Beware the jibber-jabber
Always bear in mind that readers want to be entertained rather than educated, says Adrian Magson
Adrian Magson
BEGINNERS
There was a television programme I used to enjoy greatly some years ago – let’s call it sci-fi/ thriller/adventure for want of avoiding the title. I wouldn’t want to upset loyal fans as it’s still being aired. Its main device was the idea of time-and-space travel to alien planets, with lots of action, guns, teleporter rings and zappers of various kinds, peppered with tongue-in-cheek repartee from Lead Character A who openly preferred action over lengthy planning huddles.
As I say, I used to enjoy it, especially the action scenes, as they appealed to the inner child. Then the programme makers appeared to undergo a shift in how the characters and the world(s) they inhabited should be presented to viewers. This shift seems to have taken the form of education over entertainment, with fewer action scenes and more in the way of talk about where they were going, how they were going to get there and generally, what the potential outcomes were likely to be based on pseudo-scientific principles. In that, even the education bit missed the mark because even if the terminology was correct, I didn’t understand a single word of it.
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June 2018
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