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Chapter 7 Narrative: Playing Pundit In addition to talk about appearance and characterizations, the girls and young women I talked to often spontaneously recited plots. By their own reports, this happened frequently in their private conversations: When I asked what they talked about when they discussed the show, they typically responded: "I just mainly talk about what happened"; "Sometimes like, you know, we'll go out, and it'll be a couple nights [after] the episode 's on and we'll just start, you know talking like, 'Did you see what happened that night?' and we'll just talk about what happened." Often this talk served to fill in gaps when viewers missed something: "We tell each other what happened. If I missed five or so minutes, if my phone rings and I'm on it, I'll be like, 'What happened during that part I was on phone?' [ ... ] Just what happened on the show"; "Usually we talk about what happened [ ... ] like if someone has missed it or something like that, kind of like a fill-in type of thing, and if you know, just like what happens, stuff like that." In fact, my second interview with seventh-graderJane provided a concrete example of this process. I asked her if she had talked about the episode we had watched together four days previously. She responded in language exemplifying the way her community collapsed its thoughts in perfect assurance of a common understanding: "My friend in 'C' [a school division] [ ... ] asked me what it was about and I told her. [ ... ] Told her that urn-they got married and that she's going to keep the baby. And that they moved out from David. So I told 'em." Underpinning this talk are the themes that have been explored in the chapters on appearance and characterization. Indeed, fertile new ways to understand these themes can be found in examination of plot recitations . In addition, this chapter introduces the rather disturbing way in which viewers handed authority to the text, "playing pundit" as they competed for most plots recited or best reading of producers' minds. As I worked to understand what this process could mean, I uncovered another layer of the 90210 experience: Talk about plots could link self- 116 Chapter 7 narrative and fictional narrative to accomplish identity work. Throughout this book, I argue that this blending of narratives is a central process of enculturation- and hegemonic perpetuation of the status quo. Narrative, Expertise, and Community On examining talk about plots, one of the first conclusions I reached was that, as with talk about appearance and characterizations, a primary function was to build and maintain community. As has already been seen, in some cases it was the community of viewers that was buttressed . As indicated by Jane's blind pronouns quoted above ("they got married, she's going to keep the baby, they moved out from David"), so much already has been shared in the viewer community that a verbal shorthand, cryptic to outsiders, was perfectly intelligible to others in the group. More frequently, however, narrations solidified the community with the characters observed in the last chapter. This process can be seen in the following typical account. This viewer was describing a moment in which Dylan says he will "be there" for David, should David need help in kicking his drug habit, just as David supported Dylan when Dylan's father died: CASEY: Last week, when, uh, urn, David was really strung outG : Dh huh. CASEY: -and Dylan went out and talked to him and goes, "You remember when you did this for me." And to like someone who didn't watch it all the time wouldn't remember. [ ... ] But they didn't have to explain everything about like the father, the death, or anything. Because regular viewers are a part of the community of characters, in the know, "they didn't have to explain." Long-time viewers will remember about "the father, the death" -everything. And this knowledge creates a pleasurable community between Casey and the characters. Viewer enjoyment of this community with characters frequently was evident. For example, pleasure echoes through the following recitation of a complex moment where talk about the show reinforced both community with characters and community with friends, as two viewers inadvertently fooled an eavesdropper: MEETRA: He thought we were talking 'bout real people. JOAN: -real people. 'Cause the way we were talking about their names and stuff. MEETRA: Cause we were just saying, you know, "Oh...

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