Cheating to the Camera

There are two ways to experience anything: from inside the frame or from outside the frame. Both ways of experiencing the world are useful, and one is often misused.

In Liberty, Stephen Cox cited a funny quip from William Hazlitt who long ago said that Englishmen had but one thought while attending the opera -- "I am at the opera."

Let's run with that example. Suppose it's a good opera with a dramatic plot, great music, and good singing. If your mind is filled with "hey, I'm at the opera!" then you might be an idiot. If you aren't an idiot, at least you are missing something. I think that even "hey, look at the tits on that soprano!" is better than "I am at the opera."

"I am at the opera," is an example of experiencing life from outside the frame. The protagonist has ceased to be a protagonist and has become an actor for an audience that sits in his head and admires his act. Today, the outside-the-frame perspective is the one most often abused. It fits the cheap irony that chases its own tail in popular culture, and it fits the shallow consumerism ("hey, I have an iPhone!") that gets people up in the morning.

But sometimes the outside-the-frame perspective can be a marvel. Consider Groucho Marx cheating to the camera. Or consider this: I was once in an old, colonial-era hotel on the banks of the Orinoco reading Rabelais in Old French under the influence of a strong hallucinogen, and I thought to myself, "hey, I'm in an old, colonial-era hotel on the banks of the Orinoco reading Rabelais in Old French under the influence of a strong hallucinogen." Now that was a rewarding experience in both ways. Giggling madly at Rabelais with the Orinoco flowing by was a delight, and just thinking about what a strange thing I was doing was another, different delight.

Sure, for a moment I had ceased to be a protagonist and had become an actor for an audience that sat in my head and admired my act, but (forgive me for saying so) it was a good act and worth stopping to admire; whereas almost anyone can buy an opera ticket, and sometimes they give them away.