Reality and Reality

I've never been able to watch a so-called reality TV show for more than about five minutes without getting really irritated. All those shows that throw a group of people together in some kind of convoluted attempt to spark drama hardly qualifies as "reality" in any valid definition of the term. A couple months ago Harper's magazine had an interesting article addressing the issue of how we have collectively abrogated our supposed right to privacy, as so many of us give that up if it means getting onto the tube for our alloted fifteen minutes of fame (or infamy) Even those who only watch are implicated in the process-- unwittingly perhaps, they too are tacitly signaling that the value of privacy is determined by a rate of exchange in the currency of entertainment. No wonder that the Bush administration felt little hesitation to launch its program of monitoring our phone calls and other communications-- we'd basically signaled our acceptance of the premise that nothing should be secret. Even as responsible civil liberties advocates complained about the breach of privacy, most Americans yawned.

But as much as I dislike Reality TV, I have to admit that I love reality comics, pioneered by Harvey Pekar's American Splendor (that's Harvey above; you can find a nice interview with him here). The difference is, I think, immense, with the comics actually more closely aligned with literary memoirs. They tend not to exaggerate circumstances (that's the domain of the action and super-hero genres), but rather to present the life of the protagonist as both ordinary and, often, universal. Pekar's work certainly speaks to a core element of humanity, acknowledging the struggles-- physical, mental, and emotional-- with which we all deal. He certainly reveals things about himself, many unflattering, that most would keep secret, but his story seems designed to spark a degree of identification, and ultimately a kind of camaraderie as we face life's endless challenges, big and small (and not of the type thought up by some overpriced producer who thinks it might be funny to watch people eat bugs).

You can have your Survivors, Big Brothers, et. al. I'll take Harvey Pekar, Chester Brown, Keith Knight, Lynda Barry, Joe Sacco and others of their ilk if I'm looking for a true dose of reality.