Jim Charter wrote:
> Warp wrote:
>> Captain Jack <Cap### [at] comcastnet> wrote:
>>> In acting classes that I have attended as well as taught, we talk
>>> about "two dimensional characters", "cardboard cutouts", and
>>> "characters with no depth", all referring to the same thing.
>>
>>   Btw, was the original expression "two-dimensional character" (meaning a
>> character with no depth), after which some people started using an
>> exaggerated version of the expression, "one-dimensional character" in
>> their desire to say "a really, really flat character", and after years
>> of using that, it has basically replaced the original expression and thus
>> everybody nowadays says "one-dimensional character" when they really mean
>> what "two-dimensional character" meant originally?
>>
> That is probably it, yeah.  Though extending the metaphor in that way
> does yield some useful ideas.
> 
> That the character lacks all dimensionality except as a single thrust,
> or file.  Hints at the
> possibility of a no-dimensional character, a single point, useful as a
> reference, a position, and that is all.

Would that no-dimensional character be the guy that a main character
bumps into on a street, calls the main character a jerk, and then is
never seen again? Those characters show up all the time in comedies, but
I am having trouble thinking of any in a drama that did not end up so
simply because of editing.

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