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Ferociouskitty
Veteran Poster
Username: Ferociouskitty
Post Number: 448
Registered: 02-2008
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 06, 2008 - 02:08 pm: | 
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I'm going to be co-editing this. If you think you've got something to say on the subject, send your best! ~Deesha/FK
Down to The Wire: An Anthology of Black Thought on HBO's Greatest Show Ever
~call for submissions~
HBO's The Wire came out of left field and captured the attention of
hundreds of thousands of devoted viewers in Black communities
throughout the country. The question is, "Why?" On one level, the show
gave numerous Black actors the opportunity to showcase their talents
and to breathe life into nuanced, three-dimensional roles. "Stringer
Bell" and "Michael Lee" are two of the most compelling characters in
the history of American television. Another reason for the show's
tremendous popularity amongst Black audiences is that we love to see
ourselves excel, and The Wire gave us five seasons of stellar
performances, a mirror in which to gaze and appreciate what we saw.
Yet, as excellent as those characters and performances were, The Wire
did not always reflect back images black folks wanted to embrace.
Many of the show's best characters were drug dealers. Filmed on
location in the most blighted sections of Baltimore, Maryland, the
show's storylines tackled the maladies of urban America head-on. The
Wire's success was definitely not rooted in the feel-good, uplifting
mode of The Cosby Show. Instead, The Wire appealed to Black people
because it chose to tell the truth, warts and all, about urban life,
and it did so deliberately, but rhythmically, like an extended blues
song.
Down to The Wire will be a collection of essays exploring the cultural
significance of The Wire, particularly to Black folks and our
communities. The collection will explain why, contrary to popular
belief, The Wire is indeed the greatest TV show ever produced by HBO.
The editor welcomes submissions from emerging and established Black
writers, entertainers, cultural critics, and other observers. We seek
well-constructed critical essays and creative nonfiction which address
such topics as:
Getting Out of the Life: The vision of Stringer Bell
Gay Thugs: Omar and Snoop
The White Perspective Still Comes Through: The death of Proposition
Joe and the skewering of Black Baltimore history
Crying Foul: White Characters and the Race Card
I'm Just a Gangster, I Suppose: Avon Barksdale, Marlo Stanfield and
the New Day Co-op
Playing with the Boys: Snoop Pearson, Kima Greggs, Marla Daniels and
Nerese Campbell
Real-Life Drama: How The Wire changed the lives of individual viewers
and their contributions to the communities in which they live
The Wire as scholarship: What did the show teach us about American
society, culture, racism, classism, economics, and public policy? Can
these lessons translate into meaningful social change and exchange?
Why was The Wire so popular with black viewers, but less so with white viewers?
Does The Wire glorify drugs and violence? If so, why do we give it a pass?
Hopeful or Hopeless: Bubbles and Duquan
This is not, of course, an exhaustive list of possibilities.
Generally speaking, we are interested in original, provocative musings
and analyses which address what The Wire means to Black folks.
Take a position and defend it. Tell a well-crafted story. Make us
laugh, cry, think, shout.
Submission deadline: December 17, 2008
Length: Up to 6,000 words
We will only consider submissions of previously unpublished works and
those for which the author hold rights allowing for re-printing.
Please include your name, email address, mailing address, phone
number, and a short bio (50 words or less) with your submission.
Email is the preferred method of submission. Send essays within the
body of the email to: submissions@posro.com, with the subject heading:
Down to The Wire submission. No attachments, please.
Submissions may also be postmarked by the above date and sent via
regular U.S. mail to:
Down to The Wire
c/o Roland Laird
Posro Media LLC
PO Box 585
Trenton, NJ 08604
Unfortunately, we cannot acknowledge every submission. Authors of
those essays selected for inclusion in the anthology will be notified
via email by February 26, 2009.
About the Editor:
Roland Laird is both an author and entrepreneur. His book Still I
Rise: A Cartoon History of African Americans was named "One of the
Best Books in Print" by the New York Review of Books Readers Catalog
when it was published by W.W. Norton in 1997. He recently completed an
update of Still I Rise for a February 2009 release by Sterling
Publishing. He is also the founder of Posro Media an entertainment
company specializing in producing compelling African American images.
Roland and Posro have been the subject of numerous media stories
including in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and on NBC's
Sunday Today Show and on MTV. In 2004, the US Mission to the United
Nations recognized him as a global ambassador for his tireless
devotion to his world community and heritage.
--
Posro Media LLC
www.posro.com
609.858.7598 |
Nom_de_plume
Veteran Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 147
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 06, 2008 - 03:45 pm: |
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WHOA!!!! Why are you doing this to me?????
Good shit. Thanks for posting! |
Ferociouskitty
Veteran Poster
Username: Ferociouskitty
Post Number: 450
Registered: 02-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 06, 2008 - 03:48 pm: |
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LOL, You're welcome, Nom. |
Nom_de_plume
Veteran Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 149
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 06, 2008 - 04:25 pm: |
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I miss this show. I will probably watch from Season One all over again, especially if I decide to submit something! Television without Pity forums were my favorites for discussing this show because of the eloquent insight of the posters.
Damn, I'm excited now, got something else to do with this rainy day! |
Ferociouskitty
Veteran Poster
Username: Ferociouskitty
Post Number: 451
Registered: 02-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 06, 2008 - 04:28 pm: |
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Hey, Nom...thanks for the heads up about Television Without Pity. I'd heard of this forum, but maybe this will be a good place to post the CFS. |
Nom_de_plume
Veteran Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 150
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 06, 2008 - 05:17 pm: |
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Oh yes. Here is a mind-boggling post from someone commenting on the end of the series that will give you some perspective on these cats' titillating erudition:
"The one set of parallels I've not seen anybody pick up on or try to map out is the sense in which some characters are willing to face personal sacrifice to get what they want, and others aren't.
Pearlman and Daniels aren't willing to fall on the sword to see Stanfield go to jail, because Rhonda convinces her lover not to wreck her career and hard fought place in the establishment. Daniels to some extent absolves himself of this sin by making a stand on another issue.
Stanfield meanwhile walks out of that business junket because he knows he doesn't belong in the establishment. This is when we are finally shown how before his name was his name he was able to rise to the top by risking his own life on the corners. He actually seems to have more pride in who he is and what he is doing than he does in the status his actions confer on him. It's just that his force of nature has been systemically targeted at a self destructive environment.
Similarly, McNulty, Freamon and Partlow face the consequences of their actions, and retrospectively, this actually informs the manner in which they conducted themselves whilst attempting to achieve their goals. Bunny Colvin too.
I think even Clay Davis comes across as somebody who is not afraid of a fight, because he can talk himself out of any situation he gets into, whereas others have to obfuscate the facts to avoid getting into a fight. By the time he talks to Freamon, he seems to be honest about how things work, in a way that Carcetti for all his supposed good intentions, will always be in self serving denial. Carcetti does want the city of Baltimore to be improved, but not as much as he personally wants to be the person who improved the city of Baltimore. The sad thing with Carcetti is he clearly knows what the appropriate behaviour is, and even demands personal responsibility from underlings when the shit hits the wall, but he is a hypocrite, corrupted by power, because you know he would never sacrifice himself.
At every turn, the lines are impossibly blurred between becoming an honest crook, or a dishonest idealist, and nearly every outcome is the same, regardless of the individual's choice, so long as they continue to travel through the system.
The systems will never be changed by particular individuals trying to write their own stories. The systems will only be changed when the majority of individuals have a type of internal integrity that informs the group behaviour, so that everybody who should fall on their sword does it when they need to. The system needs to have its own ruthless natural selection of the virtuous. A leader needs to be the agent of the culture, instead of the culture being the agent of the leader. Only then will the next generation be freed from unspeakable dilemmas in order to get by.
To Marlo, his name is being known for being who he really is. For some of the political characters, their name is creating a false impression of who they really are. In his last scene, Marlo walks away from the protection invoking his name would bring, but who he really is still shines through regardless in his actions alone, as he wins back one corner with his bare hands. Then, intriguingly, you have Omar, who by the end seems to exist more tangibly as a myth than as a man. Omar almost transcends being an individual to become the embodiment of some strange new institution.
Another observation regarding criticism of Marlo being portrayed as achieving what Stringer Bell couldn't.
It's actually more complex than that. We've had Levy and Davis boasting about how much they bleed the drug king pins. They come off as slimy, corrupt parasites. But this is interestingly paralleled with Omar, who has been bleeding the drug king pins all series, and yet he comes off as weirdly noble.
Now, on top of that, whilst Marlo unwisely eschews the guidance of Proposition Joe for that of Levy, he actually also does something else that's quite sophisticated. Effectively he takes the rest of the dealers for ten million dollars. He steals the connect from Joe and then sells it back to Joe's underlings for ten million dollars, and gets out of the game.
Marlo doesn't get Stringer's happy ending. He gets Omar's happy ending, but he uses Levy to do it. Levy thinks he's bleeding Marlo instead of bleeding Joe, but really Marlo is using Levy to keep on bleeding Joe. And then at the end he even walks out on Levy. Just like Clay Davis, he's managed to get past the lawyer. And his last act on that street corner shows he wasn't afraid of going out onto the street and confronting Omar, because actually they're quite alike. Marlo symbolically ends the season as Omar in a business suit.
And perhaps he was all along. What fundamentally is the difference between Omar and his gang robbing kids on street corners and Marlo, Chris and Snoop taking out the entire Barksdale organisation, other than a question of scale? Omar left bodies too. Omar is the village corner shop. Marlo is Wallmart. It may be Omar's name that spiritually haunts the night, but Marlo owns it. They have become entwined.
Very similarly, McNulty's confrontation with Templeton is important, because effectively he is confronting himself, and what he has become. The only difference is that Bunk allowed McNulty's deception to continue even though he disapproved, whereas Haynes tried his best to get Templeton's fraud shut down, but to no avail. Even worse, Freamon, who should be the voice of rational experience, teaches McNulty how to make his scheme more elaborate. They do at least have a wider purpose than Templeton's mere ambition and his bosses greed, but their fall into moral aporia compromises what chance they have to accomplish their goal, so what difference does their motivation really make? Marlo walks away a rich man and the Greek is still free to sell drugs through new partners. Just like the Baltimore Sun has done nothing to solve the real problems of homelessness, McNulty and Freamon were doomed to failure anyway. Taking out Marlo was never enough, and Freamon should have known this, even before he starts fraternising with his former foe Davis. Meanwhile Bunk brings Partlow to justice through honest police work, despite being impeded by the circus, and an honest Sun reporter manages to run a legitimate piece about Bubbles.
I think Bubbles really parallels everybody to some extent, in that he seems to exemplify how every man can contain the potential both to hit the depths of depravity, or to be guided by an inner conviction of integrity, and that is true whether you are a junkie, a cop, a teacher, a politician, a dealer, a stick-up man... The kids future is determined not by the roles they adopt, but by their conduct.
I also thought Snoop's interaction with Michael was an important coda to the whole school storyline in that it obviously re-enforced the notion that whilst they are young, the kids fall through the cracks because the system cannot give them the structure they need and they rebel against it, but ultimately come to find structure within the drugs organisations, to which they uniformly conform where the correct authority figures failed. Except Snoop confirms that Michael is a misfit in both worlds - perhaps not unlike McNulty, the only person who openly rebels against the hierarchy of the police department, and who is exposed by Kima. Snoop and Kima both understand the rules of how their respective systems work, and know that these rules cannot be safely broken."
Here is the link to the forum - you should browse some of the threads that discuss the individual episodes - hell, the whole Wire section in general - love these guys!!!!!
http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showforum=911 |
Ferociouskitty
Veteran Poster
Username: Ferociouskitty
Post Number: 452
Registered: 02-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 06, 2008 - 05:28 pm: |
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Thanks, again, Nom. You're a great resource! |
Nom_de_plume
Veteran Poster
Username: Nom_de_plume
Post Number: 151
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 06, 2008 - 05:39 pm: |
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No, thank YOU! I've sent this to all of my fellow Wireheads too, I can only imagine the amount of submissions the editors will get. Hahahah |
Ferociouskitty
Veteran Poster
Username: Ferociouskitty
Post Number: 453
Registered: 02-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 06, 2008 - 06:11 pm: |
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Cool! I wondered where are the Wireheads hung out... ;-) The main editor is a Wirehead; I'm just bringing my editor's eye to this project. |
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