Consume

Abstract

About this collection of creative nonfiction, the author writes “Ultimately, this collection charts my progression in understanding how media functions as a discursive power within my life. These are essays that mark different stages in my thoughts about a discourse. They build from one another; they contradict one another. Each poses questions and seeks answers. Films, television, music (and advertising which sustains them) hold power in my life. I have an intimate relationship with these films, television shows, music and media: they don’t stay caged behind glass screens, but rather shatter the glass and rush through in currents. I take them into myself. I watch hours of television and replay movie scenes in my head; I read what smart people think about the movies and toss their essays around in my head like a circus juggler. But they don’t stay inside me quietly. There’s a force that allows them to operate me from within, even after I have ingested them. I am at once consuming them and being consumed by them. This collection is simultaneously a narration of those experiences and a critique of them.”