Telephilia and Cinephilia

13.12.2007

Yes, the first word exists. Both can be equated in the love that defines them: the love of television, the love of cinema.

Self-titled telephiles and cinephiles often attack each other with crude generalisations, blatant ignorance, and useless snobbery — and I am being kind. They unreflectingly look at the other side with a mirror and if they recognise something from their side then they come across as being merely selective and critical. They talk of things like cinematic television and televisual cinema.

I prefer to stay outside of this quarrel and keep the freedom to be attentively both a telephile and a cinephile (and to be attentive to the creative relation between television and cinema) without the need to declare it. Love begs for closeness, not conceitedness.