dissertation summary

just updating my blog here with a summary about my dissertation:

- What did you discover that was new?

When i started the dissertation i began with a vague idea about what i wanted to look at: grotesque characters, kind of thinking it would be more of an analytical approach. As my research went on and expanded I branched out into looking at the more psychological side of grotesque characters, why the audience respond in a more positive way than initially expected and the identities represented.

- What was enjoyable about this?

At the start i knew i would have to look at british politics in the 80's due to my subject matter of grotesque characters in The Young Ones. I prepared for a lot of bias concerning Thatcher and had to sift through this to find more objective views of this era. It was one of the more interesting aspects of my research, especially when it came to tying politics into alternative comedy and grotesque characters. Also interesting to note that certain grotesque characters only really worked as grotesques depending on the era in which they were shown. The 80's was a time of sitcoms that generally represented traditional family views so The Young Ones was seen as politically incorrect, much more so than it would be now.

- What was difficult?

The only really difficult thing was what was enjoyable about it; tying all my notes and research into a piece of coherent text. Also quite difficult was editing my essay to avoid repeating myself or rambling too much, quite a hard task having to delete 500 words because they've been said before or i could get my point across in a more concise way.

Also experienced the normal difficulties everyone had of citing and referencing. Especially hard as i have a horrible habit of not writing down where i got my info or quotes from. But i just took about a week to concentrate on just referencing and the more i did it, the easier it got.

- Summary:

The Design of The Grotesque: Explorations of Grotesque Characters in a Televised and Online World.

- Theme:

An analytical and psychological look at grotesque characters, what makes them popular, what is appealing about them when what they represent is unappealing.

- Main Points:

1) Grotesques in Television

looking at The Young Ones mainly, the context in which the show was made and broadcast, the representations and the comments it made on society

2) Avatars and their Representations

pyschology of cyberspace, what makes people design unnattractive avatars, what avatars represent

3) Absurdism and the Grotesque

more of a historical look at the grotesque from the Theatre of the Absurd and absurdist plays such as Waiting For Godot, tying this play in with Bottom and the Bottom Live shows.


Conclusion

Television and comedy in particular use grotesques as something that malign the government, other topical news items and also other television shows. Grotesques seemed to become political alibis and a inherent rejection of mainstream which paradoxically became additionally mainstream and if the current trend of comedy is anything to go by, will continue to rise in popularity becoming more conventional.

Despite The Young Ones not originally being a rebellion as such, that is what it became. It was a rebellion in the way that rock ’n’ roll and punk music was. As eras, music and deviancy changes it is expected that television could do the same or vice versa, TV being a reflection of modern life or modern life being a reflection of television. Current TV show Shameless is an example of this, taking the current situation of working class, yob-ism and political circumstances and satirising them then mirrors it back to the audience.

Design of the grotesque was a comment on society of the different eras and also a comment on the identities commonly associated with the era in which they were made. This device harks back to the time of the Theatre of the Absurd and Commedia Dell’arte.

As far as user designed avatars go, it is true that the computer is becoming less of a tool and more of a mirror. Avatars are reflective of personalities and of negative features that are prevalent due to the confidence the anonymity the internet gives. As technology increases in popularity in terms of what it can do, we may not be surprised to see not just grotesque avatars designed, but the possibility of grotesque virtual worlds as a whole.

Grotesque comedy and plays seemed to provide an alternative to the more generic forms of entertainment but in current times it seems that it takes preference over the more light-hearted, ‘family’ entertainment. Even online communities and web spaces such as flickr thrive on the pessimistic and sometimes brutal honesty, with many users becoming despondent with pithy and non-specific comments and threads. Perhaps the simplest answer is the correct one and that the reason why grotesqueness, and sometimes aggressiveness, is popular is that it is just more interesting.

Freud claimed that humans are intrinsically aggressive. It's one of the two basic drives that make us tick. We can control or over-ride it, but it's got to go somewhere.