Hope you don't mind the delay in response, I have been flitting in and off lj for the past few days.
I do think a lot of the sensitivity does come down to mood and situation, as well, in general but also specifically when it comes to tv. Certain news stories I find very difficult to bear. And I think if something is presented in just the wrong way it can get me anxious very easily. The Ontario provincial elections are next week, and I find myself tensing up at all the political debates and advertisements, especially living as I do right now with my mother, with whom I disagree on politics in quite a few ways. Some of it is just wisely avoiding contentious topics where there's no point in either swaying the other. But some of it is the recognition that there are serious issues on the table, and that I have some degree of responsibility to try to do something about it, and to make informed decisions, and to confront what it means to live in a society. It makes me think of ways in which I have or have not been a good citizen, and it makes it sink in how much people are suffering in the province, as well as the possibility that poor decisions can lead to things getting worse. It's harder to deal with than most fictional worlds, where there is at least some degree of separation.
Even The Wire, which is so much about how the world *actually* operates, and not a fantastic mirror of it like Buffy et al. nor how the world *used to* operate like Deadwood, is still a little bit separate, because I'm not living in poor, dying-city Baltimore. While I would like to believe I care very much what happens elsewhere, and I think I do, I also think that it's something that I can't do much about, and that feeling of...lack of responsibility, rightly or wrongly, makes it feel a little less personal. I'm not sure if it's right or wrong to feel that way -- but I guess it just is.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2014-06-09 03:43 am (UTC)I do think a lot of the sensitivity does come down to mood and situation, as well, in general but also specifically when it comes to tv. Certain news stories I find very difficult to bear. And I think if something is presented in just the wrong way it can get me anxious very easily. The Ontario provincial elections are next week, and I find myself tensing up at all the political debates and advertisements, especially living as I do right now with my mother, with whom I disagree on politics in quite a few ways. Some of it is just wisely avoiding contentious topics where there's no point in either swaying the other. But some of it is the recognition that there are serious issues on the table, and that I have some degree of responsibility to try to do something about it, and to make informed decisions, and to confront what it means to live in a society. It makes me think of ways in which I have or have not been a good citizen, and it makes it sink in how much people are suffering in the province, as well as the possibility that poor decisions can lead to things getting worse. It's harder to deal with than most fictional worlds, where there is at least some degree of separation.
Even The Wire, which is so much about how the world *actually* operates, and not a fantastic mirror of it like Buffy et al. nor how the world *used to* operate like Deadwood, is still a little bit separate, because I'm not living in poor, dying-city Baltimore. While I would like to believe I care very much what happens elsewhere, and I think I do, I also think that it's something that I can't do much about, and that feeling of...lack of responsibility, rightly or wrongly, makes it feel a little less personal. I'm not sure if it's right or wrong to feel that way -- but I guess it just is.