‘Tis the Season

Because I apparently cannot stand to see myself genuinely happy, I have become worried that I am too materialistic this Christmas. The thing that excites me most is the gifts I will be receiving, not the prospect of seeing family members, not the religious elements. This troubles me. I would like to think of myself as someone who values the intangible, the abstract, and the qualitative in people and things. Instead, I feel like a spoiled child waiting for their pony. (Only my pony has a ten inch touchscreen.)

There are, of course, a few reasons why I should not feel this way. I think I am actually looking forward to giving gifts, for example.

But is that still a focus on the material aspects of the celebration?

Another contributing factor is that I have not personally given any money to charities this year. There will be donations as part of my Christmas gifts, but I have yet to actually take cash out of my own pocket. Part of this is due to my mixed feelings about the Salvation Army, to which I would usually toss my pocket change.

I do not really know where I am going with this post, but writing it was a useful exercise to make myself feel better about my desire for MOAR PRESENTS this year.

Has Children’s Entertainment become too Adult-Oriented?

Tonight, Cartoon Network airs the half-hour season premiere of Adventure Time. I love this show, especially in light of the crazy bananas they pulled a few weeks ago in the previous season’s finale. But I find myself wondering sometimes, how much do kids enjoy it?

I know it is a success, but I do not know how those numbers break down in terms of demographics—how much of its viewership is made up of teenagers and adults? I know in the case of Spongebob Squarepants, a significant chunk of viewers are adults—and not just parents watching with their children. The same was the case with Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel series, The Legend of Korra.

In fact, a quick perusal of the internet will reveal legions of children’s show fans who are able to vote. (Off the top of my head, TVTropes and Tumblr are hubs of fandom activity.)

Why do we, the older audience, love these shows? In the case of Adventure Time, I would argue the very adult elements are one of the key attractions. This leaves me wondering how much kids really get out of it. It is difficult for me to imagine anyone under the age of 14 or 15 finding Regular Show entertaining.

To an extent, I have to ignore a large component of most of children’s entertainment to ask these questions: the sense of fun and wonder. To watch Adventure Time is to be transported to a world of bright pallets and problems that at their worst can still often be dealt with by a little boy kicking and punching them. And this I think is universally enjoyable to all ages.

I also think that I should consider the appeal of layered entertainment. Pixar films and Harry Potter have demonstrated that it is possible to tell a story that is enjoyable on a base, surface level, while providing more thought-provoking entertainment upon closer inspection.

So the answer is no, then? I mean, the wonderment and the layers must invalidate my rhetorical, click-bait title, right? I do not know; I still cannot imagine children finding the episode of Regular Show revolving around a VHS tape humorous. For one, they might ask, what the hell is a VHS?

What do kids love more than hipster video store clerks?

I do not know exactly what I am trying to say in this post. Something about children’s entertainment no longer being entertaining for its intended audience as it caters ever more to grown-ups. Not that that is a bad thing.

Just Write Something

I sit on the couch, laptop in lap, staring at the screen. I have no particular topic to write about in mind, yet I feel compelled to write a blog post. Something about disciplining myself to write more regularly, perhaps?

A friend remarked that one of my entries seemed scattered and stream-of-consciousness, full of uncertain thoughts and backtracking. Part of me would like to think that I am, in fact, intentionally doing this and have succeeded in portraying my mind in print. Most of me knows that is not the case.

I made some significant progress last night in what I am starting to think of as my “bad” story. I am writing it to finish it—to actually have something novel-length—even though it is my weakest idea. It is a practice project, really. A generic urban fantasy that is entirely too much like Harry Potter. I caved last night and decided to specifically mention J. K. Rowling’s books. Yeah, this is definitely a practice novel.

They say that writers have a certain amount of bad words they have to get out of their system, the same way that artists have a multitude of terrible drawings they must work through before producing quality work. I just expelled 211 of them.