Novelty is newness. It can be an old favorite with some extra pizazz, like truffle oil Mac and Cheese. Or it is a new song or TV show. There are also less capitalistic / consumption focused elements of novelty. Like going to a new city. Or noticing a new plant. Or getting a new book from the library. There is a neurological neurotransmitter pathway related to novelty. Some mix of serotonin and dopamine would be my guess. For me, I just think of it as "NEAT".
Spectacle is over-the-top-ness. Like 100 cheese Mac and Cheese. Or the world's biggest pizza. Or an action movie with more explosives. Drama that is even more drama. You find spectacle in cities. Like the downtown area of Kansas City with the jumbotron and huge amount of shops. The key ideas here are "overwhelm" or "WOW".
I share these in this Buddhist blog because I've found it useful when looking at the allure (5 parts, deconstruction) of things I crave and feed on. I have to be careful to notice both. Some things are spectacular, but not new. And some things aren't very spectacular, but they are new. And sometimes the same thing can be novel on some occasions and spectacular on others. It's not just a feature of the thing itself. It's sometimes (often?) a feature of my taste buds.
Once I notice spectacle or novelty, I need to also look at it's helpfulness. The word WOW is a very Gil Fronsdal approach to developing mindfulness. We might look at mundane things and our reaction and say WOW. The biggest WOW is often about how chaotic our minds are.
But escapist spectacle and novelty (TV, usually) are not so helpful. There are exceptions. Some PBS is super helpful, bridging, exploratory. I don't think the Power Rangers kids show was ever helpful in itself. But watching how fascinated I was with it was helpful. And, in a sense... kids that obsess and hyperfocus... that's sometimes something they need to play with. It depends on the person, their context, and what their goal is. Even PBS is not useful sometimes. Just like the Dhamma teachings as words and opinions--these grow less useful once one has a direct experience with practice.
The suffering from WOW and NEAT come from the feeling fading, and our wishing it could stay forever. In my former dating life, that new realationship novelty is something that is so intoxicating and addictive, and it always fades. Part of Buddhism is an acceptance that nothing lasts, and so we don't want to hang our wellbeing on the hook of things that don't last. So WOW and NEAT are good lessons on anicca/impermanence. It's fine to be wowed by or tickled by an event.
But trying to keep it going is always complex, and often not under our control, especially if it involves the world (and not just our mind).
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