“We know more about what Huey Long represented and the emptiness at the core of American political culture from reading Robert Penn Warren than from contemporary journalistic accounts of Long’s reign. We know more about human pride, purpose, and obsession from Moby-Dick than from any contemporaneous account of the Nantucket whaler that was actually struck and sunk by a whale in the nineteenth-century incident on which Melville based his book. And we know how much of an affront the Spanish Civil War was to the human spirit when we stare at Picasso’s Guernica than when we read a more deliberate, fact-based account. I am not comparing anything I’ve done to any of the above; please, please do not presume that because I cite someone else’s art, I claim anything similar for anything I’ve done. But I cite the above because it makes the answer to your question obvious: Picasso said art is the lie that allows us to see the truth. That is it exactly.”
David Simon on His New HBO Series, ‘Treme’ — New York Magazine.
Thanks to a certain Professor of Pop Culture, I’ve seen the first two episodes of Treme, and it’s good. Really good.
I know the problem is the pitch for the show is basically – David Simon + New Orleans musicians – which doesn’t sound patricianly compelling or even interesting. And that’s part of the problem, I’ve seen the first episode and I’m at a loss for how to further describe or pitch the show to other people. Since it’s David Simon, the first 17 minutes roll by without a hint of plot or exposition. And while things happen in the ensuing minutes, I’d still be hard pressed to tell you where the next eight episodes will lead – except that I get the sense things will really start to gear up.
Here’s the other thing, you won’t care. It’s good. Beautiful, moving and funny. Seriously, read the New York Magazine profile on David Simon and really try to watch this tonight on HBO. You won’t regret it.
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