Fratzi.

march 3rd, 2016

Joining the ranks of Reactionary Internet Culture for a moment, because it's fun and i feel like it, the Coen brothers™ said something in the press the other day that irritated me:

As filmmakers, is it important or not important to consciously factor in concerns like diversity, I asked.

“Not in the least!” Ethan answered. “It's important to tell the story you’re telling in the right way, which might involve black people or people of whatever heritage or ethnicity—or it might not.”

“It's an absolute, absurd misunderstanding of how things get made to single out any particular story and say, ‘Why aren’t there this, that, or the other thing?’” added Joel. “It's a fundamental misunderstanding of how stories are written. So you have to start there and say, ‘You don’t know what you're talking about.’”

Wait this was the best part:

He continued: “You don't sit down and write a story and say, ‘I'm going to write a story that involves four black people, three Jews, and a dog,‘ — right? That's not how stories get written. If you don't understand that, you don't understand anything about how stories get written and you don't realize that the question you're asking is idiotic.”

Source: The Daily Beast

OOoooohhhh sssssssick burns! Idiotic! Don't know what we're talking about!! Not how stories are written!!! Like the Coen brothers™ are the prophets of storytelling. Like they received divine information on how to tell stories from the g0ds of storytelling.

You could think of it as a writing exercise, brothers. i loved Fargo. i loved Lebowski. The other Coen movies have come across as not‑as‑good retellings of those two. So maybe it's time to write a new movie. Maybe trying a new writing prompt would help.

What i got from this interview was that the Coen brothers™ just mean they feel comfortable writing the way they feel comfortable writing. As usual, defense is a function of terror at ever feeling uncomfortable. Think of all the people they would need to talk to to write black Lebowski. Think of all the friends they would need to make. Think of all the vulnerability they would feel. Very uncomfortable! i get that.

But it is not a time to feel comfortable. It is time to put our bodies against the machine.

Diversity is a major factor in the storytelling of DR DOG, btw. i'm excited for all the conversations i'll have to have, the friends i'll need to make, the things i'll need to learn in order to tell the story.

Hindi pulp fiction novels. Something i'm learning about for DR DOG. Source: Wikimedia