e.b. white writes about television, July 1938

At the suggestion of my friend Emerson, to whom letters are no stranger, I am reading E.B. White's *One Man's Meat*. This is from the first essay in the book, entitled, "Removal":

"...The news of television, however, is what I particularly go for when I get a chance at the paper; for I believe television is going to be the test of the modern world, and that in this new opportunity to see beyond the range of our vision we shall discover either a new and unbearable disturbance of the general peace or a saving radiance in the sky. We shall stand or fall by television--of that I am quite sure...

"...Television will enormously enlarge the eye's range, and, like radio, will advertise the Elsewhere. Together with the tabs, the mags, and the movies, it will insist that we forget the primary and the near in favor of the secondary and the remote..."

One can't help but smile at White's foresight, at his belief that television would change the way we consume information forever.

I know I've referenced this before on this blog, but growing up, television was the sixth member of my family. It was switched on a lot of the time as background noise, but more often served as the centerpiece of any gathering in our Spring Street apartment, formal or informal. When we got home from school, my mother or grandmother would microwave a can of Chef Boyardee ravioli for me and each of my siblings, and sit us in front of the tv, where we'd watch afterschool specials. When my father got home from work for the IRS, he'd flip to the evening news. On nights when I couldn't sleep, I'd wander out into the television static and darkness of the living room where my father would warm me some milk on the stove, and we'd watch Letterman together. And on Sundays, behind folding stools laden with sandwiches and sodas, we'd sit on the sofa as a family and watch the New York Giants play, as our parents screamed at the television set and hit their foreheads with the heels of their palms.

These moments, blurred and soupy in my memory, incline me to disagree with White's assertion that we'd forget the "primary" while entertained by scenes far away on dude ranches, in news studios and on football fields in New Jersey. Yes, the television allowed us to see lives happening in the same moments as our own, but I can recall what I was doing when I was looking at the television. For me, it was a kind of facilitator of family interaction -- still is, to tell you the truth -- and I love it for having been there.

What it means that I don't have a television in my new apartment is something else altogether.