Kill Your Television

Before your television kills you.

I quote Walter Berglund's character in Mr. Jonathan Franzen's delightful novel Freedom, a fantastically cynical look at young adult and middle-aged existence in the U.S. today, and the near-and-dear-to-the-heart family and cultural values held by the majority of the American population.

"And TV: TV was like radio, only ten times worse. The country that minutely followed every phony turn of American Idol while the world went up in flames seemed to Walter fully deserving of whatever nightmare future awaited it."

I love everything about this novel. I adore how Franzen treats religion with such subtle harshness, and how he doesn't hesitate to criticize, through his characters, the things that it has become taboo to attack (ie. 9/11, overpopulation, simple, honest-to-goodness, salt-of-the-earth working people with no need for la-di-dah education and fancy thinkin', homeland security measures, etc.), at least in America.

I can honestly say that reading this book has made me feel more sane. Ironic, because one of the subplots involves mental illness. Odd how these things work out.