It's common knowledge that newspapers prepare obituaries well in advance, just as it's well known that every newspaper's worst nightmare is to publish an obit on the basis of a false report. And an obituary published yesterday in Variety may well invite an "I'm still here" rejoinder. It is beautifully written, and certainly the subject's death has been much trumpeted, but is it really true to declare VHS, 30, to have "died of loneliness ... survived by a child, DVD, and by Tivo, VOD and DirecTV".
I use my video recorder all the time. I record things I can't watch when they're on, and often go round video stores hoovering up the "3 for a £1" selection of ex-rentals. Only last week, I found Renoir's La Règle du Jeu, Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder and Goodfellas for £5. In fact, I love VHS, and that I can fast-forward through the corporate advertising and rewind the juicy bits without totally losing my place. Am I some kind of necrophiliac, or is VHS, 30, alive, kicking and regarding its childrens' success with a quiet parental pride?
