Deadwood v. The Wire=Shakespeare v. Euripides=The Rolling Stones v. The Beatles

Since I had trouble breathing and other telltale symptoms of an allergic reaction, I spent the last few nights at my grandmother's. This should have connoted an earlier, more reasonable, bedtime, but I became enmeshed in an article that I found online. It was a gushing, but not saccharine, and intelligent interview with the great David Simon, creator of The Wire, in Vice Magazine. In it, Simon discusses numerous topics, including politics, and I found myself astonished by his articulateness and trenchant points. In one snippet in particular, though, I couldn't help but feel beleaguered when he extolled the societal attributes of Greek literature and contrasted it with the exultation of the individual in Shakespeare.

I speak English, so I'm incredibly biased about this. When LNE busts out the Greek literature, I cannot believe that she, or anyone, for that matter, can scan what look like pictograms to me and make sense of it. Truthfully, it's quite impressive that she can grasp what is being communicated there. Furthermore, I understand that restricting myself to Latin-based alphabets severely limits my grasp of linguistics. I'm American, though, and branching out culturally is not exactly what the US is known for. So I felt a little uncomfortable when Simon spoke of his appreciation for Greek literature and the huge debt that The Wire owes it. Let me clarify: my ignorance makes me defensive. I can't do, so I disparage. Not brutishly, but primitively and reflexively. I know this. I've read Medea and the four parts of Oresteia, but I only view them in chunks, rather than the minutiae that make up those larger bits. I do, however, love Euripides, and I'm sure this is because I can make out what he means to say.

I understand the full complications of the whole foreign aspect of the language, and have similar difficulties with the screenplays of both Deadwood and The Wire. The former adheres to a loose proliferation of blank verse not unlike Shakespeare's, while the latter uses a vernacular that shouldn't be that difficult for me to understand, but is. Both shows are in English, but the former is easier for me to hear and process than the latter. I know that there may be a racial implication here, and all I can say to refute it is that I know this. Since I'm not a vapid amoeba, the willingness of my brain to process one brand of English much more easily than the other can't be dismissed. It is what it is.

A similar matter of preference applies to music. Well, good music--you can't talk extensively about why Journey is the best band there ever was without sounding like a complete idiot. You can, though, stand in the parallel camps of Beatles' fans and Rolling Stones' fans and see why the other side thinks the way they do. Both are great, iconic bands. The Beatles expanded the impact of the recording studio while The Rolling Stones modernized blues in a way that previously had not been done, and consequently came out with a different version of something familiar--and as a result etched their own stamp on the genre. I appreciate the technical innovations of Sergeant Pepper's, but I thoroughly enjoy the technique of Exile on Main Street. This is not to say that either band didn't cross over and do what the other began (see: the disturbing subject matter of "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" and the expansive rhythms of "Sympathy for the Devil").

Both television shows depict graphic violence and harsh language. It takes some getting used to both, but I appreciate the grandeur more with Deadwood than The Wire. This is probably because I see a standoff as more romantic than a shootoff. One is dramatic, while the other is just scary. What makes Deadwood interesting is that it adds a poetic bent to these things, and The Wire resists being maudlin by crudely recording a devastating act with the flippant realism of a photograph. Deadwood isn't exactly a book, but its rugged formalism comes across as forced, whereas The Wire's apparent slang ethos actually shows the florid grandiloquence and hard truths of the streets.

Some things are a matter of opinion, but I've always said that subjectivity is objective. I love both shows, for different reasons. The reasons that I love each of these separate things invalidates my own opinion, ironically. Somewhat. Neither is According
to Jim.

R