Discipline and Painfotainment

As I continue research for my next project, a feature, I found myself with an interesting comparison - or rather, an intellectual link.

That is between Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish and Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast, specifically Painfotainment (a standalone episode). Foucault is ground zero for modern historical philosophy — or as I understand it to be called, “history of ideas”. Among his many explorations, Foucault analyzes the penal system across European history (especially delving into the moments of the extreme - torture and executions). As he does this, he revisits the codes and rationale for why they did things the way they did - how it evolved to what is it now - and why we’re not necessarily better off. It seems like that is the point behind working at the History of Ideas - to see if ideas in human society, and how those ideas change society, are really evolving or perhaps following a different trajectory. As Foucault intends, I believe, he just wants us to look at history’s rationales in every possible light and apply those lessons to our future.

Meanwhile, Carlin - who I’m a longtime fan of - seems to play the emotional counterpart to Foucault’s intellectual arguments. By that I mean, he revisits history and recreates it in such a way - as a storyteller for the audience - that they can understand the emotional and reactions and mindset of a certain people in a certain moment in history. It is really an incredible effect - how he sets up the relevant context for a historical situation (the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, attending a show at the Coliseum in ancient Rome, etc.) — and then links every bit of context to the potential inner thoughts of the people who allowed/participated/were affected by said historical event. He does this in contemporary terms, “it’d be as if X Y Z happened to you.” It makes for a thrilling sort of adventure ride through history, and more importantly - illuminates how and why people did the things they did in history. Where their ideas came into play, and how.

Ultimately, I think Carlin is continuing in Foucault’s footsteps. And this becomes a concrete connection between the two specific works I cited above. Carlin does a concise yet sweeping history of public executions and torture — trying to figure out why it was such a constant across societies in history up until modern times, and do those urges still live within us today? And at the outset, he cites Discipline and Punish - even referencing the same infamous example that Foucault does, the execution of Robert-Francois Damiens. Foucault tries to understand the ideals and rules of society that led to such a gruesome climax, how there might be instances of logic to learn from one way or the other — while Carlin works to understand what the people in the crowd, the prisoner, the executioner thought and felt as these rules were put into place. Carlin and Foucault go together wonderfully I think, though their subject matter is less wonderful - the full-bodied illumination that comes as a result of their combination is worth it.

TV Summit - Recordings

As noted in the earlier post, we were able to record the later two panels of the event — so I just wanted to share them here. Please note, they are not edited, polished, etc. They’re just the straight up recordings of the moderator and panelist discussions, followed by a 10-min Q&A afterwards. More information included on the Soundcloud page.

Showrunner’s Panel: https://soundcloud.com/eli-edelson/showrunner-panel-tv-aa-summit-12619

Writers’ Room Support Staff Panel: https://soundcloud.com/eli-edelson/writers-room-support-staff-panel-tv-aa-summit-12619

Hope you enjoy!

Free Solo

Had the good fortune to see Free Solo on IMAX last night, I believe it was part of a second theatrical run following its academy nomination. If you aren’t able to make it out to see it, I highly recommend watching the NYT short doc about the making of the film as well as Alex Honnold’s TED Talk. The former will give you a sense of the technical achievement of the film crew to actually pull off this film (as well as the extreme emotional and moral questions that such a film crew faces while observing a free solo climb). And the TED Talk gives you a brief window into Alex’s mindset, his philosophy towards the climb as well as how he literally did it - the mental preparation needed.

The documentary will cover all these topics, though it’s light on the technical climbing and heavier on the emotional stakes. But more importantly, the film gives you a true and transparent window into Honnold’s psychology and drive. To me, the only thing more impressive than Honnold’s physical achievement is the way his mind has evolved towards this singular task. The flip-side of that evolution is the detachment he has from humanity. That may sound harsh, but it’s not like he’s a sociopath. The film shows his detachment from those people he loves in life, detachment from the effects his choices have on them. But also, some serious level of detachment from his own humanity: vulnerability, pride, freedom of choice. The film doesn’t dwell on how Honnold is a sort of trapped man, but it gazes it at directly from time to time - in between gasp-inducing moments. It celebrates him and questions at the same time. For all those reasons, and the sheer breathtaking and terrifying visual roller coaster ride, I highly recommend.

EDIT: wanted to add this link to an article that explores Honnold’s philosophy further. I don’t think the author’s comparison to our country’s culture is particularly fruitful, but otherwise it’s an interesting perspective that applauds Honnold’s pursuit of perfection and truth and optimistically spins his outlook on appreciating life.

Research vs. Writing

I’m on day two of my research for my next feature but already, perhaps prematurely, starting to worry about when I should stop researching and switch to the actual writing. Or is there an ideal equilibrium to be achieved by researching part of the day and writing otherwise? It seems like it’d make the most sense to collect all the relevant information first, take in any information that might add to the depth of the characters and the authenticity of the story. But at the same time, is there a maximum amount of intel that can be reached - and even overflow to the point where I feel overwhelmed? I think my strategy will be research until it stops being exciting and starts being fatiguing. Can always take a writing break to add to the research stockpile later.

New Project, Finally

Well, it took me some time to finally land on what project I’m going to work on next. This was a first time true struggle for me — usually I only have the one or two ideas and know what I want to write next. This time, I had about 4 vague feature ideas, 3 TV ideas, and a couple that honestly could’ve been pressed into either mold. I’d say it took me about 2 weeks of hard thinking (or trying to avoid over-thinking) where I should go: which would be most sell-able, which format I should add to my portfolio, which I would write the best in this moment, etc. etc. Each filter has its own pros and cons. Today I really just sat down and made a list of every possible idea that’d make sense to pursue. Then I forced myself to meditate on what it’d really be like to see each one through. I found that some were just not possible, others I wasn’t as excited about as I thought. I finally landed on a feature. A drama. Character study. One inspired by a real life person. The research aspect of it really hooked me, I think. There’s already somewhat of a story there, which comforts me. We’ll see where it goes!

End of a Film - End of a Dream

Thought-errant: that your reaction to the intentionally ambiguous end of a film is akin to your recalling a dream just after you’ve woken up. In both cases, your emotional and intellectual thought processes are sort of blurred together along with your memory — so, in my opinion, whatever you interpret to have happened (along with its intended meaning) is entirely, legitimately up to you. Is the ending of the film optimistic or pessimistic? Was the end of the dream foreboding or celebratory? Your emotional and intellectual journey to that moment determines what you think, and that process is entirely unique to you. In the case of the dream, it’s your own imagination that’s led you there. In the case of the film, it’s someone else’s imagination.

Show Update #2

Well, that was a whirlwind day. The writers have about three and a half days to apply revisions before sending off to the showrunner - who in turn has about two days to apply his passes to all four scripts and send to the production company before he flies off to another country, very far away, for set. I’ll be off on my own for a little while now, working on my own projects… I’m sure I’ll be writing many posts as a form of procrastination, about procrastination, as I struggle to decide on my next project.

Show Update

After a little over two week of no writers’ room, wherein every writer was off to script (EP5-8) and the showrunner worked on everything else happening with the show (EP1-2 in production, revisions to EP3-4, trying to cast up and fill out the rest of the show), we are finally back! But it’s only for a day. One marathon day to review four scripts, talk about the writing calendar (and the showrunner’s travel schedule, I imagine). He flies out to set next week, so it’s likely we’ll try to get revisions done over the weekend and get them to the production company before he flies out. Very TBD if we’ll get the notes back in time and even when we do, and he’s gone to set for a month, I truly don’t know what’s supposed to happen then. Perhaps the whole rest of the writing process will be put on pause while the showrunner is on set. Perhaps the writers will be able to continue working their drafts in the meantime. It’s hard to say. But, I’ll report back tomorrow!

Cataloging Inspiration

Something that’s occurred to me in recent weeks, having witnessed the dialogue of a very well-read writers’ room as well as the TV Summit panels, is that a writer needs to be a catalog of their own sources of creative inspiration. This goes back to my previous post about using culture / movie / TV / book references like currency in the writers’ room. It’s the general notion that, as a writer, I shouldn’t just be reading to enjoy something - I should also keep a part of my brain on that stores those brilliant moments of enjoyment away, new tools in the toolbox. Whether it’s a quote for an opening page, a character quirk (or entire arc), a visual terror, all potential moments to conscientiously savor and record. The trick for me now is getting my brain to do that…

Alice's Last Adventure - Ligotti

I’ve been making my way through Thomas Ligotti’s collection of short stories “Songs of a Dead Dreamer” and his other collection “Grimscribe.” He’s a hero of the weird horror community and generally a cult figure in modern literature. I’ve only read a handful of his stories so far, but he reminds me a lot of Laird Barron — though I believe Ligotti was on the scene well before him. He messes with reality as comfortably as Denis Johnson but, like Barron, he keeps it from getting too lyrical and fever-dream ish. Things always seem to be horrifically clear, as to the visuals and situations, even if you don’t really know what’s happening beneath the surface. So far, it seems, Ligotti also pulls no punches. Things don’t end happily, and they don’t end the way you’d expect either. I originally was drawn to him when he came up in a conversation in the writers’ room I work in, in regards to True Detective. Allegedly, Pizzolato lifted integral sections from Ligotti’s non-fiction work and dumped them right into the mouths of his characters (Rust Cohle especially) — there’s been controversy over whether it qualifies as plagiarism ever since. But what more drew me to Ligotti was that our showrunner was so horrified (in a good way) of his work — that he “can’t even bring himself to read a lot of his work now that he has kids, and now that the world is so fucked up.” Well, that was enough for me!

So far, my favorite story has been “Alice’s Last Adventure” which is about an ageing, alcoholic author who came to fame (and perhaps is entirely defined by) a series of children’s books she wrote — and the odd things she starts to experience. It is indeed creepy and treads the uncanny valley and delivers some awesome horror. But it is also a totally brilliant character study. And to me, the horror was a nice reflection of her psyche but I only enjoyed the scares because they reflected her character. The woman’s voice, as narrator, is so entirely authentic its almost unsettling — that an author can create this character so wholly and then torture her in the unique way that he does. I’m beginning to think that this is why Ligotti is known as an underground great. Because, to him, the character and voice of the story is the source of any horror the story may later come to be known for…