The Wisdom of Billy Bob
If you watch Joe Rogan’s Podcast regularly, you’ll know he just interviewed Billy Bob Thornton. Bad Santa, himself. Landman. Goliath. And, of course, the unforgettable Sling Blade.
He’s one of the most human, humble people you’d ever come across. A guy you’d like to share a bottle of beer with. He made some interesting observations about contemporary society.
Billy Bob Thornton asked the question, “What is a movie?’
Years ago, moguls like Louis B. Mayer and Otto Preminger and their ilk would own or manage multimillion dollar studios that had cameras. They’d film movies – stories that lasted, on average, a couple of hours and had characters portrayed in them by “Stars”.
Years ago, Editors would review submissions from authors and – if the Gods were pleased – publishing houses would print books called “Novels”.
Now, there’s Netflix. Amazon Studios. Paramount Plus. All kinds of streaming services that “produce” media content in cooperation with scores of media companies, everybody pitching in bucketfuls of money, and turning out a video that is shown in segments. More importantly, if a viewer doesn’t have a “subscription” to the streaming platform – say, Paramount Plus – they aren’t going to see it. It’s a closed loop.
Gone – or nearly gone – are the days when you loaded your happy ass into your car, picked up your girlfriend and drove to a “Movie Theater”. Gone are the days when you bought your ticket, your bucket of popcorn and settled into a chewing-gum smeared seat to watch audio and video synchronized images projected in front of you on some ginormous white screen.
Now – you “Stream”. In your home. Provided, of course, your “Paramount Plus” App is paid up on your smartphone.
So – what is a “Movie” today?
It’s numerous segments of video presented over a “Season” – months – each portion of which develops characters, plotline and dramatic essence. These are multi-episode, drawn-out videos that, today, have – almost completely – eradicated the standard “Movie” format.
So, we might ask, “What is a Novel?”
Is it something we find in a bookstore? Are there any bookstores left? There’s a “Barnes & Noble Booksellers” nearby. It has books. And a Starbucks. And a Romper Room for little Kiddies. It has calendars, paperweights, magazines and suburban women dragging their little rugrats in for Storytime.
There’s no quiet or respectful solitude. It’s a venue for middle-class married ladies to pass the time of day with their precious offspring – little darlings that they inflict on the rest of us as if they’re some kind of treat. Toddlers that creep about with bags of pretzels and juice-boxes, touching everything with sticky paws, weaving in and out of the shelves like they’re in some Halloween maze or fun park.
Actual book displays are limited to sycophantic tomes celebrating the “Beauty” of Michelle Obama or Mark Levin’s Compendium of one thousand reasons the USA must bankrupt itself supporting Israel. Books are no longer about freedom of inquiry or scholarship. Barnes’ & Noble sells “Agendas”.
Nobody is writing Jane Austin anymore. Nobody is writing Catcher in the Rye.
People are writing stuff online. Publishing their novels online. Like Yours Truly. People ask me: “Why do you write stuff and let people read it online?” I respond: “Why do people rob banks? Because that’s where the money is.” Actually, online is where the Readers are.
Soon there will be online Novel Streaming services – that will do for Novels what Netflix and Paramount Plus is doing for Movies. It will do for the printed word what video streaming platforms have done for Movies.
In the meantime, guys like me and a few other authors will be a tad ahead of the curve. It’s a slow grind. But time will tell.
Copyright, Jon Croft 2025
www.bogironpatriot.com
www.bogironslav.com
Email: vlchek1@gmail.com
