Patience in Entertainment

A few days ago I re-watched some films I haven't seen in a while:  There Will be Blood, The Thin Red Line, and Lost in Translation.

Each of those films can definitely be argued as being slow paced.  Most of what I really enjoy seems to be slow and demanding.  Even with books.  In many of my favorite short stories, nothing seems to happen, and in many of my favorite novels, it takes hundreds of pages for something to happen.  I recommended "The Sun Also Rises" to a friend not too long ago and she told me she'll never read anything I recommend again and it was a complete waste of her time.

I think about some movies that I've watched and have been rated high recently:  The Wolf of Wall Street, Catching Fire, any comic book film (Avengers, etc), The Hobbit...

I found myself bored with all of those movies.  I can't get into much of the "blockbuster" entertainment anymore.  Maybe I've become patient and want something much deeper in what I choose to watch or read.  Then again, that sounds pretentious and ignorant of what some people turn to entertainment for.  I believe the point I'm trying to reach is that I'm finding it hard to really engage myself in what's pushed out as entertainment in recent years.  Everything now is so quick and flashy, and companies seem to intent on grabbing our attention as quickly as possible, knowing that most people will move onto something else right away.

I can't help to feel happy when I see someone sitting down at a cafe reading a book, rather than browsing on a laptop, staring at a phone, or tapping at a tablet.  It's rare to see that patience.  I always want to speak to them because I trust that anyone with the patience to truly get into a great story or essay would be a person of great conversation (though admittedly, I often do not make the move to speak to strangers).  When something takes time and work to reach its entertainment, it provides us the time to really think and understand what's going on in both that (fictitious) world, and ours.