RATIONAL ANIMAL TALES: Atticus Finch mutters at Cal!

TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2020

#InterrogationSoDumb:
Readers all across the planet thought we were making it up.

Surely, these people thought, there has never been an actual interview anywhere near that dumb! No one has ever said something as silly as what's shown in the passage we're posting again down below.

We're all rational animals here! For that reason, many readers falsely assumed that no one is really this dumb:
SIMS (12/17/19): I had forgotten that To Kill a Mockingbird also ends with a crime—the [murder] of Bob Ewell [by Boo Radley, trying to protect Scout]—being covered up!

SORKIN: Isn’t it amazing? I had forgotten about it too, and I couldn’t believe it!

SIMS: It’s a story about the greatest lawyer of all time—Atticus—and he’s complicit in this crime!

SORKIN: This novel ends with, as Scout said, “the most honest and decent person in Maycomb” covering up murder with a judge and a sheriff. Why didn’t that ever come up in my eighth-grade class?
People assumed that it couldn't be true! Surely, no one has ever actually thought that Harper Lee's famous and fictional novel actually ends with a murder which gets covered up—the murder of Bob Ewell.

Surely, no one who ever read the book ever thought that's the way the book ends. For that reason, no one ever thought that Atticus Finch proceeded to "cover up" that murder—that he thereby became "complicit in a crime," joining a judge and a sheriff—or at least, so readers assumed.

Our readers were right in one way. In reality, no one who ever read Harper Lee's book ever thought any such thing as that.

That includes David Sims, The Atlantic's overwrought movie/drama critic. It also includes Aaron Sorkin, the creator of endless "middle American" TV pap.

And yet, in an interview piece which appeared in The Atlantic just last month, Sorkin and Sims swore a childish blood oath, insisting they believe these things about the Harper Lee novel. And they didn't just say that they believe that utter foolishness now. They claimed that this is something they had "forgotten" about the book.

Allegedly, it's what they believed when they first read the book! Recently, they have remembered these facts.

Sorkin and Sims had "forgotten" about the way Atticus took part in a crime. We're going to file this under a hashtag:

#CommentarySoStupendouslyDumb

Let's get clear on some actual facts. At the end of Harper Lee's book, Bob Ewell is rather plainly killed, apparently by Boo Radley.

But no one has ever actually thought that this killing—done to save the lives of two children—should be seen as a murder. For that reason, no one ever actually thought that Atticus Finch and Sheriff Tate were "covering up a murder" when they agreed to pretend that the vicious Ewell simply "fell on his knife."

No one ever thought that! No eighth-grade student ever thought that, not even the ridiculous Sorkin. No eighth-grade teacher was ever complicit in hiding such facts from their students.

Aaron Sorkin didn't think that when he was in eighth grade. In that sense, he hadn't "forgotten" that Mockingbird ends that way until he recently reread the book, preparatory to his latest attack on his country's intelligence quotient.

No one ever harbored the thoughts to which Sims and Sorkin now attest! This raises the question of why these two dopes are pushing this story line now.

Why is Sorkin saying these things? Unless you're a modern upper-end "journalist," questions of that type have always been hard to answer.

This much is clear, however. At some point in the past few years, Sorkin decided to do an "adaptation" of Harper Lee's famous book for staging on Broadway.

As best we can tell, isn't clear whether Lee was fully competent when she gave producer Scott Rudin permission to do this. It is clear that the Broadway adaptation which has now run a full year has "had its way" with Lee's famous book, sometimes in ways which are almost as strange as Sorkin and Sims' murder tale.

As you probably know, Harper Lee had written a novel, and her novel was fictional. Atticus Finch was a fictional character within her fictional tale.

He behaved in certain fictional ways. He held certain fictional beliefs, displayed certain fictional attitudes.

Sorkin, though, had many better ideas. He proceeded to write a play which uses the name of Lee's book and the names of her characters. And yet, so many things have changed!

What other sorts of things have been changed? Consider something the actor Ed Harris said to Sims in that same interview piece.

When Sorkin's "adaptation" debuted on Broadway, Jeff Daniels was cast in the role of Atticus Finch. The part is currently being played by Harris. Speaking with Sims, he described one of his favorite scenes in the new, improved play:
HARRIS (12/17/19): One of my favorite things that Aaron did is the tension between Atticus and Calpurnia. And the reason for that tension is that when Atticus tells her he’s going to defend Tom Robinson, she isn’t “grateful” enough and he says “You’re welcome” under his breath. And she calls him on it! That scene really resonates for me because it says so much about Atticus and his real motivations.
For ourselves, we haven't seen the Sorkin adaptation. The ticket price is extremely high, with the money sliding into various pockets.

That said, many reviewers of the play mention the "new attitudes" to which Harris alludes. It isn't just that the play ends with Atticus covering up a murder. Along the way he sasses Calpurnia, in a way which "says so much about Atticus and his real motivations."

Question! Did Atticus Finch, a fictional character, actually have any "real motivations" other than the motivations Lee wrote into her book?

Inquiring minds could discuss such questions forever! But just as Sorkin somehow remembered that Atticus covered up a murder, he has also apparently come to see how undesirable his various attitudes and behaviors actually were or are, especially on matters involving race.

Finch's attitudes have changed; so have his various actions. Writing in the Financial Times, Max McGuinness described a few of these changes when the play debuted:
MCGUINNESS (12/13/18): [T]he Atticus on stage here is more Sorkin’s creature than Lee’s. In Jeff Daniels’ portrayal, the novel’s shrewd and saintly widower becomes a flawed and somewhat diffident figure with an exaggerated faith in the power of the law.

As in the novel, Atticus is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black labourer accused of raping a white teenager, Mayella Ewell. But Sorkin makes some crucial changes: Atticus here replaces another unseen lawyer who had negotiated a plea bargain that would have saved Tom from the death penalty in exchange for a hefty sentence. He then persuades Tom to fight to clear his name. And whereas the novel’s Atticus knows that he cannot win the case and has at best “a reasonable chance” of overturning a guilty verdict on appeal, Sorkin’s Atticus seems naively and even recklessly convinced that justice will be done. Atticus—a model of restraint in the novel—also nearly comes to blows with Mayella’s father and actual rapist Bob.
It isn't just that Atticus covers up a murder and shows his true colors regarding race by muttering at Calpurnia. Unlike the Atticus of the novel, he dumbly believes that Tom Robinson will surely receive a fair trial in the Alabama of 1935.

Under the hash tag #AtticusSoDumb, Sorkin's version of Finch even consigns Robinson to his fate by getting him to rescind a plea deal which would have saved his life. The plea deal didn't exist in the book. Neither did the "unseen lawyer" who is now said to have negotiated it.

We haven't yet reached the largest of Sorkin's adaptations—the recovered memory in which Atticus Finch loves loves loves Bob Ewell, who now seems to be the "actual rapist."

Did Lee's character love Bob Ewell? We'll examine that excavation tomorrow. Eventually, we'll show you Sorkin's explanation for the way he has recovered all these "forgotten" elements of Lee's famous book.

Why, though, would someone create an "adaptation" of a novel in which so many basic elements are changed? Why didn't Sorkin take The Financial Times' advice and simply "write an original play?"

The answer may lie in a key word, "interrogation," variants of which pops up three times in Sims' strange interview piece.

Sorkin, one of our dumbest sachems, may think he's staging an interrogation of a famous book! We'd file his effort under two hashtags:

We'd start with #InterrogationGoneWild. After that, we'd move on to a very key word, and that key word is "dumb."

Tomorrow: Atticus [HEART] Bob Ewell! #SorkinSoDumb

24 comments:

  1. The Annenberg Foundation (Dr. Stacy L. Smith) compared the metacritic scores by gender from 2007 to 2019 and found no difference in the rated quality of films for men and women: male metacritic average 54.2, female metacritic average 55.8. Thus it isn't the perceived quality of the films that accounts for the lack of nominations of female directors for awards such as the Oscars.

    The Representation Projects says:

    "Nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards were announced yesterday. And for the 87th time in its history, no women directors received nominations in the Best Director category, despite 2019 producing both critically acclaimed and commercially successful films directed by multiple women. In the Best Picture category, Little Women, directed by Greta Gerwig, is the only film (among nine nominated films) directed by a woman to be nominated. In the acting categories, only one of the twenty actors nominated across four categories is a person of color. The nomination of Cynthia Erivo for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Harriet is the only reason we’re not hearing a reprise of the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag.

    The Oscars continue to be far too white and far too male in all of the non-acting categories. And while this annual event can easily be chalked up as unimportant and viewers can, and likely will, choose to ignore the telecast where awards are handed out, these nominations affect future work in Hollywood for talented people in front of and behind the camera. And more importantly, the stories that audiences see on-screen send a powerful message about whose stories are worthy of being told and celebrated."

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  2. Why is Somerby so pissed that a novel has been changed to some extent for a new stage adaptation?

    And his mind-reading skills are on full blast as he decides what Sims and Sorkin ever thought or didn’t think, and that “no one” ever thought such a thing about the book. Some wondered about the way Radley, a white man, was never formally taken into custody, or even investigated, for the killing of a man, whereas Tom Robinson was executed for a crime he didn’t commit.

    And how does Sorkin’s stage version or his interview show that Sorkin is dumb?

    Sorkin’s changes seem to indicate the possibility of an Atticus Finch who may be a bit pompous or perhaps have a bit of self-regard behind his saintly liberal facade. And hasn’t that been Somerby’s theme for years now about liberals?

    Is a novel supposed to be untouchable?

    And why is Somerby sitting in judgment on a play he hasn’t seen and has no intention of seeing?

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    1. I wouldn't worry about it.

      Delete
    2. I would say that a novel IS supposed to be untouchable. Or at the very least if you make a play or a movie a) with the same title as a novel, and b) supposedly based on said novel that you should at least TRY to be true to the original.

      Otherwise you are engaged in sort of a shell game where you lure in fans of a popular (or classic) book and give them something completely different (and often much worse).

      But I suppose on the other hand, you can make some changes even to Harlan Ellison's award winning screen play and end up with something better than the original.

      Delete
    3. The French Lieutenant's Woman made major changes to the book in the transition to film. They were big improvements. I remember that particular book because the changes helped so much (and the book had been a bestseller).

      Then there's Dune. The entire relationship between Paul and Chani winds up as a single scene where he gazes into her eyes and says "I love you Chani" then back to the action.

      What works on film doesn't work in live theater (and vice versa). Stage actors need to be retrained to portray emotion less broadly on screen. Film is a visual medium whereas books are imagined by the reader and you can just tell the reader about what a character is thinking or what he or she wants or intends, instead of having to show it. Because of these big differences, books cannot be translated to film as is, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done by a writer adapting the book. So it can be very difficult to stay true to the original, especially when it is the kind of book that no two readers will respond to or interpret in the same way.

      I'm sure there were changes to the Wizard of Oz too. The original book had a lot less singing.

      Delete
  3. "It also includes Aaron Sorkin, the creator of endless "middle American" TV pap."

    Sorkin wrote The West Wing. Does anyone consider that "middle American TV pap"? At the time, it was considered a left-wing liberal vision of what a presidency could be like. Sorkin then wrote Studio 60, about a late-night host with problems, and movies such as A Few Good Men, Moneyball and Steve Jobs. His biggest crime is that he has been commercially successful and won a bunch of awards, but no one considers him a Norman Rockwell figure, as Somerby tags him with "Middle American". No one seriously considers his work "pap" either.

    Somerby is being too pissy with this. It undermines the credibility of whatever else he wishes to say today.

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    Replies
    1. Somerby has as much credibility as other Trumptards and their idol, DJT.

      In short, none.

      Delete
  4. “Question! Did Atticus Finch, a fictional character, actually have any "real motivations" other than the motivations Lee wrote into her book?”

    Question! Does Somerby know how to read a work of fiction? Does he expect an author to tell him everything? Does he think reading is a passive experience?

    #SomerbyDumberThanSorkinBecauseSorkinIsSuccessfulWhileSomerbyIsNot

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    Replies
    1. 'Question! Does Somerby know how to read a work of fiction?'

      You could have stopped at read. I don't think he knows how to read, with the exception of books extolling his idols such as DJT, Roy Moore, Ron Johnson, Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes.

      Delete
  5. "Under the hash tag #AtticusSoDumb, Sorkin's version of Finch even consigns Robinson to his fate by getting him to rescind a plea deal which would have saved his life. The plea deal didn't exist in the book. Neither did the "unseen lawyer" who is now said to have negotiated it."

    This is an updating to reflect what tends to happen in modern legal proceedings. A current problem with racial inequity in our justice system is that African Americans are pressured into pleading guilty to plea deals because they cannot afford to insist on their innocence.

    This is only a modernization and updating to reflect current practices. Why wouldn't Sorkin and others wish to present a play that is more relatable to today's audiences?

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    1. “ This is only a modernization and updating to reflect current practices. Why wouldn't Sorkin and others wish to present a play that is more relatable to today’s audiences?”

      Modernize the play or make it more woke?

      I think Sorkin was trying to flesh out Atticus from a character he sees as being portrayed too idealistically and lifelessly, to one in the context of Sorkin’s own view of the region and its people.

      Sorkin went with Atticus revealing his white man’s sense of patronage via a surly and disdainful muttering at Calpurnia. Utterly unfair and out of character for the character.

      Sorkin would have done far better to have revealed Atticus’ innate cultural condescension through the original tenor of Atticus’s exchange with Scout over her use of the n-word. A lesson in kindness from the era of the book’s publishing, that nowadays sounds rather bloodless, measured, lawyerly, and noblesse oblige in light of our history.

      Delete
  6. "Sorkin, one of our dumbest sachems"

    Sachem is defined as a North American Indian chief, or colloquially a leader or boss.

    How is Sorkin any kind of leader when he is primarily a creative person in film and now theater?

    When Somerby says "our," who is he referring to? He includes himself, but Somerby is no liberal (as Sorkin is, based on the content of his writing).

    But this does reveal again Somerby's liberal-bashing agenda. He singles out Sorkin apparently because of a negative Financial Times review, dislikes what he read in The Atlantic's interview with Sims (their film critic), and decides to make him poster boy for this week's woke gone wild complaints.

    Somerby appears to be auditioning for his own cushy berth at a conservative think tank, or perhaps he's angling for a book contract with Regnery or Crown. He isn't representing any viewpoint that resonates with liberals.

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  7. "with the [ticket] money sliding into various pockets"

    Is Somerby now hinting that there are dark forces profiting from stage plays?

    #SomerbySoPure that he won't let a capitalist profit from investment in entertainment. Does he think all plays must be sponsored by the government (who sees problems with that)? Should all plays be produced as actor-owned cooperatives? This is a ridiculous reason not to attend a play.

    Talk about dumb!

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  8. Somerby should talk about the reception of Harper Lee's last novel. People were just as upset by that as Somerby appears to be by this different interpretation of the original book.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Somerby should read Harper Lee’s “Go Set A Watchman”, which has the same characters as “To Kill A Mockingbird.” In “Watchman”, we learn this:

    “Jean Louise finds a pamphlet titled "The Black Plague" among her father's papers. She follows him to a Citizens' Council meeting where Atticus introduces a man who delivers a racist speech. Jean Louise watches in secret from the balcony and is horrified. She is unable to forgive him for betraying her and flees from the hall. “

    “Uncle Jack tells her that Atticus has not suddenly become a racist but he is trying to slow down federal government intervention into state politics”

    “Atticus argues that the blacks of the South are not ready for full civil rights, and the Supreme Court's decision was unconstitutional and irresponsible.”

    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Set_a_Watchman)

    Couple this with the fact that “Harper Lee herself agreed to have Aaron Sorkin adapt her work.”

    Maybe Lee felt that there were some other “motivations” in Atticus Finch.

    ReplyDelete
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  11. I am reminded of Berke Breathed's fictional sequel to Lee's book. It's called "Kill mo' mockingbird: Boo Radley loose in the hood" and shows Bruce Willis as Atticus Finch with cigarette dangling from his mouth, a string of ammo around his chest and a machine gun in his hands.

    Being a northerner, it was actually that cartoon which inspired me to read that book - when I was in my 30s.

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