The Life and Times of Fuzzy Dunlop

June 29, 2009 9:02 PM

The Wire FilesOpen-access online journal darkmatter, "producing contemporary postcolonial critique," devoted its fourth issue to the television drama The Wire. An editorial explains that the "special issue aims to examine the place of race in the complex formation of the series." Thirteen articles cover The Wire's political economy, subversion of heteronormative assumptions, racial codes, Herc as a Zelig-like nexus, Baudrillardian urban space and much more in a veritable smorgasbord of academic bean-plating.
posted by Abiezer (37 comments total)

I need to hurry the fuck up and finish seasons 4 and 5 so I can read these.
posted by the_bone at 9:41 PM on June 29

Yes you do. But savor them like a fine steak; once you finish the Wire there's little else that can compare.
Also, Fuzzy Dunlop would be a great sockpuppet name.
posted by now i'm piste at 9:51 PM on June 29

It's not really bean-plating, is it? The Wire's writers were literally begging for serious analysis and critique of the show.

By the way, as the links discuss, Simon almost always testily bats back attempted comparisons with Shakespeare. He prefers to describe the Wire as a Greek tragedy in which "postmodern institutions" replace Gods, and in which it's "the drug economy, or the political structures, or the school administration, or the macroeconomic forces that are throwing the lightning bolts and hitting people in the ass for no decent reason". What Simon is describing is exactly equivalent to Trotsky's discussion of a Marxist revolutionary tragedy in which exceptional individuals are pulled apart and destroyed by immense, uncontrollable social formations:

In the tragedies of Shakespeare, which would be entirely unthinkable without the Reformation, the fate of the ancients and the passions of the mediaeval Christians are crowded out by individual human passions, such as love, jealousy, revengeful greediness, and spiritual dissension. But in every one of Shakespeare’s dramas, the individual passion is carried to such a high degree of tension that it outgrows the individual, becomes super-personal, and is transformed into a fate of a certain kind. ...However the conflict between what is personal and what is beyond the personal, can take place, not only in the sphere of religion, but in the sphere of a human passion that is larger than the individual. The super-personal element is, above all, the social element. So long as man will not have mastered his social organization, the latter will hang over him as his fate. ...The tragedy of our period lies in the conflict between the individual and the collectivity, or in the conflict between two hostile collectivities in the same individual.

posted by stammer at 9:54 PM on June 29 [11 favorites]

It took me the better part of two seasons to recognize what it was that drew me to The Wire. The show's quality was obvious, but it finally struck me that what I was really drawn to was the feeling that it gave me, deep down, of hoping that the characters would be all right, but knowing that they wouldn't be.

It reminded me of quite a few of my friends.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 10:09 PM on June 29 [2 favorites]

Yeah, that's just what we need is a bunch of British academics waxing analytical about race and sexuality in America based on what they saw on a TV show.
posted by The Straightener at 10:32 PM on June 29 [6 favorites]

Foreigners are allowed to consume American culture, if they absolutely must, but under no circumstances may they discuss what they have seen.
posted by stammer at 10:37 PM on June 29 [2 favorites]

It's a fairly mixed bag of nationalities contributing from what I can tell (not read all of them yet).
I included the 'bean-plating' dig as my first reaction to some of the vocabulary used, stammer, but it was meant light-heartedly as I've enjoyed what I've read so far even where I disagree.
posted by Abiezer at 10:43 PM on June 29

I have always already discounted discussions of urban decay whose opening sentences include the phrase "always already."

I want to err away from summary dismissal of this essay series, I really do. However, it's difficult not to point out the lameness of many of these readings. Baudrillardian cityscapes, heteronormative assumptions, and the token essays on race and religion; this feels like the most specious parts of trendy, identity politics-driven academia tossed haphazardly at a show whose roots are politically and culturally much deeper than all of that.

I took away more from stammer's comment above than any of the mini-essays I made my way through in this collection.
posted by ford and the prefects at 11:37 PM on June 29 [2 favorites]

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeit, old chap.
posted by ooga_booga at 12:09 AM on June 30 [6 favorites]

Yeah, that's just what we need is a bunch of British academics waxing analytical about race and sexuality in America based on what they saw on a TV show.

To be honest, there's not an awful lot wrong with much of what they say -- Baudrillardian cityscapes excluded -- it's the way that they say it that sucks so badly. The Wire is popular television that expresses a host of interesting political ideas and subverts a whole pile of traditional expectations around the way stuff is usually represented in popular tv.

Given that, why the hell can't the writers at least attempt to be as direct and accessible in how they communicate as the TV show is? Instead of seeking to discuss these ideas with a handful of other media studies academics, how much richer and more interesting would the discourse be if they were writing in a way that's accessible to everyman?

Thankfully, we've always got Metafilter for that.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 12:18 AM on June 30

Random Wire-meets-Homicide moment. I'm currently re-watching both series, the Wire for the third time, Homicide for the first time since it aired, and I'm literally stunned by the overlap in actors between the two series. Granted, part of it has to do, most likely, with character actors who live in and near Baltimore, but it's pretty stunning, for example, realizing that the M.E. in the Wire was once the bloodthirsty villain Luther Mahoney. It's almost like a game of Where's Waldo.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:25 AM on June 30

Now I need to work bean-plating and fuzzy dunlop into a sentence.

Ah... there it is.
posted by Hickeystudio at 12:26 AM on June 30

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeit.

You know that's not initially from The Wire, right?
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 12:36 AM on June 30 [4 favorites]

A problem with the "soft sciences" is that people are prone to misread statements they do not understand as if they were arbitrarily clumsily worded versions of statements they do understand. Nobody looks at calculus and mistakes it for arithmetic done in sloppy handwriting. Please consider the possibility that the reason something is worded in an awkward way is to differentiate it from a different but superficially similar statement that would be familiar.

To pick out just one example, the phrase "always already" has a history of usage, and is part of an extensive discourse, and means something that a more usual construction does not. If one were, for example, to say "always" in its place, you would be saying that something is simply and constantly the case. To use the word "already", on the other hand, says that an event happened, after which that thing was the case. "Always already" tells us to look for an event, some origin, and simultaneously tells us that event was, for any time we may chose, in the past - the statement carries a teasing, a sort of irony, the simultaneous assertion that everything must have been socially constructed, and the denial that this particular thing could have been. I may say that something is "always", or "already" this or that, but if I use the construction "always already", I am most likely describing how someone else thinks of something, and calling attention to their failure to consider the socially constructed nature of that thing. So, to say that gravity has always already pulled objects toward one another would be at best a bad joke; whereas to say that the founding fathers of the United States of America were always already patriotic points to the sillyness of asking for patriotic reverence for people who violently betrayed a country that was once theirs (they were all once British!).
posted by idiopath at 1:52 AM on June 30 [6 favorites]

I hate how academic discussions always start out with interesting premises and discussions and then sort of dissolve into pools of disconnected jargon. The "working logics of a cybernetic racial formation." Really? You're going to take an entire paragraph of gibberish, including that preceding phrase, to basically say: "Race is very important in 'The Wire,' but you can also ignore it very easily because it's so much a part of the mental landscape. Ignoring race happens a lot in modern times, especially in criticism, where it's usually purposeful."

Honestly, people, you can use big words, express complicated thoughts, AND be intelligible. I promise! We won't even take away your license to practice literary criticism.

(Okay, I might, but that's because of the hash you've made of it already. I know math and science are all intimidating with their very specific words and their complicated equations, but we're going to have to find a better way to assuage our niggling suspicions that we took the soft option. If I can't easily detect the difference between your Very Serious Essay and an excerpt from The Pooh Perplex, then you need some more revisions.)
posted by Scattercat at 3:52 AM on June 30 [1 favorite]

For anyone with a Jones on, Season Three, where Bunny Colvin set up a 'legal' zone, mirrors a theme from Canada's "Da Vinci's Inquest." While I don't think Canadians would qualify themselves as 'Brits,' at least the U.K. had addressed some of the issues in it's own tv show. A couple of seasons are available on Hulu.

As for the relationship between "Homicide" and "The Wire," the differences could be defined by the notion of 'the Box.' The area of greatest drama in "Homicide" was the interrogation room, where the police sold the criminal on the idea of his own conviction. Such interrogation was seldom seen in "The Wire." Simon's notion of the "postmodern institutions" replacing the gods is surely related to his experience with "Homicide," which contained a good deal of rambling philosophical introspection as it fought to stay on the air. While NBC kept a program with a majority of minorities in the cast on the air, it could not stop itself from meddling. This is surely the root of the different approaches of the two shoes. In "Homicide," the protagonists were able to control their own fate, and each conviction proved their mastery. This personal zeitgeist had altered by the time "The Wire" came to screen; the protagonists could only observe their objects of interest, and all gains came from using these observations to anticipate the actions of those objects. The 'criminal,' aligned in Simon's mind with the authority figures at the networks, went from being some poor 'mook-in-a-box' to having the overwhelming power of the Greek gods. The audience responded, and the Trickster figure Omar became the favorite character on the show; not the Police, who represented the shackles of the co-opted, but rather the Free Man, bound not by the mores of society but only to his own code.

Heh.
posted by dragonsi55 at 4:53 AM on June 30 [4 favorites]

"shows" not "shoes"
posted by dragonsi55 at 4:54 AM on June 30

I kind of liked this one, which talks a lot about Frank Sobotka.

My wife and I have been re-watching the Wire lately, and are in the middle of Season 2 right now, so I've been thinking about Sobotka. The first time we watched the show I really couldn't stand him, I just kept waiting for them to get back to Stringer and Avon and D and a lot of other stuff from Season 1. But watching now, knowing where everything is headed, I like Sobotka a lot more. The first time through he seemed like a diversion from the main story, but now I think he's really one of the Wire's quintessentially tragic figures: one who fundamentally wants the best for the people around him and takes on a serious burden on their behalf, but is tangled up in much greater forces that will ultimately be his undoing.

Being on the second time through, still discovering how rich the characters are, has really convinced me of just how incredibly good the Wire is. (I still can't stand Ziggy though; maybe you've got to watch a few more times for him to be likable.)

p.s. Fuzzy Dunlop would be a great sockpuppet name.
Too bad you didn't think of that six months ago.
posted by Fuzzy Dunlop at 4:56 AM on June 30 [3 favorites]

Yes you do. But savor them like a fine steak; once you finish the Wire there's little else that can compare.

Generation Kill will give you a good 7 episode fix. But after that we're all just waiting for Treme.
posted by brevator at 5:29 AM on June 30

Fuzzy D: Nah I've watched S.2 4 times and ziggy's character and storyline still kinda bites. The same actor in Gen. Kill is awesome though, go figure.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:28 AM on June 30

The precursor to The Wire was a miniseries called The Corner. It was interesting seeing the actors portraying lowlifes who would later play cops in The Wire. I was all, "Lester Freamon, you look like hell! Cedric Daniels, you should be ashamed of yourself!"
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:35 AM on June 30

I hate how academic discussions always start out with interesting premises and discussions and then sort of dissolve into pools of disconnected jargon. The "working logics of a cybernetic racial formation." Really? You're going to take an entire paragraph of gibberish, including that preceding phrase, to basically say: "Race is very important in 'The Wire,' but you can also ignore it very easily because it's so much a part of the mental landscape. Ignoring race happens a lot in modern times, especially in criticism, where it's usually purposeful."

I think your summary is missing the mark. This kind of translation is necessarily incomplete and reductive, but I'm gonna take a shot.

When he says "cybernetic" he means that race is formed by a complex of interactions between elements of a system. He goes on to say that in a lot of critical literature, he's observed an approach to race which he characterizes as a "fetishistic disavowal" of its importance, where ignoring or adopting the pose of ignoring race despite its importance is prerequisite to being taken seriously. This gives me the image of some jerk talking to one of his black friends, saying shit like, "I don't even see race, man, I'm totally colorblind; you're just a normal person to me." This approach isn't condoned. However, The Wire uses the pervasive fetishistic disavowal of race to its benefit. The writers know people will try and read the show in a "colorblind" way and they play extensively with the various implications of that approach. This play enables the show (and the discourse surrounding it) to reveal "[a] form of racialization that is immanent to the hegemonic discourses of anti-racism and multiculturalism in post-television media." That is, the way in which anti-racism, multiculturalism, and "colorblindness" contribute to the (cybernetic, ho ho) construction of race.
posted by avianism at 6:57 AM on June 30 [3 favorites]

I still can't stand Ziggy though; maybe you've got to watch a few more times for him to be likable.

After watching series 2 for the third time... Ziggy is still an unlikable prick, but I understand him a lot more... living all his life in his father's and cousin's shadow.

The Wire seems even better watching it again... as I'm able to appreciate the nuances a lot more. The BBC are currently running the whole thing over the summer and are currently about 4 eps into season 3, which, and the following seasons, I'd only seen once before. There are so many characters and plot lines - and those plot lines are so unconventional, in particular in 3 Cutty's arc - that I found a lot of watching the first time through was just hanging on.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:09 AM on June 30

Please consider the possibility that the reason something is worded in an awkward way is to differentiate it from a different but superficially similar statement that would be familiar.

Please consider the possibility that someone is using the drums to carry the melody.
posted by storybored at 7:40 AM on June 30

Hey guys, those essays contain lots of spoilers. I'm still on the middle of season four and stumbled upon some terrible news. Anybody who hasn't watched the whole thing should Tread Carefully.
posted by BinGregory at 8:03 AM on June 30

Honestly, people, you can use big words, express complicated thoughts, AND be intelligible. I promise! We won't even take away your license to practice literary criticism.

Chomsky has already expressed the problems I have with critical theory more ably than me:

Quite regularly, "my eyes glaze over" when I read polysyllabic discourse on the themes of poststructuralism and postmodernism; what I understand is largely truism or error, but that is only a fraction of the total word count. True, there are lots of other things I don't understand: the articles in the current issues of math and physics journals, for example. But there is a difference. In the latter case, I know how to get to understand them, and have done so, in cases of particular interest to me; and I also know that people in these fields can explain the contents to me at my level, so that I can gain what (partial) understanding I may want. In contrast, no one seems to be able to explain to me why the latest post-this-and-that is (for the most part) other than truism, error, or gibberish, and I do not know how to proceed.

posted by HumuloneRanger at 9:59 AM on June 30 [2 favorites]

Yeah - the writing is so shitty! It's really astounding.
posted by taliaferro at 10:20 AM on June 30

Can someone just spoil the punchline for me and tell me whether idiopath's comment above is meant as parody or not? Because I've read it four times now and I still have no idea.
posted by ook at 11:00 AM on June 30

I'm so embarrassed that my eyes were looking away from my screen when Fuzzy Dunlop's identity was established, and I didn't catch it until my second time through the series.
posted by avocet at 8:20 PM on June 30

avocet, the same thing happened to me. Initially, I had no idea why Herc chose that name. I'm just wrapping up my second time through the series and I find that I'm catching a lot of those little things that I missed the first time through.
posted by mephraim at 9:58 PM on June 30

I'm just wrapping up my second time through the series and I find that I'm catching a lot of those little things that I missed the first time through.

Yeah, second/third time through I'm definitely noticing the minor characters more
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:29 AM on July 1

Yeah, that's just what we need is a bunch of British academics waxing analytical about race and sexuality in America based on what they saw on a TV show.

Actually, that is sort of pretty much the kind of thing I come here for.
posted by Phanx at 2:30 AM on July 1

You know that's not initially from The Wire, right?

Dunno, looks like The 25th Hour came out in 2003 and the first appearance of Clay Davis was in 2002. Anyone know when he first said it?
posted by electroboy at 10:23 AM on July 1

Also, I love that David Simon named a pair of bumbling detectives Polk and Mahone.
posted by electroboy at 10:29 AM on July 1

Final word (AFAIC) on Clay Davis and "Sheeeeit".
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:41 AM on July 5 [1 favorite]

Anyone still reading this? Here is a very good and highly critical Marxist reading of The Wire, to set against the Trotsky invoked above. The lengthy discussion in the comments section is worth looking at too.
posted by stammer at 8:27 PM on July 8 [3 favorites]

The Wire is the opiate of the Marxists.
posted by storybored at 6:55 PM on July 11