Naked, the fat man comes into the shower
Like Hannibal crossing the Alps
His tail sprays feces across the tiled floor
Nearsighted, he snorts at every sound
His bunker mentality frightens away the hot water
Raising goose bumps on trembling flesh
Later, the soft cracks of a towel-whip echo off the ridged walls
Monthly Archives: August 2016
Life on Mars (YGtCTO #36)
Television Series created by Matthew Graham, Tony Jordan, and Ashley Pharoah
I spent a fair bit of time traveling in the last six years, waking up in different cities, certainly different hotel rooms. As a traveler, you always try to fool yourself that you are comfortable and happy, no matter how long you lie awake at 2 a.m. or how much the local cuisine gives you heartburn. So, you scan the local television and radio for familiar sights and sounds. You linger over a solitary meal and eavesdrop on conversations, investing in strangers’ lives. Maybe those coping mechanisms are just mine. Ultimately, the nightstand is on the wrong side and a chair somehow appears between you and the bathroom in the middle of the night. All this drives home the alienating nature of travel.
This is all a long way of saying that the central conceit of Life on Mars reads much stranger than it plays. From Wilder’s Skin of Our Teeth through Martin’s Game of Thrones, we marvel at how mundane the remarkable turns out. I don’t know if that is our inability to grasp the truly foreign artist’s desire to communicate using common parlance. Perhaps.
As for Life on Mars, the original British drama took a modern times police detective and spun him back to the 1970s, where he found that police work was approached in a more hands-on style, accompanied by prejudices and different criteria for judging competence. Fortunately, the detective is quick on the uptake and finds a way to make it work. (An American version tried and did not succeed as well.)
The series never shied away from the moral questions while also not delivering any clear-cut answers, other than that people can change (not necessarily for the better) and visceral experiences are seductive. Art is not always responsible for the solutions. Sometimes the best that an artist can do is ask questions. I dare say we tend to condemn artists who speak out too clearly.
The other remarkable matter in play on Life on Mars is the way they succeeded at capturing the discomfort and worse of the fish out of water. Certainly, they had all the trappings of the time period, but the world around him periodically goes topsy-turvy, just in case anyone is getting comfortable with the situation. I can’t think of any other show that reminded me of that time I banged my head in a hotel room and went woozy. And yet Life on Mars keeps pulling you back just as Sam Tyler finds escape and freedom in a world that he had been raised to view with disdain.
John Simm had a remarkable run of television shows for a few years, including a couple that were brought across the pond and neither bothered to include him, which is unfortunate. I only mention this because you can read through his list of credits and seemingly select any one of them for a go.
You’ve Got to Check This Out is a blog series about music, words, and all sorts of artistic matters. It started with an explanation. 264 more to go.
New additions to You’ve Got to Check This Out are released regularly. Also, free humor, short works, and poetry are posted irregularly. Notifications are posted on Facebook which you can receive by friending or following Craig.
Fer-de-Lance (YGtCTO Words #12)
Book written by Rex Stout
Rex Stout was better at close-up magic than any other word-slinger. I don’t pay the compliment lightly. He produced a shelf worth of Nero Wolfe tales and never insulted the reader, carefully laid the groundwork for the revelations usually revealed in that inconspicuous Manhattan brownstone (filled with culinary and botanical marvels though it was), and left his audience pleased that they had spent some time with him.
The fabulous television series some time ago captured the feel of the stories remarkably well. The ensemble cast added a nice feel that I suspect Stout would have appreciated. The series flowed through the time periods just like Stout had in his tales. While it may have felt like nothing changed inside Wolfe’s sanctuary, Stout allowed small doses of the outside world to seep into his plots. The characters essentially did not age, though their relationships deepened with acknowledgement of adventures past.
Stout pulled off another artistic gambit, unintentional though it doubtless was. He proved to be a mystery writer’s mystery writer. Re-release of his numerous books allowed a slew of his acolytes to introduce each volume and the best of the time lined up to do so. Artists are generally not selfish about acknowledging influences, but so many at once indicates something special.
Many authors pointed to the artifice that Stout built which was able to house so many plots. He had the tension between the four primary actors within Wolfe’s abode and their shifting tolerance of each other’s peccadillos. Of course, the primary relationship between Archie and Wolfe highlights tensions between mind and body, thought and action. Then, they had to deal with the outside world in a well-choreographed pantomime that generally ended in Wolfe’s office.
Archie transcribes virtually all of the tales in the first person, admitting to gathering some of the information from others when he was not present. Leavening with plenty of his own opinions, Archie is a reliable friend and somewhat unreliable narrator, leaving you to buy him a drink and pat him on the back.
Stout found the real marvel in mystery writing almost immediately. In the age of popular psychology, we worry less about how the crime was committed and want to know why. Wolfe illuminates motive; he quizzes the people involved and seems to search their heart for that dark spot that has driven them to their heinous act. Mysteries do not exist to scare us, but rather to assure us that reason still reigns supreme. We need to know that order is maintained even out of the ultimate disorder of serious crime. The great detective heroes don’t leave us empty at the conclusion, but rather restored to a sense of purpose. While art is about reassuring us that we are not alone, mysteries take it one step further and declare that we are all in this together. In a sense, they are not just an encouragement that we are as intelligent as Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot, but they are a balm in times of internal confusion.
You’ve Got to Check This Out is a blog series about music, words, and all sorts of artistic matters. It started with an explanation. 265 more to go.
New additions to You’ve Got to Check This Out are released regularly. Also, free humor, short works, and poetry are posted irregularly. Notifications are posted on Facebook which you can receive by friending or following Craig.