SOCIALIST REALISM ON SOAP OPERAS
James
as to why the wealthy characters on the soaps are allways portrayed in
a negative light ( Except MAC CORY Another World) while the poorer
ones are always the heroes ( Cliff Barnes on Dallas being a gigantic
exception). Another observation is if a character make a fortune or
even hints at being ambitious he or she turned into a demon from
hell, or if villian looses his / her fortune they turn into Pussy
cats.
Socialist Realism, an ideology enforced by the Soviet state as the
official standard for art, literature etc., was defined in 1934 at the
First All-Union Congress of Soviet writers. It was based on the
principle that the arts should glorify political and social ideals of
communism. Every artist had to join the "Union of Soviet Artists",
which was controlled by the state. The paintings had to be
idealisations of political leaders and communist ideas.
General Hospital, back in Gloria Monty's hey-day was ripe with this
type of storyline writing. If you see many old Soviet films the girl
would not fall in love with the hero in the story because he was kind
or handsome but because he could milk the most cows on the collective
farm or could make for steel than the other person and so forth.
How did this style of writing become so domminant on the soaps ?. Did
Liliian Hellman and many of the other communist writers that ran amok
in Hollywood from 1934-1948 have anything to do with it?. I would
appreciate any comments from any Screenwriters or TV writers on this
subject.
Steven J. Weller
atlan...@yahoo.com (James) wrote:
I think it's less political and more audience-driven. The people
watching the soaps aren't, by and large, people with a lot of money in
their pockets. If you're stuck at home during the day and watching
television, consistently (and you need to watch consistently to keep up
with a soap), it's probably because you can't afford to be doing
anything more interesting. Why would you want to watch a story about
how awful poor people are, and how money is what you really need to be
happy?
--
Life Continues, Despite
Evidence to the Contrary
Steven
rad0
of today's writers, except for the one guy, who didn't understand the
question,
says it all....
I'd bet if a soap star emerged, who was a producer portrayed as a hero,
happy, successful, attractive to boot, would become the most hated
character in the soap realm......
it'd be worth a try ;-)
"James" <atlan...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:5f754003.02121...@posting.google.com...
Jacques E. Bouchard
@rwcrnsc52.ops.asp.att.net:
> this is an interesting question, and the lack of responses from a group
> of today's writers, except for the one guy, who didn't understand the
> question,
> says it all....
Yeah, that we don't watch soaps...
jaybee
RonB
Exactly. Isn't there an alt.soap-opera.social-realism or some place
similiar were the social ramifications of soap operas can be discussed?
I would look it up, but I'm now spending all my free time at
alt.watch.paint-peel. It's much more entertaining and faster paced.
--
RonB
(using Mozilla 1.0 on Lycoris Linux)
Steven J. Weller
@rwcrnsc52.ops.asp.att.net:
>
>this is an interesting question, and the lack of responses from a group
>of today's writers, except for the one guy, who didn't understand the
>question, says it all....
As the guy who apparently didn't understand the question, I'm curious
about what it was I got wrong.
As I understood it, the question was, why does the writing of soap
operas reflect a particular political viewpoint? My answer was that
it's mostly a coincidence, in the same way that the slasher films of the
1980s reflected a decidedly anti-sex point of view without anyone
actually meaning to make that particular statement.