I could not agree more with the other Adam. Personally, it does not get better then "survivor man" on the Discovery Channel or "explorer" on Nat Geo. I believe that what one intends to do with the medium is truly indicative of what result you will derive from engaging the medium. The fact of it is: if stranded in the desert I would know how to purify my urine for drinking (bear grylls cannot do this and Shakespear would probably die of thirst).

I want to raise a point that I believe has not been raised so far. What of beneficial vegging in its purest form, i.e. turning off the brain for a little. As anyone who has taken, or at this school anyone who has taught, a standardized test prep course knows, a fundamental instruction is "don't do anything" the day before the test. Professor Dorf instructed his Civ Pro class to go to the movies the night before his exam with, I suppose, the connotation of turning off the brain regarding any and all law thinking. Furthermore, what do we as a class make of the omnipresent possibility of active thinking burn-out?

I think there is something to pure vegging out. I agree that as lawyers we should be constantly honing our mental acuity, but I believe a little vegging here and there is a positive thing for my net work product here at law school.

-- AdamGold? - 19 Jan 2008

My guess, Steve, and I really think you are on to something, is that is why Eban talked about meditation. While he mentioned "reading" Shakespeare, I have a feeling that a line would be drawn somewhere in his theory when the audience stops being an active, thinking participant and becomes a mindless consumer, or worse, a mindless nothing.

But, the slope is slippery. Reading Shakespeare, good for the memory. Reading Kant, also good. What about Tom Clancey?

I think this gets to Daniel's point about it isn't so much what medium (print, audio, visual, etc.), but what you do with that medium. The only way this is not the case is if there is something inherently different about watching something on a screen that is distinct from seeing it in person, hearing it, or reading the words. If I don't want to "veg out," but do want to laugh, can I read the script from The Simpsons?

-- AdamCarlis - 19 Jan 2008

On the Topic of “Vegging Out”: Does the Medium Matter?

Many people of a certain social class or educational background loudly proclaim that one must read Shakespeare and see it preformed on stage. I sincerely doubt that that anyone would try to argue that Shakespeare necessarily loses its artistic or intellectual value when produced for the small screen. If a television production of a Shakespeare play can have value, why can’t other productions designed for the small screen?

Television is a medium for the masses and bashing television is an easy way for an individual to declare that he or she is better than the masses. Staring at a painting on a wall or listening to Beethoven can be a way of “vegging out” or a way of stimulating one’s mind.

MOMA is designed to make you buy postcards and memberships. Operas are preformed to induce you to buy tickets. Saying that television is a commercialized medium of expression designed to make you buy things does nothing more than force us to ask what medium of expression has not been commercialized.

Every medium for expression is what the artist and the consumer make of it.

-- StephenClarke - 19 Jan 2008

• found one answer – when editing, mark "new revision." I think it ought to be marked by default. -- AndrewGradman - 18 Jan 2008

Kate suggests an anonymous discussion board because "people are afraid of saying something that the professor will not like ... the responses elicited are likely to be urbane expositions for the professor's eye, rather than genuine engagement."

The professor believes in open information, and he's reading my response, so I can't take Kate's side. Rather, "in my opinion," (i.e. in his likely opinion), we should write what we think, not what he'd like us to think!

This class is, after all, about challenging authority. I grant that Eben presents a difficult classroom environment for that. But I theorize that he asserts his opinions so strongly in class to force us to absorb them ("listen"), so that we can only critique them later -- i.e., after thinking -- i.e., intelligently. He reserved the TWiki as our forum for that critique.

My model predicts that the prof will be more tolerant of dissent on the TWiki. I'm gambling that this sort of disrespectful post, while inappropriate to say to Eben's face, won't even get me a slap on the wrist.

-- AndrewGradman - 18 Jan 2008