WSJ Speakeasy | David Simon on ˜Treme“ and Why Journalism Might Not Be Doomed (hat tip, Ray)
… Are more people likely to engage with the subject matter than journalism? Sadly, yes. That is true. If Treme runs for some time and gets out on DVD and video on demand, people will find it and maybe it“ll have an audience of 8-10 million. When I wrote a nonfiction narrative about the drug trade in Baltimore, if it had sold 100,000 hardbacks, it would be a New York Times bestseller. The economy of scale is so shockingly different that I have to acknowledge it has a greater reach than actual journalism, which is vaguely disappointing. This is a country that doesn’t read.
I love that this man has an audience and hope he has the opportunity to run Treme through five seasons. He deserves it.
During the Family Reunion / Navaratri Confab a couple of weeks back, I chatted with a cousin who lives in New York, someone I haven’t seen much of over the years what with the two of us moving all over the world and America for most of our lives. Some relatives you grow up with, some you meet again as an adult on adult terms (or, in my case, the closest possible approximation of “adult”). You have to understand my cousins and I were raised in strict, orthodox-Hindu households and to stand with wine glass in hand talking with these people who look like you, in the absence of parental supervision and approval, is kinda a big deal. It’s a bigger deal when your cousin, whom you’re just getting to know again, tells you her husband and she watch Treme and The Wire and that she is head over heels in love with Zeitoun. Squeeeeee! Comparing notes and simply sharing this awesome point of commonality was the best time I had that evening, besides the impromptu costume party later at my house that lasted until 4AM.
Talking David Simon and his work seriously with a member of my family. Who’d’ve thunk it? Of course, this means more cool people who want to visit New Orleans with D and me as tour guides.
Of course, this also means someone related to me will be reading Back Of Town. Oh boy.
Fan-tastic! Bring your cousin on down sometime soon. 8-)