it by reaching out to unseen forces, dabbling with the unknown. Most people settle for EastEnders (a UK soap - Pliable). It's safer, though even more suffocating than the prison of personal consciousness. It's complete intellectual unconsciousness, the dead end of the human road, a cancer of the spirit.'

To Travel Hopefully is by Christopher Rush (Profile Books ISBN 9781861977939). It is the Scottish novelist's very personal account of the death of his wife at a tragically early age from breast cancer, and his subsequent journey of rediscovery following in Robert Louis Stevenson's footsteps through the Cévennes region of France. He doesn't drive a Honda Civic, instead his transport is a donkey, as Stevenson's was. It is one of the most moving, and yet uplifting, books that I have read in a long time, and is very highly recommended.

If like me you hadn't seen the Honda commercial view it through this link. With thanks to regular reader and contributor Carol Murchie for the heads up on the video, see her guest blog A year at the symphony.
Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Image credits: TV commercial
Honda UK , To Travel Hopefully cover Profile Books
Image owners - if you do not want your picture used in this article please contact me and it will be removed. If bandwidth is a problem with your permission I will host your image.
If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to Pliable's travels

Comments

Anonymous said…
You didn't need to explain to your American readers what the British show "The East-Enders" was. The "East-Enders" is all over the American PBS system, having virtually knocked PBS's "Great Performances" off the network.
Pliable said…
Thanks for that Anon.

Now can someone please explain to me what EastEnders is?

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