Saturday, August 04, 2007

The Day the Video Died: A Fantasy Apocalypse

All screens are black.
No images move.
Electricity remains,
but will not work its charms on screens.

Darkness moves across the face of the watched world.
As no one understand, as (most) all lament.

Nothing to click.
Nothing to push.
It's frozen; it's broken.

We are forsaken of distraction.
We are diverted from diversion.

All screens are black, black!
No one can avoid
The new and unbidden void.

What is left?
What remains to do, to be?
Video has vanished.

We are thrown back to pages,
to print
--poems and prose--
to photographs,
to paintings,
to mountains and plains,
to statues.

We are thrown back to untelevized people.
To eyes that return our gaze,
To ears that hear our words,
To skin that feels our touch.

We are thrown back to...ourselves:
whatwe forgot among the images.

We return as souls among others who are there,
In the flesh,
In the moment.

And we are thrown back to God,
the One we forgot among the images.

4 comments:

jcubsdad said...

This from the guy who will not watch T.V., but watches You tube regularly.

I am not trying to nit pick at you Doug, but is there really a difference?

Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D. said...

Yes. And I don't watch it regularly, but irregularly and infrequently.

I choose what to watch; it is short; and I know it is entertainment; I don't deceive myself into thinking I can learn much of anything from it. If it vanished, it would have little effect on me. But it is fun for finding old music videos.

Anonymous said...

Is it just me, or is this post a little uni-bomber-esque. You don't have a cabin in Montana do you?
:)
Just kidding
Greg McR

Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D. said...

The apocalypse would be supernatural, not Curmudgeon-made!

And, I am not a Luddite. Read The Soul in Cyberspace on my thoughts on that.