Jeremy and I have spent the last two nights watching Scrapper, a recent British movie about a rebellious twelve-year-old who must forge a relationship with her absent father after her mother's death. Even though it's in English, we're watching it with subtitles, as we do most movies these days. There's a lot of reasons we need the subtitles: the challenges of the British accents and British slang; the construction of modern flat-screen TVs, which produces poorer-quality sound; the ambient noise in my house from heaters and other appliances.
I'm also watching the movie wearing my glasses. I got a prescription for them this year, and though they're sort of cute, I never wear them out and about--only to watch movies in my home. Wearing them is like suddenly having an extra-high-definition TV. The images are clear and crisp. Plus I can read the subtitles.
At times, resorting to subtitles and glasses seems a little extreme. I'm only forty! But I have to admit that a better film experiences trumps my vanity. I know I'm lucky, too: streaming and easy availability of DVDs means that I can have subtitles for anything I want; low-cost eyeglasses shops like Zenni make frames a cheap purchase. Ten or fifteen years ago I would have resorted to turning up the sound and squinting. I try not to be too appreciative of tech, especially for things like entertainment, but this is one for which I'm grateful.
No comments:
Post a Comment