Present Shock? It's Everywhere You Look.

"Whatever happened to predictability, the milkman, the paperboy, evening TV? How did I get to livin' here, somebody tell me please, this old world's confusing me..." The opening lines of the Full House theme song clue you in immediately that the show is about a "not-so-average" household--a show about a “typical” family wouldn't get any viewings, so of course, this classic sitcom had to have some sort of element that would set it apart from the multitude of other sitcoms about families that are on television. Right off the bat in the first scene of the first episode, we learn that Danny Tanner’s wife died 3 months prior to the events of the first episode. As the events of the show begin to unfold, Danny asks his wife’s brother Jesse and his best friend Joey to help him take care of his 3 daughters DJ, Stephanie, and Michelle. It’s a feel-good show, full of hilarious antics, heartwarming characters, and most importantly, unbreakable family bonds. But it’s also a prime example of nontraditional narrative, because in all honesty, it has no plot.

Sure, there’s small problems and situations that need to be overcome in each episode; the events of the show address typical issues that come with growing up. But there’s no real beginning or middle of the “storyline” (I’m putting storyline in quotation marks because, like stated before, there’s no one problem that needs to be solved). Rushkoff states, “The new challenge for writers is to generate the sense of captivity, as well as the sensations and insights, of traditional narrative— but to do so without the luxury of a traditional storyline. So they come up with characters who simply wake up in a situation and have to figure out who they are or what the heck is going on around them,” (Rushkoff 31) and this is essentially how sitcoms are created--Full House is no different, considering all 8 seasons are about Danny Tanner trying to figure out how to balance all the aspects of life as a working, single father.

This is the “present shock” aspect of Full House. Every 30-minute episode contains a new mini-plot, and it’s almost always solved, in one way or another. Rushkoff explains this phenomenon in Present Shock, saying, “In short, these sorts of shows teach pattern recognition, and they do it in real time.” (Rushkoff 28) The predictability of the show’s structure is traditional, but because the show contains no overarching story, the narrative remains nontraditional. Each episode contains new antics, new situations that have to be dealt with, and no reference is made to future events that will occur in the character’s lives. Like Rushkoff says about The Simpsons, although the “episodes have stories, these never seem to be the point.” (Rushkoff 26) Whether it’s DJ trying to get an autograph from her favorite singer at the mall and getting foiled by Uncle Jesse, or Stephanie accidentally telling Kimmy about her surprise birthday party, the warmly comical moments that the show never fails to produce are what keep the viewers coming back for more. But there's never any problem that drags on for more than one or two episodes. Once the episode is over, so are the events that occurred during it.

It’s weird to think about the fact that one of the most iconic television series of all time doesn’t actually have a storyline. However, considering the show is still being played on TV networks 20 years after it ended, I’d say this take on nontraditional storytelling was successful. Because viewers in this day and age don’t care about the fact that there’s no deep, insightful meaning to the events of the episodes. It’s a show about a family learning to live together and adapt to a new way of life. The relatability of the show also draws in viewers today. Rushkoff explains this perfectly when he writes, “These shows are characterized by their frozenness in time, as well as by the utter lack of traditional narrative goals.” (Rushkoff 31) The resonance of Full House and the fact that so many people can relate to the situations that the Tanner clan has to navigate even 20 years later is part of what makes Full House such a classic. Because even now, in our present-shocked society, the show is still making people smile.

Works Cited

Rushkoff, Douglas. Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now. New York: Penguin Group, 2013. Print.

Was It Really Necessary To Tell Us Everything You Ate?

A Moveable Feast could be described as casual. It’s a work of literature depicting Hemingway’s experiences in Paris, not in a thrilling or adventurous way, but simply written as they happened. Hemingway uses first person “stream of consciousness” point of view in A Moveable Feast to create a novel in which the content comes right from Hemingway’s experiences in the same order that he experienced them. Stream of consciousness gives a novel the feeling of a diary or a journal, because the events in the novel are depicted exactly how the author experienced them, with the inclusion of his own opinions and thoughts. Hemingway uses a neutral tone to describe the events that take place, but his tone shifts when speaking about the different authors and people he encounters; for instance, his writing is soft and kind when he is depicting Gertrude Stein and his wife, but cold and distant when depicting Pascin and Zelda Fitzgerald. These tone shifts contribute to the casual narrative style that Hemingway chose to use when writing A Moveable Feast. The use of time and the fact that the story is told in chronological order helps to reinforce the diary-like style of the novel. Hemingway also includes small anecdotes about the food he eats at the different cafes, the experiences he shares with his wife, and his pastimes like watching horse racing help readers understand Hemingway’s personality and character, represented when Hemingway says, “We went racing together many more times that year and other years after I had worked in the early mornings, and Hadley enjoyed it and sometimes she loved it.” (Hemingway 67) He uses these short stories to fit the casual narrative, writing a novel that feels like he is simply recording all of his thoughts, feelings, and everything that’s happening to him. A Moveable Feast is in classic memoir style, and Hemingway’s choice to heavily include elements of his characteristics adds interest and moments of humor to the novel, giving it more of a personal feel. I think we read this book as a part of our study of language so we could become exposed to Hemingway’s unique style of writing. The informality and casualness of A Moveable Feast makes it feel like you’re reading someone’s journal, instead of a formal book, and while the plot itself was fairly stagnant, the style was more important than the events.