At the end of the hour, White said, "Thanks for the advice and and and I want I want I'm stop I'm just gonna stop get that get off that Google alert for a while."
He keeps a Google alert going to harass himself with whatever potshots people are taking at his show in any given moment!
Stern: "Google alert is is the devil! That's the devil! I used to be on that Google alert... Forget Google! You might as well pay someone to come to your house every day and kick you in the nuts if that's what you're into."
Go to 25:30 in the linked audio of the show if you want to hear White stammer through his anxiety about any criticism. Sample verbiage: "If I just realized now I'm in this place where like no matter what I do there's going to be negative and positive comparing and like I'm never you know what I I'm now in this like oh it should have been what it was like in Season 2 or they should have done this or like this is like what they you and so so I I realize there's no winning that like if if I go in be like I I need to like shut up all these critics about whatever that's they'll find out there's something else to pick apart.... it's like this big hit there's so you know I think people you know are definitely more you know they're criticizing the show to in certain ways but also just the phenomenon and you know so it's like it's they're meaner in in in ways that I'm not used to because I'm used to being this kind of like underdog indie writer that people are more championing and so like now I'm like I'm I don't know somehow I feel like there's there's been a vibe shift and I and so yeah some of that stuff does hurt my feelings or make me you know like feel misunderstood...."
You see his mind in motion there. That's the mind that produces the dialogue that we're getting and — some of us — loving in the finished show.
He does say — at 45:50 — "White Lotus" is "a rumination type show." That's in the context of pushing back critics who are "logic police" about the "literal police" as if its a police procedural show.
"Rumination" is a word that explains the show and the mind of this writer.
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36 comments:
Who can you hire to kick you in the nuts every day?
Asking for a friend.
JSM
Does he, Mike White, write like he speaks? If so, he needs an editor. One with a chain saw.
That's a lot to chew on.
I don’t know anything about White Lotus, but I do know a little about Mike White. White was Jack Black’s friend and band mate in “School of Rock.”
Who can you hire to kick you in the nuts every day?
(waves hand frantically from the back of the room)
I'll do it for free if you cover my mileage.
It’s a “ruination” show.
I don't care what some dictionaries say: "verbiage" is not a synonym for words in the primary definition, but means "superfluous words" .... and as one great wag said, " Don't use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do." In The Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White advise against using "twenty-dollar words" (or fancy words) when a simpler, more common word ("ten-center") is available, emphasizing clarity and conciseness in writing. (Confession: I dash off comments in a rough-draft format, sometimes without checking them. But I hold Althouse to set the example in that area.
White was Jack Black’s friend and band mate in “School of Rock.”
Come on! I may never have another girlfriend! Just come on! Come up with some money, please! Please!
"I don’t know anything about White Lotus, but I do know a little about Mike White. White was Jack Black’s friend and band mate in “School of Rock.”"
Howard and Mike talk about "School of Rock." White wasn't just in it. He wrote it.
Black was his friend and he wrote the movie for Black.
"Does he, Mike White, write like he speaks? If so, he needs an editor...."
What he needs is actors, and he's got them.
He gives them dialogue that we can believe — as they speak it — really came from the character's head.
Thanks, Marcus. I'll be sure to micro-fret, Mike-White-style about your criticism.
Did you really think all the words in that crazy block of text were non-superfluous?
Being kicked in the nuts, Mike White might find that appealing.
What I Learned Today: Howard Stern still has a show...
It is a pretty good show. For genital equity, he should strive to include a gaping vagina for every penis shot.
Ruminating is a great word. I think Nietzsche says we have to ruminate to be deep. Does this mean that rumination frees us from "mere" instinct or passion, allowing us to be more reasonable? Or does it free us from convention, as it were the passing group passion, so can discover our true or authentic instincts?
I haven't gotten around to "White Lotus" yet. Mainly because I don't currently have HBO or Max or whatever they call it these days. I will again, soon, as "The Last of Us" is coming back. And I'll make a point to watch "White Lotus" because so many have raved so much about it for a few years now. On the other hand, they did that for "Sex in the City" and I found that unwatchable. Speaking of unwatchable, so was "School of Rock", so...I'm sorry I have that knowledge about Mike White now.
Anyway, I'm still reeling from finishing up "Severance" and looking for my next hook. So I'll give it a try...soon.
I was getting coffee this morning, and the charming young ladies' question of the day was "Would you rather have the ability to teleport, or to read everyones' minds" and we all agreed teleportation would be preferable. Nobody should learn what everyone thinks of you. There is such a thing as too much information.
Mike White was a contestant on Survivor.
Ten cent words then are now twenty-dollar words.
"This writer" to mean "I" is pretentious.
Nobody likes getting kicked in the nuts.
Joe Rogan has sad for years and years that he never ever reads comments that he gets in any social media platform. This is how he stays sane and true to himself.
Rumination means deep though . But it comes from ruminates that chew their cud. I do not think cows have deep thoughts. Probably just enjoys their food.
What I got from the snippet was Mike White , who I know nothing about, was feted and now he is getting critics. Stern is right. If White's work is successful, ignore the critics.
"On the other hand, they did that for "Sex in the City" and I found that unwatchable...."
In Season 3 of "White Lotus," there were 3 ladies who really were like a SATC group — they had their differences but were always on track to realize that their friendship with each other is the main thing they have in life and that it's transcendent.
Just add the Parker Posey character to those 3 — she's an outsider to them but can interact a la Miranda on SATC — and you have a freestanding show. A spinoff. Mike White has to write it though. Or is a whole new generation learning how to write like Mike White?
I hope he still has his Google alert on and is reading this, because I'll watch that show.
I have never seen this show. That quote was painful to read. If the show is anything like that, it's certainly not for me.
Poor Mike White! Such a genius show. And yes, Reddit is full of ridiculous people thinking it’s a plot hole that [blank] wouldn’t have rinsed out the [blank]
MadMan- I agree with your decision
"Poor Mike White! Such a genius show. And yes, Reddit is full of ridiculous people thinking it’s a plot hole that [blank] wouldn’t have rinsed out the [blank]"
I hope those people never go to see "Hamlet." It was ridiculous that Blank put Blank in the Blank and then didn't keep track of it.
Rewatch Parker Posey's character listening to her daughter's explanation of why she left the monastery and you will find all the humor in the world. The daughter realizes she was just like her mother.
The White Lotus’ key themes is the terror of nothingness at the center of things, a true heart of darkness. The line from the seemingly jaunty Billy Preston song we hear at the end of the show, “nothing from nothing leaves nothing,” reinforces this notion.
Somewhat significant to note that Rick also echoes that lyric a few episodes before, quoting Shakespeare's King Lear: "Nothing comes from nothing."
What is at the heart of this heart of darkness? Terrible violence or the threat of violence. Tim seriously contemplates wiping out his entire family with toxic fruit seeds and nearly succeeds when Lachlan ingests some in a smoothie. Rick shoots and kills his father and two bodyguards. Chelsea is killed in the crossfire and Rick is shot in the back by the hotel security guard.
Saddest of all, Tim tells his family their lives will change when they get home. He is truly agonized but all the can do is look at their phones, seemingly indifferent to him.
There’s a cold wind blowing.
"The White Lotus’ key themes is the terror of nothingness at the center of things, a true heart of darkness. The line from the seemingly jaunty Billy Preston song we hear at the end of the show, “nothing from nothing leaves nothing,” reinforces this notion."
And when Rick had his session with the therapist, he told her that he was nothing. Later, Chelsea told Saxon he was soulless.
"Somewhat significant to note that Rick also echoes that lyric a few episodes before, quoting Shakespeare's King Lear: "Nothing comes from nothing.""
And when [blank] is carrying [blank]'s dead body slowly towards us in the end, that's like the end of King Lear — spoiler — Lear carries dead Cordelia exactly like that.
Breaking Bad was a combination of Macbeth and King Lear. Like Shakespeare, it taught the truth that "what you want" is quite often not what you really want. The White Lotus teaches us the same lesson. Will Belinda be happy now? Will Gaitok? No happy endings when you want the wrong things.
Rumination makes better cow pies, faster. Ramification creates multiple branchings of possibilities. You choose which you want to do, which you want to watch.
Synchronicity strikes again. Jethro Tull's new collection is called Curious Ruminant. (I haven't listened to all of it. May take a while.)
I wonder if the poor baby would feel better if I told him I haven't watched a minute of his show, don't intend to watch it in future, couldn't name a single actor who appears in it, know nothing at all about its plot or message, and do not care in the slightest about its success or failure.
It is only a slight exaggeration to say that Mike White's male characters are either young and naive, or fundamentally corrupted, or gay. Or a combination of those things.
Did you mean "words" or did you mean "superfluous words"? (I only dig at you once a year or so.)
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