The Phrenological Journal & Haunted Typebox Blog

Lest there be any doubt that I am watching ‘American Idol’ here is the proof. And not just watching, not some detached analyses about the spectacle where I remain aloof about the results, but actually participating! These are the notes my wife and I have been keeping. And not that ‘Idol’ is  some kind of judgement on the viewers—no! it’s about the contestants—our favorites have been making it through. Last night’s wild card round did us right: pop cutie Megan made it in and, in a last-minute, heart-lifting expansion of the final group from twelve to thirteen (not since Mackie was pardoned by the Queen was a last-minute judgement so inspiring), so did Anoop.

One shouldn’t write or even think too much about ‘American Idol.’ To be honest*, one probably shouldn’t even watch it. But I’m committed to doing so this season. And all the attendant thinking and writing as well.

First, let it be said that I am involved. ‘American Idol’ tells a story, and unlike other reality shows it does so in near real-time. I’m not so cynical as to think that the voting is rigged. No, I believe in the power of a single telephone vote to affect the careers of 36 individuals. That being said, the show has been on the side of Danny Gokey since the beginning. And how can it not be? Still, I think it was unfair to put him on at the end. We knew it would be a barn burner; he doesn’t need the bump of having his voice be the last we remember.

‘Unfair’? I am involved.

* ‘To be honest’ is one of Simon Cowell’s trademark phrases.

There are three things I’ve promised myself to do while unemployed charting my way towards self-employment. The first is concerned with said employment, and it’s probably the least interesting.

The other two things are joined endeavors: To read Don Quixote and to watch a full season of American Idol. These items are to be concurrent and not simultaneous. This sounds like a kind of contrived postmodern pairing, comparing high and low culture. The purpose is not to examine one in the light of the other, to draw comparisons between the Idol quest for fame and the man of La Mancha’s quest for chivalric legend.* No, it’s not about that.

Having invoked the analogy in my denial of it, here’s what this is about: Doing one thing I’ve attempted before (reading Quixote) and one thing I’ve never wanted to do before (watching Idol). And it’s about becoming involved in two long narratives, both occasionally daunting but full of their own brand of joy.

-Kent

* I am reminded of the Borges story ‘Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote’ in which Menard decries works that are ‘good for nothing but occasioning a plebeian delight in anachronism or (worse yet) captivating us with the elementary notion that all times and places are the same, or are different.’