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timeline over a period of decades creates a range of time-based perplexities for animated series like The
Simpsons, perplexities which do not present an ultimate solution, and which encompass issues including how our understandings of fictional characters and of our own lives are informed by time-dependent phenomena including coming of age at particular points in world history, growing older, experiencing and expecting change, and accumulating experience and a biography to inform our sense of past, present and future. Sustained theoretical discussion of these issues is beyond the scope of a short article and the disciplinary territories of its writers. What follows is offered principally as a critical discussion of a popular and culturally-significant animated television series, which also attempts to relate the experience of time offered by The Simpsons to the varied experiences of time offered elsewhere on television, but which is ultimately committed to demonstrating the peculiarity, perhaps even the uniqueness, of how time works in The Simpsons, which it has achieved by virtue of being (i) an extraordinarily long-running, (ii) animated, and (iii) a television sitcom.
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one place to another, the number of fat sitcom dads with surprisingly attractive wives, video games where you can literally bring people back from the dead unless they are killed in a cut scene... again, you can make lots of funny observations about our entertainment. But articles need to be more than a short description of a trope, let alone an endless list of fiction that fits those tropes, based on
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682:, the characters never age. Therefore, a number of inconsistencies are evident in the way that memories function for the characters. One famous example of this is found in the discrepancy between two episodesā"I Married Marge" (3.12) and "That '90s Show" (9.11). In the former, a flashback shows us that Homer and Marge conceived Bart in 1980 after watching
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in which the characters do not age throughout the course of 27 seasons. Maintaining this floating timeline allows RGB to update and rewrite his characters without having to represent their aging process and the social consequences of such impoverished living conditions and upbringing. His characters
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was intended to be a realistic audiovisual comedy dealing with issues of childhood and inner-city poverty on a never-ending floating timeline. In other words, the characters are not allowed to grow old and therefore we can only trace the parallels and equivalences between El Chavo and the childhood
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As noted above, one of the 'rules' of the 'comic-book time' or 'floating timeline' trope is that 'you never refer to specific dates'. The
Simpsons occasionally eschews such a restriction ā for example, in two famous (one of them, perhaps, infamous) episodes in which we learn about Homer and Margeās
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of examples that's been thrown in by various fans. There's nothing to say here except a lot of long-running series are pretty inaccurate when it comes to characters' ages and real-world context. Other mundane plot holes you can criticize about fiction: the elasticity of how long it takes to go from
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take on their own future is their lack of loyalty to a singular view. Of course there are certain consistent broad strokesāLisa's success, Bart's failings, Maggie's independenceābut their Magic 8 Ball, scattered take on multiple outcomes makes the case that anything could be possible. Such is the
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Dittmer, for example, argues that "the tyranny of the serial" enforces a "structural limitation" on comic book discourse. Wolf-Meyer 82 and Hughes 83 make similar points and all use Moore and Gibbon's
Watchmen to illustrate their arguments, comparing the finite narrative of Watchmen with ongoing
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There are several parallels between LƔzaro de Tormes and El Chavo del Ocho: their names do not derive from their biological parents but from place names; their various trades and occupations; and the early age at which they are forced to fend for themselves. However, while LƔzaro grows up in the
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The
Simpsons does not adhere neatly and consistently to any one of the above tropes. Predominantly, we will suggest, it utilizes a 'floating timeline', but not, as we point out, without deviations or complications. Moreover, as we demonstrate, the sustained deployment of a predominantly floating
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have forced themselves into a loop that they must ultimately return to. They thus affirm the present, which equates to a symbolic affirmation of the way things are or the status quo. Of course, there are exceptions. For instance, when Maude
Flanders dies, she really does stay dead ("Alone Again,
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Comic-Book Time, it is suggested, uses 'the illusion of time passing. You never refer to specific dates if you can help it, and you let characters change, but only a little' (emphasis in original). This trope, it is claimed, 'is also quite frequently called a floating timeline' (emphasis in
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There is some idea here but the name and content are not reliably sourced in a way to justify an article. Basically this can be addressed in article where it applies, beause there are lots of different ways it plays out, with multiple reboots and the like coming into
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The show operates on the basis of a "floating timeline," where the characters never age. Bart has been in the fourth-grade class of EEdna
Krabappel since the first episode of the show. His mother, Marge, has even been quoted as saying, "It seems like he's been 10
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Sources found talking about it, plus i click Google news search link at the top of the AFD and I see more. Whether this can be merged into another article that covers additional things as well, can be discussed on the talk page of the relevant articles.
52:. Okay, I see a pretty reasonable consensus to not delete outright. Whether or not to merge can be determined at a discussion outside of AfD (it shouldn't need to be said that this close doesn't preclude a merge discussion, it invites it). ā
694:, time does not seem to move on, and this means that, by and large, things do not really change. This subverts the typical purpose of narrative, which is to create a narrative arc in which characters grow and circumstances change. Because
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at a movie theater. In the latter, Marge and Homer are at an earlier stage in their relationship, before conceiving Bart, and yet this is set in the 1990s. Despite this discrepancy, the age of the characters remains the same in the
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is under the assumption that no time has passed from the previous week. No matter how many decades the show's run endures, Bart will always be 10 years old, Lisa will be eight, and Maggie will be sucking on her
398:(Abstract: "This article uses two groups of case-study episodes to explore the complexities and perplexities that arise from the long-running use of a āfloating timelineā within The Simpsons."), the book
1132:, per Andrew. As mentioned by Jontesta, even those found sources do very little but give a basic definition of the term, which is not really enough to actually develop an independent article. But, the
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890:... As mentioned before, the floating timeline keeps the events represented in an everlasting present that permits RGB to rewrite, or at least to attempt to rewrite, some of the episodes.
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superhero narratives, whose ending is always indefinitely delayed in a "continuous present" as Eco called it (or "floating timeline" as the comics community sometimes refers to it 84).
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works with a floating timeline. A floating timeline is a plot device used to explain or explain away inconsistencies in the way that events and characters exist within a world. In
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original), and it is that label this article will use, as it captures well the idea of a fictional world which lacks a fixed timeframe with respect to both period and duration.
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exists in a floating timeline typical of most animated shows. Due to the fact that the show's writers don't have to accommodate the aging of their actors, every episode of
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have no future, reality never varies for them, and thus they never face the sociopolitical consequences of the injustices represented in both the book and the TV series.
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Nevertheless, in the presence of this floating timeline and because of this insistence upon a perpetual present, things must by and large remain the same in world of
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own style of the floating timeline. It is a creative device to add new life season by season, allowing it to endure way beyond what any of us thought possible.
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The article as it stands is not properly sourced. However, I believe an appropriate article could be written, using sources like, e.g., the journal article
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Its a fairly common plot device, which I knew about donkeys ago, and as a concept and dictionary definition, with some depth to it, its worth keeping.
1111:. The issue of handling aging and time in fiction is obviously a thing but the sources seem quite weak and so we should consolidate to boil it down.
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even with the sources found, they all retread the same basic dictionary definition. Knowledge is not a dictionary. Would also support a redirect to
245:. There isn't any significant coverage in third party sources to write anything other than a short description and a list of examples. Fails the
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Natura-Diddily" 11.14), and when Apu
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referenced in that book, and other works of media criticism. This appears to be a term and concept in use which has received some coverage.
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1062:ā The concept is clearly notable (see above). The article is clearly under-sourced. That's not a combination suitable for AfD. --
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it is a genuinely valid literary concept which is worth keeping here. I agree the article should be given a bit more sourcing. --
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The only hits I got in Gbooks search was for Adobe Flash. This doesn't seem like a prominent term, and the article is largely a
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Aguasaco, Carlos (2017). "From the
Picaresque Novel to El Chavo del 8". In Friedrich, Daniel; Colmenares, Erica (eds.).
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Aguasaco, Carlos (2017). "From the
Picaresque Novel to El Chavo del 8". In Friedrich, Daniel; Colmenares, Erica (eds.).
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has a floating timeline that keeps the character frozen in time as a perpetual eight-year-old. In this sense,
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article, as suggested by Andrew, would be the proper broad topic in which it could be adequately covered.
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The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below.
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Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's
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The
Simpsons' Beloved Springfield: Essays on the TV Series and Town That Are Part of Us All
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The Simpsons' Beloved Springfield: Essays on the TV Series and Town That Are Part of Us All
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Davis, Amy M.; Gilboy, Jemma; Zborowski, James (2015). "How Time Works in The Simpsons".
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Davis, Amy M.; Gilboy, Jemma; Zborowski, James (2015). "How Time Works in The Simpsons".
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Resonances of El Chavo del Ocho in Latin American Childhood, Schooling, and Societies
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Resonances of El Chavo del Ocho in Latin American Childhood, Schooling, and Societies
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The Posthuman Body in Superhero Comics: Human, Superhuman, Transhuman, Post/Human
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The Posthuman Body in Superhero Comics: Human, Superhuman, Transhuman, Post/Human
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in any order without necessarily feeling any sense of dislocation or confusion.
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follows a narrative procedure similar to that of the animated TV series
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100 Things The Simpsons Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
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100 Things The Simpsons Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate.
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to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
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takes place in the perpetual present, the people who create
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This article is entirely original research. There's a short
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list of Comics and animation-related deletion discussions
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list of Fictional elements-related deletion discussions
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novel, learns new trades and eventually gets married,
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per the significant coverage in multiple independent
1089:Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks,
759:under the aging of their actors, every episode of
1010:Knowledge:Notability#General notability guideline
642:Waltonen, Karma; Du Vernay, Denise, eds. (2019).
440:Waltonen, Karma; Du Vernay, Denise, eds. (2019).
43:). No further edits should be made to this page.
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342:Note: This discussion has been included in the
323:Note: This discussion has been included in the
304:Note: This discussion has been included in the
285:Note: This discussion has been included in the
344:list of Literature-related deletion discussions
287:list of Television-related deletion discussions
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106:Help, my article got nominated for deletion!
1045:, where youād say that cartoons donāt age.
964:100 People Who Changed 20th-Century America
911:Jeffery, Scott (2016). Sabin, Roger (ed.).
601:100 People Who Changed 20th-Century America
557:Jeffery, Scott (2016). Sabin, Roger (ed.).
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396:"How Time Works in The Simpsons"
91:Introduction to deletion process
18:Knowledge:Articles for deletion
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967:. Santa Barbara, California:
648:. Jefferson, North Carolina:
604:. Santa Barbara, California:
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247:general notability guideline
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690:For the entire duration of
573:10.1057/978-1-137-54950-1_3
81:(AfD)? Read these primers!
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