DVD Review: In Their Own Words

For those who don't believe that television or radio shows consisting of people talking can be as captivating as any situation comedy, soap opera, day time talk show or cop thriller should take the opportunity offered by the Athena imprint of Acorn Media release of the two disc DVD set In Their Own Words on March 13 2012.

The invention of radio and television should have given birth to an age celebrating the sharing of ideas. The ability to communicate to a large number of people over great distances was the ideal opportunity to bring the formerly exclusive worlds of art, philosophy, and science out of the ivory towers of learning and the salons of the wealthy into everybody's living room.

Unfortunately that wasn't to be the case. Instead of being the venue for presenting a wide range of ideas, they've too often been used as vehicles to disseminate propaganda and marketing goods. In fact, if anything, radio and television have resulted in fewer people having access to the arts or being exposed to diverse opinions and ideas. Their content often seems a modern version of the Roman "Bread and Circuses," designed to pacify the mobs and keep them from reflecting on the ills of society.

While nobody seems to question the argument that these media are only giving the public what they want, what kind of choice are they offered? Oh sure a few underfunded public television stations in North America offer alternatives to the standard fare, but they spend most of their energies on trying to stave off budget cuts by those whose best interests is served in keeping the public placated and uninformed. What's even more frustrating are those few examples over the years of the media fulfilling its potential with programming exposing listeners/viewers to some of the world's most creative and innovative thinkers.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have done more to bring the words and ideas of the great English language writers and thinkers to the world than any other television network. In Their Own Words highlights the best of the best of this type of programming culled from the BBCs archives. Included, for example, are the only known existing recording of Virginia Wolfe talking about her work, and the voice of Sigmund Freud discussing his then-groundbreaking ideas on psychotherapy.

With Disc One devoted to English language, predominately British, authors, and Disc Two to great thinkers of the modern world, viewers are given the chance to re-familiarize themselves with the luminaries responsible for not only the development of the written word as we know it today, but the philosophies and policies that have come to form the basis of our society.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and The Unofficial Heroes Of Olympus Companion, both published and commissioned by Ulysses Press. He has had his work published in print and online all over the world including the …

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