But The Gervais Principle is a model of a tv show, not directly of reality. I haven’t seen the particular show, but most tv shows are not trying to model reality, but reflect it, and distorting it is fair and even expected. There’s an argument to be made that the distortions are what makes it interesting.
I think Rao is clearly trying to take a model from the show and present it as saying something meaningful about the world we live in and not just the world of the show.
Yes, I agree with that. Of course it’s meaningful! It wouldn’t be a reflection of reality if it wasn’t. But meaningful isn’t the same as complete or undistorted.
For example, I think it’s meaningful (maybe not the most insightful thing that could possibly be said, but meaningful) to talk about the original Star Trek in terms of head, heart, and gut as reflected in the characters of Spock, McCoy, and Kirk. I don’t think this covers everything that Star Trek is, or everything that those characters are, or everything that real people can be, but it’s an interesting pattern (and from there one can have some fun considering felt senses and gut feelings, because so often people use an even simpler model and just contrast head and heart, so I think it’s fun to consider the gut as Captain).
I saw The Gervais Principle as a way of looking at the show and at those aspects of reality that are reflected in the show (I read the whole thing for the reflections of reality, not the show analysis), and an interesting one, but not necessarily intended to be complete to every possibility (especially possibilities not explored in the show) or even...I mean, I’d have to read it again, but just as real people aren’t only one of head heart gut, in terms of The Gervais Principle, I thought there was some simplification going on, but I can’t actually remember if I thought the categories were more like personality types (which are usually a continuum), or like cultures, or like roles that one is forced into and then forced to act according to. I remember aspects of all of these, actually.
But The Gervais Principle is a model of a tv show, not directly of reality. I haven’t seen the particular show, but most tv shows are not trying to model reality, but reflect it, and distorting it is fair and even expected. There’s an argument to be made that the distortions are what makes it interesting.
Do you see this differently?
I think Rao is clearly trying to take a model from the show and present it as saying something meaningful about the world we live in and not just the world of the show.
Yes, I agree with that. Of course it’s meaningful! It wouldn’t be a reflection of reality if it wasn’t. But meaningful isn’t the same as complete or undistorted.
For example, I think it’s meaningful (maybe not the most insightful thing that could possibly be said, but meaningful) to talk about the original Star Trek in terms of head, heart, and gut as reflected in the characters of Spock, McCoy, and Kirk. I don’t think this covers everything that Star Trek is, or everything that those characters are, or everything that real people can be, but it’s an interesting pattern (and from there one can have some fun considering felt senses and gut feelings, because so often people use an even simpler model and just contrast head and heart, so I think it’s fun to consider the gut as Captain).
I saw The Gervais Principle as a way of looking at the show and at those aspects of reality that are reflected in the show (I read the whole thing for the reflections of reality, not the show analysis), and an interesting one, but not necessarily intended to be complete to every possibility (especially possibilities not explored in the show) or even...I mean, I’d have to read it again, but just as real people aren’t only one of head heart gut, in terms of The Gervais Principle, I thought there was some simplification going on, but I can’t actually remember if I thought the categories were more like personality types (which are usually a continuum), or like cultures, or like roles that one is forced into and then forced to act according to. I remember aspects of all of these, actually.
Yeah, I think that Rao is using the Office to illustrate what he sees as a real world pattern.