Sonic Youth Gossip - View Single Post - Short Story Corner -- "The Swimmer"

!@#$%! · 02.26.2013, 11:58 AM

eh, who gives a fuck how many people talk about it. good thread and good idea. just a dead board. don't sweat it. better than have some lunatic drooling nonsense to fill space, no? besides, i've enjoyed a story i wouldn't have bothered revisiting otherwise. so thanks for that.

anyway, i'd be down with further dissecting of this story as long as it doesn't turn into useless "theory" shit. but yeah. connections are good. for fun.

thing about this story is it brought 2 things to mind: one is death of a salesman (which i mentioned) where the full psychology of these characters is fleshed out, the other was mad men. oh yeah i mentioned mad men too-- same era, same... same setting, everything, and i wouldn't be surprised that john cheever and other writers of the era were heavily read by the writers of this show.

which brings me to something else entirely. i was watching the extras on the homeland disc the other day and they interview the staff writers. turns out that while they all work together in the story, each writer sort of "specializes" in a character/issue/something in the show. for example, one was a soldier in the middle east. another grew up in the diplomatic world of washington dc. another learned all she could about bipolar disorder. etc, etc.

anyway, back to the original subject-- it occurred to me then (this isn't new, but whatever) that tv writers today (because they are on cable, because they are allowed to have their way with things) are achieving what the novel attempted to do in the past-- you know the whole discussion about the "polyphonic novel" and the brothers karamazov, right? or what joyce said (in the portrait i think) that shakespeare disappeared behind his characters.

here's the funny thing, see, that a single author could not do. that "true" poliphony, in a way-- not one person pretending to be many, but many people fighting it out on the page. i think it's fucking brilliant.

i'm trying to think of a "3rd world problem" kind of story but i don't know how they might survive in translation and it doesn't matter so much anyway and eh.. but ... hm... i don't know, i didn't sleep much last night and now i'm rambling.

ha ha, anyway-- i don't give a shit about mass participation, good conversation is all that counts. so, hm, yeah, your turn to say something, ha ha.

02.26.2013, 11:58 AM	#10
!@#$%! invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: mars attacks Posts: 42,457	eh, who gives a fuck how many people talk about it. good thread and good idea. just a dead board. don't sweat it. better than have some lunatic drooling nonsense to fill space, no? besides, i've enjoyed a story i wouldn't have bothered revisiting otherwise. so thanks for that. anyway, i'd be down with further dissecting of this story as long as it doesn't turn into useless "theory" shit. but yeah. connections are good. for fun. thing about this story is it brought 2 things to mind: one is death of a salesman (which i mentioned) where the full psychology of these characters is fleshed out, the other was mad men. oh yeah i mentioned mad men too-- same era, same... same setting, everything, and i wouldn't be surprised that john cheever and other writers of the era were heavily read by the writers of this show. which brings me to something else entirely. i was watching the extras on the homeland disc the other day and they interview the staff writers. turns out that while they all work together in the story, each writer sort of "specializes" in a character/issue/something in the show. for example, one was a soldier in the middle east. another grew up in the diplomatic world of washington dc. another learned all she could about bipolar disorder. etc, etc. anyway, back to the original subject-- it occurred to me then (this isn't new, but whatever) that tv writers today (because they are on cable, because they are allowed to have their way with things) are achieving what the novel attempted to do in the past-- you know the whole discussion about the "polyphonic novel" and the brothers karamazov, right? or what joyce said (in the portrait i think) that shakespeare disappeared behind his characters. here's the funny thing, see, that a single author could not do. that "true" poliphony, in a way-- not one person pretending to be many, but many people fighting it out on the page. i think it's fucking brilliant. i'm trying to think of a "3rd world problem" kind of story but i don't know how they might survive in translation and it doesn't matter so much anyway and eh.. but ... hm... i don't know, i didn't sleep much last night and now i'm rambling. ha ha, anyway-- i don't give a shit about mass participation, good conversation is all that counts. so, hm, yeah, your turn to say something, ha ha.
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