First among sequals

I think...

based on my last post and this one that you might think I might be a little obsessed with the meanings of words but

I believe...

that sometimes its important to pause and think about the ways in which we use words and really consider what we are saying with those words

I heard...

the folks on Lifetime cable television station previewing a movie this week and they used the phrase “In it’s Lifetime premiere.” Now, I forget which movie it was exactly, but I’m sure that it was one that I have seen before on this channel and many other cable channels as I flicked through and this got me thinking…how exactly are these folks using the word “premiere?” It seems to have become quite a standard part of television jargon: “Premiering this week” “In its broadcast television premiere” “Catch this exciting premiere” yet these words are frequently associated with movies that I have watched before either on the particular channel doing the preview or another cable channel. Now, according to every dictionary that I consulted the word “premiere” is defined as the first performance of a musical or theatrical work or the first showing of a film. So it’s left me wondering, how can a movie premiere three, four, five times on the same channel at three month intervals? This might not seem like an earth shattering question but

I think...

that these movie cable premieres are yet another example of the “cult of firstness.” Our society has made a religion of being first. It is most apparent in the area of technology – you remember the hubbub around the Iphone? People rushed to be the first to get it, even though they knew that they would pay more for the privilege of being an “early adopter” and that the prices would inevitably fall. But the cult of firstness also finds expression in the line of people waiting for the last installment of Harry Potter. Certainly, a large part of that excitement revolved around finding out what happened next in the series and what would be the final result in the battle between Harry and He Who Must Not be Named. But some of the excitement around the Harry Potter installment also revolved around the desire to be the first to read the book – hence the need for they type of security that used to be associated exclusively with the places like Fort Knox.

At least the Iphone, by all accounts (I haven’t actually seen one), is innovative, and though Harry and his Deatheater defeating posse are old friends, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was a new book. However, the indiscriminate use of “premiere” on the television demonstrates that this cult of firstness extends beyond the new and innovative and becomes a rather cynical attempt to repackage and represent things that we have seen before. Thus firstness repackaging is not only on the television. For example, it seems that every time I go the supermarket the old products are put into newly colored packages, and don’t start me on the toothpastes. Since I was a kid, toothpastes have constantly shouted that they are “new and improved”; by now toothpaste should be so awesome that a little dab of minty fresh should be able to do everything from bringing about world peace to magically finding us a parking spot in the middle of town. Plus a myriad of teen movies, action movies and romantic comedies are really just old wines in new skins and though music sampling can be exciting, too many musical artists are using it to try and sell us the same song over and over and over again.

It is as if the marketers believe that we viewers and customers have no memory - like the Drew Barrymore character in 50 First Dates we wake up each morning forgetting what we have experienced the day before and I wonder if this constant return under the guise of the new is not, in fact, affecting us. Are we able to truly appreciate things in the past? Not with the facile and unthinking nostalgia that allows us to tune into Flintstones or listen to ABBA and remember when we were a little younger, but with a considered examination of where we have come from so that we might plot a course for where we might want to go to. It seems to me that the cult of firstness permits no careful consideration of the long view of history and distracts us from a true commitment to innovation and creativity.

Anyway, right now I must leave you. I must attend a movie premiere appearing on my TV, I will walk across the burgundy (rather than red) carpet in my living room, dressed in my haute couture t-shirt and shorts. A little later I might warm up the nice meal I made yesterday. Though you might say that these are left-overs, I will have you know that this meal is in fact “premiering for the first time on this plate.”

-Cynthia