[Kevin Andrew Murphy]

I'm really unclear on how watching a television show or a play is "passive" while reading a poem is "active." Is attending a poetry reading then passive as well, because you're listening rather than reading? And what about kareoke or operas with supertitles, where you're reading at the same time as listening? Or is it just some "television=bad, poetry=good" business?

I can point to dozens of films and television shows that challenged my brain, and even more poems and novels that did not. Plus the "challenging your brain" nonsense is a false idol anyway. It makes poetry into brocolli, something to be consumed because it's good for you, not because you enjoy it.

I read a poem by Jane Austen today. It amused me greatly. I'm going to watch Veronica Mars tonight, and I expect to be greatly amused as well, and possibly pleasantly surprised by some interesting plot twist or issue never before actually addressed on television. (I'm particularly impressed by them treating child abuse as something not solved in one episode and then ignored like an after-school-special.) And last night I watched the new Doctor Who (downloaded via bittorrent) and had my vocabulary confirmed since "witter" is indeed a verb, not that I can find it listed in any of my many damnable American dictionaries.

Of course I was also first exposed to Hamlet as a child by watching an episode of Gilligan's Island, the same one which exposed me to the orchestral score of Carmen, so what do I know.