David Simon and The Wire

[Genco_Olive_Oil]

Hey all. On Thursday afternoon David Simon, the creator of The Wire, is giving a lecture at my college. I'm required to attend as part of my American Studies course. It's entitled "The Audicity of Despair." I haven't seen much of the show. Can you "Wire" fans suggest some questions that would be germane to this topic? Thanks.

 

[Dickens Cider]

"Why did you kill off Stringer Bell, you ****?"

 

[DanOregon]

I always wondered why McNulty went back to the bottle in the last season, he'd hooked up with Beadie, things seemed to be going well in his life, then he started catting around again.
But generally, I'd ask him who his movie/TV influences were.

 

[heyabbott]

Ask him why he overtly skewered the police, the newspapers, the school and politicians but never dealt directly with the general population that was benignly ignorant of the evils of the system. Also, judges were treated much too kindly. Take from someone who knows, first hand.

 

[jgmacg]

Ask him if he ever worked metro with Charles Dickens.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Is Dickens the guy who plagiarized his way to a Pulitzer?

 

[RossLT]

"Why did you kill off Stringer Bell, you ****?"

Exactly.

You could ask him what it was like to create the greatest drama in the history of TV.

 

[PeteyPirate]

Dickens worked preps at one point.

"It was a tale of two halves."

 

[schiezainc]

Ask him if it's at all symbolic that his television series never got the attention it deserved from the American public, much the same way the issues he raised were also ignored.

Also, ask him how the hell someone can kill himself just by sitting down with a belt around his neck. I never got that.

 

[zeke12]

Ask him if The Greek represents unfettered capitalism.

 

[The Big Ragu]

He represents feta'd capitalism.

 

[ArnoldBabar]

"Why did you kill off Stringer Bell, you ****?"

"Why did you kill off Omar, you ****?"

 

[sirvaliantbrown]

Hey all. On Thursday afternoon David Simon, the creator of The Wire, is giving a lecture at my college. I'm required to attend as part of my American Studies course. It's entitled "The Audicity of Despair." I haven't seen much of the show. Can you "Wire" fans suggest some questions that would be germane to this topic? Thanks.

I say this very politely, but you should read one of the many in-depth pieces about the show, then generate a few questions of your own from there! You won't get anything out of the answer to your question, or much out of the answers to the other questions, if you come in totally blank.

 

[Dickens Cider]

"Why did you kill off Stringer Bell, you ****?"

"Why did you kill off Omar, you ****?"

Nah. I saw that one coming. But String? **** that noise.

 

[Giggity]

Dickens worked preps at one point.

"It was a tale of two halves."

That's good stuff.

 

[JR]

Here's all you need to know about The Wire. It's a perfect summation of the entire five seasons and speaks to Simon's topic of "The Audacity of Despair"

Season 1, Episode 1. Opening scene

 

[STLIrish]

Ask him about Bill Marimow.

But seriously, what SirValiant said.
Or even just go back on this board and read some of the discussion threads from the last two seasons.

 

[Double Down]

1. David, you've said repeatedly that you always envisioned yourself as a newspaper man for life. That you'd be, one day, the 65-year-old copy editor bumming cigarettes from the younger reporters and fibbing about having worked with H.L. Mencken, just to see if they bought it. Considering how things played out, with Times Mirror and then the Tribune Company destroying a newspaper you held dear, do you think you would have been satisfied had your life gone the way you once wished that it might? You've created, arguably, the greatest television series in the history of the medium, but it was in many ways born out of frustration and pain. You saw the role of the journalist as one who had a civic responsibility to pull back the veil that hangs over society and tell the tale. It was necessary to do this, as Waylon says with his Kafka quote in the last episode, so that people might not "hold back from the suffering of the world." Were you not able to accomplish this on a larger scale by creating The Wire? Is there some triumph in that, or does the deterioration of the American newspaper outweigh that artistic achievement in your eyes?

 

[PeteyPirate]

1. David, you've said repeatedly that you always envisioned yourself as a newspaper man for life. That you'd be, one day, the 65-year-old copy editor bumming cigarettes from the younger reporters and fibbing about having worked with H.L. Mencken, just to see if they bought it. Considering how things played out, with Times Mirror and then the Tribune Company destroying a newspaper you held dear, do you think you would have been satisfied had your life gone the way you once wished that it might? You've created, arguably, the greatest television series in the history of the medium, but it was in many ways born out of frustration and pain. You saw the role of the journalist as one who had a civic responsibility to pull back the veil that hangs over society and tell the tale. It was necessary to do this, as Waylon says with his Kafka quote in the last episode, so that people might not "hold back from the suffering of the world." Were you not able to accomplish this on a larger scale by creating The Wire? Is there some triumph in that, or does the deterioration of the American newspaper outweigh that artistic achievement in your eyes?

And as a follow-up, is Omar cool in real life?

 

[Write-brained]

1. David, you've said repeatedly that you always envisioned yourself as a newspaper man for life. That you'd be, one day, the 65-year-old copy editor bumming cigarettes from the younger reporters and fibbing about having worked with H.L. Mencken, just to see if they bought it. Considering how things played out, with Times Mirror and then the Tribune Company destroying a newspaper you held dear, do you think you would have been satisfied had your life gone the way you once wished that it might? You've created, arguably, the greatest television series in the history of the medium, but it was in many ways born out of frustration and pain. You saw the role of the journalist as one who had a civic responsibility to pull back the veil that hangs over society and tell the tale. It was necessary to do this, as Waylon says with his Kafka quote in the last episode, so that people might not "hold back from the suffering of the world." Were you not able to accomplish this on a larger scale by creating The Wire? Is there some triumph in that, or does the deterioration of the American newspaper outweigh that artistic achievement in your eyes?

That's one hell of a yes or no question.

Simon: Uhh ... yes?