The Chomsky Lectures

Chomsky Lectures

Do you feel that this play should be viewed as a lecture, or a piece of literature? Use evidence from the text to support your conclusion. (4 marks)

Brooks and Verdecchia are so self-aware that their piece might be viewed as a lecture rather than a work of art that it would seem churlish not to regard it as a work of art. It's certainly more artfully done than most of Hollywood's product nowadays. The device of the "artstick" which is employed any time the piece threatens to become more of a screed than a good night out is just such a device that works well. Any event which features lecturers squirting their audience with water pistols and pelting them with wadded-up paper is certainly more than just a lecture. Moreover Brooks and Verdecchia fit into an established tradition of political theater, such that their piece can be read on a continuum with Brecht's Lehrstuck pieces, or Tony Kushner's "Slavs," or Peter Morris's "Guardians," or any number of other political agitprop pieces that rely on direct address to an audience. This style may place such works into a certain category of political art, but it does not render them not art. What the authors have to say in the text has a genuine validity, and I take the liberty of quoting it in full: "Some of you may be thinking that what we have embarked on here is not theatre. Well, that's too bad. I would like to say this: if the theatre is to survive, it must become something other than an expensive alternative to television. We are going to have to look at the world and the world of the theatre without ideological or artistic blinders. And I'm not talking about the theatre of gentle psychological manipulation, or mature content, or three-dimensional characters. I'm talking about rolling up our sleeves, diving into the muck, taking a good, hard look at who we are and what we do and goddamn the excuses." This contextualizes precisely what form of art we are dealing with.

2. What are the ten ways that media tries to manufacture our consent in the play, and give an example of how each of them work, which is not given in the play? (20 marks)

Brooks and Verdecchia list the following ten ways in which the media tries to manufacture consent: "Choice of Topic," "Placement," "Ideological Assumptions," "Blind Stupidity," "Biased Sources," "Quoting out of Context," "The Memory Hole," "Captions and Headlines," "Doublespeak," and "Weight."