What is the Irresistible Appeal of the Ordinary?

Hollywood writers and directors have some very uncanny abilities to turn dreary and dull tales and turn them into a narratable (and veritable) gold mine. Take for instance the seemingly dull and seemingly innocuous task of computer programming as depicted in the movie “The Social Network”.[1] In what has been viewed as a rather bland and monotonous field, computer code programming and cyber networking has been elevated in this movie to a gyrating mixture of sexual desire, intrigue, deception, and greed. All of the requisite plot elements of a successful suspense and drama movie are readily apparent and used quite liberally (to the writers success). There is abundant alcohol use fueling sexual desire and bad decisions. Also, there is the effective, and again very liberal, use of narrative device for dramatic purposes. The writers use a first person narration technique coupled with a very non linear timeline that jumps forwards and backwards in time through the use of analepsis and prolepsis, as if the writers studied narrative theorist Gerard Gennette narrative structures to over perfection[2], to elevate this type of subject beyond the mundane and ordinary world of computer programming. Missing are the sterile fluorescent lights of academic and office spaces, gone are the unsexy bright white computer screens that populate offices and classrooms in real life. Writers have replaced many of the open and common spaces of life and work with much more satisfying and condensed spaces. Instead of where these activities may normally occur, writers have condensed these spaces into a sense of smallness and exclusivity, thereby successfully milking all of the appeal that a behind closed doors approach brings. In the absence of reality, writers have replaced normal surroundings with darkened rooms, narrow spaces and corridors. Dark moody lighting has been added throughout the set, as well as dimly lit computer screens, all of which brings forth a darker more seductive dramatic ambiance. The usual quietness that accompanies academic and traditional work has been replaced with pulsating deep-bass added music, which introduces a sense of urgency and frenzy to the otherwise quiet world of programming.

The writers and director of the “Social Network” should be commended for their ability to turn what in many instances would be viewed as an otherwise unnaratable subject and instead turned it into a very narratable film for many audiences. This movie is a very well crafted and narrated tale. I however, could not get past my suspension of disbelief for the very same reason that this movie was simultaneously effective. It was the overly dramatic and liberal use of narrative devices and plot cues of Hollywood that I could not see past. In most every scene that was depicted, I was constantly thinking to myself how it would be in actuality, because of how seductive and unreal each and every scene appeared. I am sure that the talented writers and director of “The Social Network” can and will be able to turn the next mundane and ordinary task into next summer’s big and overly dramatic blockbuster. I enjoyed the movie, but could not make the leap from watching just a movie, into witnessing actual events that the writers may have been trying to transmit to me.

[1] The Social Network (2010). Directed by David Fincher. Columbia Pictures.

[2] GENETTE, G., Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method, trans. Jane Lewin, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980.