The History Impossible Weekly Newsletter
Trying for Monday release
I’ve never hated the beginning of the week; I’ve always thought that Mondays were only as bad as Garfield the cat’s grouchiness about them was popular. And even though I think providing a newsletter might be a good way to end a week, I think the beginning of the week is a better place to discuss the week that came before and what I’ve been getting myself into. I’ve recently just wrapped production of the (first part of the) season premiere of what became the mainline History Impossible series, “The Muslim Nazis”. This premiere is not necessarily what a lot of you will expect since it doesn’t directly address anything that’s come before, but trust me: it is connected. Soon, once the trilogy of episodes (you heard that right!) is over, things will start to take on a much more familiar trajectory. But to get there, we need to try and understand one of the most complicated parts of both Europe and the world. And believe me: it’s complicated. I still don’t fully understand it. But I plan to try.
Anyway, without further ado, let’s get into what I’ve been up to.
What I’m Reading
Last week I started and finished a book. This doesn’t happen a lot, since most books I read are long and relatively dense. But in this case, I was able to blast through it, both because of how compelling it was, and because of how short it was compared to the usual stuff I read. This book was Uncovered: How the Media Got Cozy with Power, Abandoned Its Principles, and Lost the People by Steve Krakauer, producer on the Meghan Kelly Show and veteran news man whose work has been seen at various outlets including CNN, Fox News, and NBC. It’s more of a tell-all in a lot of ways, featuring the testimonies of all sorts of political pundits and writers, including Tucker Carlson, Ben Smith of the New York Times, and plenty of other folks from all over the political spectrum, lest the more skeptical reader think the book has an inherent bias and should thus be dismissed. The point of this one isn’t “liberal media bad” (though it certainly has enough evidence marshalled that could make that case if one wanted to be so reductive); it’s that, like the point made in Batya Ungar-Sargon’s Bad News: How Woke Media is Undermining Democracy and Chris Stirewalt’s Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back, there are broken incentive structures driving what we consider to be the “Fourth Estate.” Krakauer, by focusing on the personalities at play, delves into those incentives from a psychological perspective more than Stirewalt or Sargon did, whose foci seemed to be the economic- and class-based factors, respectively (to woefully oversimplify their also-excellent books). I’ve been reading a lot about the media lately—it’s quite literally in my blood, with both of my parents being former journalists—so hopefully at some point I’ll have something to contribute to this type of analysis (and hopefully something even deeper, like in podcast form).
I’ve also been sticking to my promise of reading more fiction, this time reading (or, well, re-reading) Bret Easton Ellis’ 2010 novel, Imperial Bedrooms, his sequel to his 1985 debut Less Than Zero. The less said here about that experience re-reading that slim volume, the better; it was part of a longer piece I’ve teased at before that I plan to release in the near future once I’ve finished going through the Ellis catalogue (which only has one book left needing to be re-read). In short, though, it’s a hell of an experience reading an Ellis novel in one or two sittings. You really get the sense of what he’s going for tonally and, if you’re invested in the words, might find yourself be pulled into the dark and dismal world he paints. I know, not much of a selling point; but Imperial Bedrooms might be the best (and far more serious and sincere) pre-#metoo takedown of Hollywood’s transactional nature that I’ve ever experienced. I doubt any studio would allow this to be faithfully adapted, especially after all the scandals, because it indicts everyone (and I do mean everyone) that makes this system function.
What I’m Watching
It was a light week. However, I recently re-watched, since its initial release in 2007, the excellent Mike Nichols-directed, Aaron Sorkin-written, Tom Hanks-and-Julia Roberts-and-Philip Seymour Hoffman-starring Charlie Wilson’s War. This film might be the best post-9/11 indictment of America’s sordid history of arming the very groups that facilitate the blowback against us many decades later, with this one very clearly taking aim at American policy in Afghanistan against the Soviets throughout the 1980s (a massive conflict that really deserves more limelight…and yes I’m keeping it on my radar as a topic). However, this film isn’t as simplistic as it might have otherwise been—in its first draft, it was planned to end with shots of 9/11 occurring, something veto’d by Tom Hanks in favor of the “happy” ending that occurs. Believe it or not, I’m in favor of this decision. It allows for the audience to think and figure these things out on their own; to simply say “and this is why 9/11 happened” is not only untrue, but it’s morally questionable. And while I will fully and happily admit I’m a fan of Aaron Sorkin’s writing—The Social Network is a masterpiece and I will fight anyone who says otherwise—I think he might have gotten a little overzealous in his milquetoast neo-liberal tendencies (that we saw on such vivid display with that really-does-not-age-well, hyper-sincere, kinda-sorta-cringe Jeff Daniels monologue from The Newsroom). This is an example of filmmaking-as-a-collaborative-process done right, and I applaud Tom Hanks’ instincts on this one. Also: can we all agree that Philip Seymour Hoffman was absolutely a national treasure of the arts?
What I’m Playing
I’ve been spending my snippets of time off still playing that Star Wars game, Jedi: Survivor, that I previously mentioned. I need to first say, it’s a must-play for Star Wars fans, since it does have plenty of fun fan service that never feels too ham-fisted, but it also does something that, whenever I say this, causes those same Star Wars fans get really defensive: it adds moral complexity to Star Wars that rarely ever exists. This game is the most morally complex Star Wars has ever actually gotten, especially with its villain. I will say nothing else because I don’t want to spoil it, but it basically does with Star Wars what Marvel did with Thanos: gives you a reason to sympathize with the person screwing it up for everyone.
And That’s All She Wrote…
Thanks for tuning in this week guys! I’ll try to get the next newsletter out on Monday next week. Stay safe out there and stay tuned for future History Impossible episodes.