television as the medium that dissolves the sincere self — the anti-show and the entertainment critique
echoes
From: My Appearance (\"Late Night\")
- Early text: Late Night and S.N.L. are "anti shows" whose sets
flaunt their own cheapness and whose humor "feeds on ridiculousness"; the guest
must become "a sort of antiguest." [middle section]
- IJ echo: The novel's television-and-entertainment critique — the culture of
watching that the Entertainment weaponizes, and the self-consciousness the
medium breeds; continuous with the E Unibus Pluram argument.
- Weight: shared-preoccupation