Steven Johnson, author of the National Bestseller Everything Bad is Good for You, believes that the world of media is intellectually stimulating. Johnson’s Sleeper Curve ideas are all around us and in all forms of media showing us that there is more to a particular medium than what meets the eye. Video games, television shows, movies, and even the internet all show signs of intellectually activity just underneath the surface. Johnson explains how the forms of media are good for us and actually help us out by increasing our brain's activity.
The television series Fringe, created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, is a science fiction television series that first aired on September 9, 2008. The show is about an FBI “Fringe” Division based out of Boston, Massachusetts. Fringe follows FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), scientist Walter Bishop (John Noble), and his son Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) as they investigate different unexplained occurrences (genetic mutation, teleportation, artificial intelligence, etc) throughout the world.
The Sleeper Curve is Steven Johnson’s theory that popular culture in the form of media “has, on average, grown more complex and intellectually challenging…” (xv). Johnson formulated his ideas from George Will’s when he said “I see a progressive story: mass culture growing more sophisticated, demanding more cognitive engagement with each passing year” (xv).
Steven Johnson’s theories and ideas on the Sleeper Curve are very apparent in the television series Fringe. Fringe has everything from the social networking to the flashing arrows which show opposition to Johnson’s theories. Another key factor in Fringe would be the full force of multithreads. I have not seen one episode of Fringe where there has not been multiple scenarios going on during the same episode. Every Fringe episode is a twisted web helping to implement Johnson’s sleeper curve theory.
Social networking for Fringe is a tangled web of characters (Figure 1). Although is small compared to other shows like CSI and Everybody Loves Raymond, yet complex. Most all of the characters are related in some way shape or form, but it is not as easy as them hanging out to notice it. For some of the networks one would have to start watching the series and stick with to understand what is going on; it for instance Agent Dunham is only connected to the CEO of Massive Dynamics Nina Sharp by what she knows of when she participated in drug trials as a child. In Figure 1 above, is one of Johnson’s character webs, this character web displays characters from the television series Fringe. Above is a web of nine characters all connected (displayed with connecting lines).
Figure 1
While flashing arrows are against Johnson’s Sleepers Curve, they are apparent in Fringe; flashing arrows appear in the music, visions, and even when cretin people show up in a seen. There is one particular man that shows up in every episode. This man tall – white – baldheaded, is known only as The Observer; will show up randomly at any given time, and once he shows up something happens to alter the story line for that particular episode. Fringe uses it music to its advantage; the music is used build up suspense and adds dramatic effect and after the build up something might happen, but then again sometimes nothing happens at all. There is one other flashing arrows that is very apparent in almost every episode. This flashing arrow comes in the form of Special Agent Olivia Dunham dreams that she often has. In almost every episode Agent Dunham has a dream or nightmare that shows what could come later in the episode, but this is not always true; Agent Dunham has even had dreams of her past that help to peace together a mystery.
Fringe is a television series with few multithreads per episode. Unlike CSI Miami which can end an episode with three separate story lines Fringe is lucky to go one episode with more than a single story line. Johnson’s idea of multithreads make a television show more complex due to the overwhelming number of items that one must comprehend at any given time during the show.
While Fringe is a great example of Johnson’s Sleeper Curve theory, it does not cover all of his complete thoughts. In the television section of Everything Bad is Good For You, Fringe covers every section including the part disproving Johnson (Flashing Arrows). Johnson goes on in his book to talk about video games, movies, the internet, and how they growing more complex and intellectually stimulating. Although Fringe does not completely fulfill Johnson’s theory it is a prime example for supporting some of Johnson’s arguments in the section on television.
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