The highly innovative 18th-century novelist Henry Fielding included many kinds of characters with the gamut of human strengths and weaknesses. In probably his most famous and best work, Tom Jones, he says, “Every physician almost hath his favourite disease” (bk ii, ch. 9).
We could ask our family physicians whether or not they have “favourite” diseases. I suppose none or few would admit so, but then, why are so many doctors specialists? Is disease specialization an indication of favoring? Is it an obsession?
Put the question to those involved in binge-watching pundit programs. The political “diseases” on which they specialize—though changing as each pundit tries to outdo the others—have watchers also specializing.
Fielding made another comment that might apply here. Early newspapers were often full or half broadsheets. That is, the publisher used a sheet of paper printed on both sides and sometimes folded in half. In the eighteenth century, a newspaper might be exactly the same size day after day, everything fitted to the space available on the broadsheet or half broadsheet. Fielding wrote, “A newspaper consists of just the same number of words, whether there be any news in it or not.” If Fielding were alive today, he would see a half-hourlong or hourlong TV pundit show with the same amount of time from day to day, each with the same number of words, “whether there be any news in it or not.”
Do you have a favorite political disease? If you answer “Yes,” then ask yourself, “Am I the doctor or the afflicted?” Ask, also, “Is there really any news in it?” Or, are you watching to get the same number of words "whether there be any news in it or not"?
Want to cure the "disease"? Stop watching.
We could ask our family physicians whether or not they have “favourite” diseases. I suppose none or few would admit so, but then, why are so many doctors specialists? Is disease specialization an indication of favoring? Is it an obsession?
Put the question to those involved in binge-watching pundit programs. The political “diseases” on which they specialize—though changing as each pundit tries to outdo the others—have watchers also specializing.
Fielding made another comment that might apply here. Early newspapers were often full or half broadsheets. That is, the publisher used a sheet of paper printed on both sides and sometimes folded in half. In the eighteenth century, a newspaper might be exactly the same size day after day, everything fitted to the space available on the broadsheet or half broadsheet. Fielding wrote, “A newspaper consists of just the same number of words, whether there be any news in it or not.” If Fielding were alive today, he would see a half-hourlong or hourlong TV pundit show with the same amount of time from day to day, each with the same number of words, “whether there be any news in it or not.”
Do you have a favorite political disease? If you answer “Yes,” then ask yourself, “Am I the doctor or the afflicted?” Ask, also, “Is there really any news in it?” Or, are you watching to get the same number of words "whether there be any news in it or not"?
Want to cure the "disease"? Stop watching.
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