Deconstructing Survivor

The L.A. Times has an interesting piece on academia?s reluctant acceptance of television as a scholarly medium. NYU Professor Toby Miller claims the assumption that "academics are above and superior to the audience" has evolved into the idea that "we should be of the audience, and understand its pleasures."

Meanwhile, purists continue to cringe at the notion of a Nietzschean interpretation of Cosmo Kramer.

Comments

[joe]

The New Republic just introduced their first TV critic this week.

[Lefty]

I confess to being a Survivor fan after first refusing to even look at it through the first series. I now believe each episode could be the subject of a graduate level sociology course. The tension between personal values versus winning and manipulation versus honesty is just fascinating. It's the human condition laid bare.

[Anonymous]

maybe because they'd prefer a nietzschean interpretation of andy kaufman 😀 the reality is so much weirder!

[Brad S]

Lefty - I think it's an interesting study of alliances and how they work. I think the study applies to any political alliance (i.e. the U.N., OPEC, etc) or business alliance (i.e. joint ventures) in the real world. In Survivor, alliances are always made early in the game as a means of ensuring mutual survival through strength in numbers. However, as the game goes along, personal interests take over and alliances invariably die. The lesson for the real world - alliances, by their very nature, are volatile and temporary. When they threaten to hold back the self-interests of any one of the alliance members, they necessarily break down.

[Lefty]

But it doesn't always hold. There are several? (at least one) instances of people giving up their personal interests for friendships and alliances and coming out on top. There was an older lady, can't remember her name or the episode, but it was very satisfying.

[Warren]

There is nothing more phony than "reality" TV

[Douglas Fletcher]

So, Lefty, the shipment finally came into town, huh?

[Gilbert Martin]

"There is nothing more phony than "reality" TV"

Absolutely.

There is nothing "real" about Survivor or any of the other so-called "reality" shows. They are really nothing more than new types of game shows.

If you want to see REAL survivial , watch some of the WW II documentary shows on the History Channel. Listen to some of the stories of soldiers who battled the Japanese at Iwo Jima or Okinawa - now that's survival.

[Nappy]

Huh, I'm a purist and didn't even know it. While browsing the Seinfeld book link, I wondered what was wrong with a simple "intro to philosophy" book.

[Sir Real]

Survivor ='s Game theory