Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 11:06:09 -0500
From: mbarrett-AT-uncc.campus.mci.net (Michael Barrett)
Subject: Seinfeld


I was looking at seinfeld the sitcom recently and began thinking about it
in a perhaps metaphorical way.

first, think in terms of abstract expressionism.
according, at least, to Greenberg; abstraction was the logical result of a
historically mandated progression in "avant garde" painting.
It reduced itself through time to it's pure elements; getting flatter and
flatter, presumably closer to the nature of paint.
pianting achieves its logical conclusion when it is reduced/ simplified/
"purified" to its constituent parts. the surface, the paint, and its
application.

Seinfeld has been progressing along the same kind of route to sit com purity.

originally, Seinfeld had a job, a comedian I think, something that gave him
an excuse to hang around the manhattan apartment all day and be funny.

as the show has evolved through seven or so seasons, the need for plot
devices, like employment, has diminished entirely.
Seinfeld doesn't his friends don't work, they just get involved in
situations, that they can spout zany one liners over.

the crucial elements of a sitcom are the zany characters making jokes, in
and about whatever situation they are cast into on a weekly basis.

traditionally sitcoms relied on tried and true themes, like family life, to
give the base structure of the character relationships, and determined
largely what wacky situations they would wind up in.

the equivalent in painting, would be content of the narrative fashion,
perhaps family life would hold the same position on the academic hierarchy
as religious and history paintings did/ do in the academie

seinfeld has removed the need for a plot, a theme, or even character depth;
we only have situations, jokes, and regular characters.
these things are being loosely held together with recurring sub plots;
although the narrative is getting more and more fractured;
seinfeld has reached its cubist period

-Michael

-O^O-
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