“Fuck the Average Reader”

The Believer - Interview with David Simon

[Nick Hornby]: Every time I think, Man, I’d love to write for The Wire, I quickly realize that I wouldn’t know my True dats from my narcos. Did you know all that before you started? Do you get input from those who might be more familiar with the idiom?

[David Simon]: My standard for verisimilitude is simple and I came to it when I started to write prose narrative: fuck the average reader. I was always told to write for the average reader in my newspaper life. The average reader, as they meant it, was some suburban white subscriber with two-point-whatever kids and three-point-whatever cars and a dog and a cat and lawn furniture. He knows nothing and he needs everything explained to him right away, so that exposition becomes this incredible, story-killing burden. Fuck him. Fuck him to hell.

If you’re feeling average and fucked and still want to hop in, please do it — although I recommend starting with the very first episode and going straight through with no phones, no laptops, lights off, and with all your attention trained on this one dirty little window into America.

I can promise that, hour by hour, The Wire will deliver the highest ROI for your full attention that television can provide. No doubt.

Oy vey: List of characters from The Wire

6 Notes/ Hide

  1. nest reblogged this from wescoasia
  2. wescoasia reblogged this from merlin and added:
    Simon[Nick Hornby]: Every time I think, Man, I’d love...write for The Wire,
  3. schlomo reblogged this from merlin
  4. merlin posted this