Hidden messages…
May 17th, 2008 by Ashok
I found this article in Wall Street Journal fascinating.
It’s about a very successful American TV writer-producer who posts elaborate messages about his personal and professional life in the title card at the end of each episode of one of his hit television shows.
You know, those title cards that tell you the show you just watched was produced by So-and-So Productions.
The cards contain about 100 to 200 words each and are often reflective of the events of the very day on which they were written–most network shows in the US are sent for telecast within days or hours of telecast, not unlike shows in India–and will often reveal intensely personal problems, including last-minute jitters before a wedding and conflicts with network television executives.
The cards flash too briefly to read in detail when aired on TV, but when the episodes are viewed on DVD or after downloading (many US television episodes are made available for downloading these days–I watch almost all my TV shows this way now, since most of them aren’t aired here in India and I can’t wait for the DVD to come out months later), the screen can be paused and they can be read at leisure.
I like this story for the subversive way in which a very public medium is used to get across very personal messages.
Like a message in a bottle written in secret code.
Or a SETI transmission to the stars entirely in whale song.
Or ‘easter eggs’ on internet websites.
Or anagrams, acrostics and personal autobiographical messages and secrets concealed in my Ramayana books.
All of which have, in fact, been done before, among many other ways of communicating secretly in public media.
And no, I won’t tell you where and how to find the anagrams, acrostics and personal autobiographical messages and secrets concealed in my Ramayana books.
They wouldn’t be secret otherwise.
