Oprah Winfrey has started a documentary club. To some observers, this is cause for alarm. After all, look at what she’s done to books! Mysterious, important things like books are now being manhandled by the great unwashed, with big decals on them no less.

I’m fond of old fashioned things, but the attitude that some things should be above the mass market is beyond stodgy. It’s simply unrealistic to suggest that certain things should be kept in box A or B when the way we access most cultural information is boundless. Any way to help certain films or books or conceptual art projects reach an audience has value.

Boundless access also means that no matter how many resources go into OWN, it does not “hurt” other films. It’s much more likely that increasing documentary awareness among Oprah’s audience will allow other filmmakers with subjects or styles appropriate for the OWN audience to take advantage of the marketing going into the general programming.

And filmmakers who are seeing the license fees OWN is paying are likely not unhappy, either.

When new things come along, try exploring how the new thing can be useful before trying to put the cat back in the bag. Pet the cat a little.

Today I began reading two entertaining books, Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity by David Foster Wallace and The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Quite coincidentally, the books share the thematic point that there is a great deal of value in what is unpredictable, or as DFW puts it, “our only real justification for the Principle of Induction is the Principle of Induction, which seems shaky and question-begging in the extreme.”

In film, a technology that in its “old fashioned” celluloid form is only a little over a century old, the future is unpredictable— but it is fairly certain that the future is significantly different than it is now. There is no reason to believe the medium (celluloid) will survive, no reason to believe there will be a tangible product associated with motion picture, no reason to believe running times will continue to hover in the 74-130 minutes range. That a business once existed for something is not a reason it will continue. If there is a demand, there will be ways to meet it. If the barriers are low and there are benefits for the producers, films will be made and disseminated regardless of business models.

Most importantly, we can’t predict how people will find ways to make things that are very good and not end up on welfare- unless welfare turns out to be very comfortable. But I would put my money (if I had any) on quality continuing to be something that will be supported somehow in whatever improbable future we may encounter.