i find it thoroughly amusing, the way that something as silly as the finale to a show like battlestar galactica can set itself up as an example of the relationship between creator and audience. i remember talking with my master in conservatory about the world we create when we produce a piece of music. we set up rules and lead the audience through the piece based on those rules. if the audience is really listening, they are playing a guessing game throughout the piece. “what will happen next?” as melodies unfold and harmonies swell, the audience tries to figure out where it leads. sometimes, they are fulfilled and othertimes they are surprised.
what i have learned is that the ratio of surprises to fulfillment needs to be skewed in favor of the audience being fulfilled. too many correct guesses means that the music is predictable and boring. but too few leaves the audience feeling like they don’t understand the rules of the world that you have created. thus they are left with a feeling of not having “gotten it.”
this happens all the time in literature and film. and, unfortunately for me, sci-fi. how many episodes of star trek: the next generation ended with someone saying “of course! it was the hitherto unknown particle that everyone in the future would have learned about in high school but no one watching the show could ever have guessed that blocked the transmission! silly us!”? it’s when the creator of the universe we’re inhabiting breaks his own rules or adds to them arbitrarily that we begin to feel less of a kinship with characters and their plight. perhaps it’s because it all feels too random. too much like the real world. there’s nothing the mind hates more than being unable to find some pattern.
i think that’s part of the problem with the relationship between the audience and much of the art music created in the twentieth century. there was no common vocabulary. no way for someone who was new to the universe to grab hold and begin to enjoy the ride. there were no rules to identify with.
but i’ve stepped away from my main point: changing the rules of a piece is welcome, within a tolerance. to keep the audience engaged requires a firm set of rules that are layed out at the beginning of the work and adhered to as tightly as is possible without crushing the creative spirit. altering things too radically once a work has begun can create a feeling of betrayal on the part of the audience and destroy the relationship between creator and audience that provides for a satisfying experience for both parties.
in short, making col. tigh a cylon really, really pissed me off. consider that series off my list for next season. until SG tells me i don’t have a choice in the matter.
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