and the hero would launch into a giant discursive monologue which went on for pages. To my mind, this is bad writing according to an objective standard

LOL, you mean like the last 60 (!) or so pages of Atlas Shrugged?

I fail to see how ostensibly intelligent people can try to analyse BB as a society-in-a-bottle experiment. Rubbish.

The psychologists have a market-driven interest in selecting the most provocative, gratingly opposite and conflicted group of ego-centric and selfish people they can find.

The producers, by virtue of the reams of reports given to them by the psychologists in the selection process know exactly how the contsestants are most likely to react in any given situation.

It’s about as far from a microcosm of society as one can get.

Because there is no objective standards for the judgment of taste.

This is the general skepticism that Prof Gardner is talking about; it’s a philosophical nuclear option that pretends the truth is unattainable.

NPOV: I have no problem with people getting their enjoyment by watching this stuff - in that sense, I’m true market anti-perfectionist, and don’t think the state should be into funding conceptions of the good (like the arts).

However - like Ken over at Troppo - I think that interest in this kind of stuff on the part of genuine intellectuals is a bit silly, particularly as so many of the analyses are so woolly, confusing ’sociological phenomenon’ with ‘good’.

Not really.

Of course, to an extent taste is a subjective personal thing, but I think you can also point to objective factors which make someone’s writing good or bad.

I get no joy in watching people make fools of themselves or do nasty bitchy things to each other either. It makes me want to come out in hives (yes, I know, I’m overly sensitive).

My objection is not a class thing per se. I just find much more interesting people and opinions through a brief browse of the blogosphere than I do through an episode of BB.

That said Big Brother is crap

Did Roman bogans have fuzzy dice?

I have a friend who vomits even if the plane hasn’t taken off yet - it’s just the thought of taking off that gets her…

Fortunately, I don’t get plane sick, although I do get very sea sick…no sailor me!

It is mind-numbingly crap but it is also strangely interesting if only to discover what so many of the population find interesting.