A Thanksgiving Story: Unitentional Destruction
Listen to Sarah Vowell's story from This American Life:Turkeys in Pilgrim's Clothing (and share it with your parents if you really want to get the old TV jokes). Then comment!
posted by Peggy Doyle at
7:44 AM
5 Comments:
this story shows how the television can sometimes tell the true story of america, though not very well. the only thing i didn't like was that she went on ad nauseam about the same thing, the characters. she goes on and on about the characters in the sitcoms, and it is really tedious. though i liked her description of "thanks". the thing about this is that it actually talks about things that are true, and doesn't stray into some stupid comedy jokes that suck. she actually used the subject to make the talk funny.
marwan
period 8-9
doyle
I think that this story tells us that we as humans do not interact with other people very well at all because of the use of computers, video games and tv ect. I actually agree with this statement because this just goes to show us that we the average human is so out of life... kind of meaning that people will not look into matters and such. I also think that this story tells us alot about what we are becoming, and also imagine what life was like without all this useless stuff that we don't really need. I mean yeah you might use the tv or computer for news purposes but back then people didn't have that and they survived, so why can't we seem to let go of all the things that make us not appreciate life, or even nature for that matter? This show does a good job telling us this.
~Cameron
Ms.Doyle humanities 8/9
It shows the sad truth that TV shows usually don't have have very much, if any, truth in them. Sometimes, TV shows can give the real information, but they do so by putting a funny twist on the history, like what the Simpsons did.Of course, if you really wanted real information on the Puritans, you wouldn't go to TV land for it. TV wasn't made for info, but for entertainment. Sometimes, it's pretty funny when they put a twist on American History.
Julian
3/4
Phil
Humanities
Period 8-9
Ms. Doyle
Although Ms. Vowell makes a good point about how sitcoms are connected to American history, she does it in a very unfunny way. But that isn’t what I’m supposed to comment about, so I won’t.
I agree with Cameron on this topic. In fact, I went to church this morning and listened to a homily about the priest’s week-long trip to Austria. He said how shocked he was when he walked down the street in Europe. It was almost as if everybody was hurrying and in a bustle to get where they wanted to be, usually with an iPhone held up to their ear. They were always connected with people, but in an unnatural and mechanical way, like via e-mail or over the phone.
People aren’t as connected to each other as they were back when the pilgrims existed. These days everybody is in their own private Idaho, doing their own thing, trying to improve their own lives. They aren’t taking a second to stop and think about how everyone else is doing.
Sarah Vowell makes a valid connection between sitcoms and the pilgrims because in both of these places, people seem much more connected. In sitcoms, characters are forced into sticky situations where they have to collaborate with other people to work their way out of it. These personalities bounce off each other, making the sitcom enjoyable whilst still teaching the important lesson of eternal dependence upon one another. In pilgrim times, faithful families were forced into very serious situations that their lives usually depended on. There is no comedy in this, but the lesson is still represented strongly.
Sometimes we just need to slow down, look around, and thank God that we have all these people around to support and guide us. Every single day we depend upon each other, and many of us modern humans are forgetting that.
Cole
Per 3/4
Doyle
This shows how television, although very funny, has not proven to be very true with the facts. Sure it gets it vaguely, but it never really gets it right. Well, you wouldn't go watch the Simpsons to study the pilgrims so I'm not saying TV shows should make all the facts perfect, it's fine the way it is. I like how Ms. Vowell makes the subject funny while talking about it, otherwise people probably wouldn't listen to it, thanks to television. I also like how she describes each show and it's inaccuracies.
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