Johnson On The Dollhouse

Johnson On The Dollhouse
If someone was to come up to you and tell you to watch more of a show because in reality it is actually good for you; would you believe them? A man named Steven Johnson is one of those people who would say that. So the question is, would he state that The Dollhouse is a show that supports the Sleeper Curve theory? Steven Johnson has commented a lot about Sleeper Curve and what it is doing for our popular cultural. The Dollhouse has many factors that Johnson touches base on in his book, Everything Bad Is Good For You.

Author Steven Johnson is well known for his national bestseller book, Everything Bad is Good for you, and the interesting points he has made about popular culture. According to New York Times, Johnson brings up television intelligent and it has grown a lot in the past 30 years. Johnson speaks upon the Sleeper Curve theory, and how he believes what most people think is making us dumber is in fact making us smarter. Steven Johnson has been talked about all over including: The New York Times, The New Yorker, New Partisan and so much more. Journalist everywhere are both agreeing and disagreeing with Johnsons theories. For example from the New Partisan, a journalist stated, “Johnson may be right. But he also misses the point. Unlike copies of SimCity or episodes of Friends, all intelligences are not created equal.” This shows that journalist don’t think Johnson is looking at every aspect that could go into why some IQ s are higher than others.

Does The Dollhouse back up the Sleeper Curve theory? The Dollhouse has many ratings and viewing by different people. The New Yorker wrote about The Dollhouse and what they think about the episode. On March 2, 2009, Nancy Franklin stated, “What seems to be on Whedon’s mind in “The Dollhouse” is the question of identity. Who are we, and who are we in relation to other people? And who are they? The “dollhouse” here is a facility…” This is where Sleeper Curve comes into the story; it makes the viewer think. We can see who the character is but what we have to figure out is who the character is in the episode or episodes depending if it carries on to the next episode. All of the muli-threading and character mapping is what makes The Dollhouse a Johnson show. Yes, there are better rated and watched shows out there but the fact of the matter is, does The Dollhouse click with what Johnson is saying?

The Sleeper Curve that Johnson talks about in his book, Everything Bad Is Good For You, is big to what journalist have to say because people want to know about what is or isn’t helping us. In the novel, Everything Bad is Good For You, when Johnson was talking about Sleeper Curve he stated on page eleven, “The forces at work in these systems operate on multiple levels: underlying changes in technology that enable new kinds of entertainment; new forms of online communications that cultivate audience commentary about works of pop culture; changes in the economics of the culture industry that encourage repeat viewing; and deep-seated appetites in the human brain that seek out reward and intellectual challenges”. What this means is that not only is technology growing as we grow as a culture, but pop culture is also getting more challenging for us and that is what he calls the Sleeper Curve. So does The Dollhouse click with what Johnson has made clear to his readers? The Dollhouse has a lot going on with it, with its changing of characters inside characters inside of characters and it’s a lot to keep up with. For example, the character on the show, Echo, has three, sometimes more, characters in her in one episode. Sometimes she is brain dead, what they call and “active”, she is someone they dollhouse implants in her that the client has paid for, or she is Caroline, the character she first was before she became a doll. This is a lot to keep up with and most people would argue that it is in fact a big example of the Sleeper Curve. According to Johnson on page sixty-three, Everything Bad Is Good For You, “following multiple threads, keeping often densely interwoven plotlines distinct in your head as you watch”, and The Dollhouse has a lot to do with that.

There are many different journalists that speak about sleeper cure. The New York Times spoke on Sleeper Curve and stated, “I believe that the Sleeper Curve is the single most important new force altering the mental development of young people today, and I believe it is largely a force for good: enhancing our cognitive faculties, not dumbing them down.” They also went into how much violence there is in shows now and they are not helping us as a culture but that doesn’t rule out all shows. So from translation to this, The Dollhouse would be both a positive and negative show towards society. Yes, The Dollhouse has violence in it which according to The New York Times, plays a negative role in society. However it has strategy and sense in it that doesn’t make sense at first and makes us think. Like when a doll is programmed to be someone else that character is now a different character in the same body. Jumping right into the show would confuse someone, so you have to sit down and watch, think, put together. This is what Johnson is talking about, what people think is making us dumber is actually making us smarter. Johnson says the Sleeper Curve shows that shows are getting more and more mentally challenging as the medium evolves, not that pop culture is on a race to the bottom. Johnson is quick to the point on what he is trying to show everyone, and I believe that The Dollhouse is there to back him up.

Johnson makes it clear to the point how much shows have grown to the better of the benefit in the last thirty years. Johnson states, “This book is an old-fashioned work of persuasion that ultimately aims to convince you of one thing: that popular culture has, on average, grown more complex and intellectually challenging over the past thirty years.” For example, put the show Dollhouse next to an older show like, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you could see the tremendous amount on how much popular culture has grown like Johnson said it has done and will continue to do so. The way everything is played out it makes you think more and put situations together. Maybe this is because our technology has grown a massive amount and we are now able to do whatever we would want or maybe television is more available to everyone and is more accepted as time went on. Either way it is more complex and makes you think more. The flashing arrows have gone down a lot; even if there not completely gone they are much harder to spot. In the book, Everything Bad Is Good For You, Johnson states, “Television is growing increasingly rigorous. And the pace is accelerating- Thanks to change in the economics of the television business, and to change in the technology we rely on to watch.” Fox has grown a lot and the episodes they keep playing they keep rates on by how many people are watching their shows. Because the economy has in fact changed Fox has grown as well. If something isn’t getting a good rating they will not put another season on. People have expectations for shows now and they must be met.

According to Johnson, Flashing Arrows and what they actually do for pop culture do not help pop culture and the progress we have made. In Johnson book on page seventy-three he states, “a flashing arrow that gives the audience precisely the information they need to know I order to make sense of the ensuing plot.” This makes it much easier for the viewer and less challenging so it turns out to be bad. Flashing Arrows are planted in the show as a signpost to help the audience keep track of what is going on or what might happen. The Dollhouse has Flashing Arrows; things such as, music getting louder when something is happening, shadows creeping by, anything along that nature. For example when Echo was on the verge to discovering who the spy was inside the Dollhouse the music got louder and more intense. Where aren’t as nearly as many flashing arrows in Dollhouse as there are in a lot of older shows and this would be good towards the Sleeper Curve. This way it makes us as the watcher think more and strategize more.

Based off what Johnson has written in his book, Everything Bad Is Good For You, popular culture has grown and will continue to grow for time to come. Popular culture has not stop developing and growing and there are no signs saying it is going to stop anytime soon. Johnson has shown that television is not bad for you. Too much of anything is bad for someone; however television works your mind not destroys it. So with that said The Dollhouse does support what Johnson has to say in his book. Nothing is perfect but it certainly dose make you think!