So this Saturday I'm going to see The Farnsworth Invention again. For those who don't minutely follow all the details of the entertainment world, that would be Aaron Sorkin's new play. I saw the premiere last month, and found it intriguing enough to want to watch a second time, but this is the first chance I've had to get a ticket and get back down to La Jolla to see it. All in all it feels more like a really good Discovery Channel special than a theatrical drama, but quirky as it is, it obviously hooked me. I'm a sucker for Sorkin's writing, for many of the same reasons other people find it irritating. I love the ping-pong of erudite wit and wordplay, and hell, I even enjoy it when Sorkin gives up on drama altogether and just climbs up on a soap box and starts ranting. No one rants quite like Sorkin.
But Aaron Sorkin (creator of The West Wing, Sports Night, and Studio 60, as well as writer of A Few Good Men) is important to me for more reasons than just his talent. In him I see everything I could possibly be, despite my own shortcomings and eccentricities. I admire more than his ability to write scripts that make me laugh and stun me and bring tears to my eyes. I admire the sense of cohesion and camaraderie on his sets, and the way he - the most powerful man on set- stops to talk to extras and crew members (often much to their bewilderment). I admire the idealized way in which he views the world, and the way that despite his having in his youth descended into the depths of every imaginable sin, he seems to have come out of his experiences the same boyish, well-meaning innocent who went in. More cautious, perhaps, a dash more guarded and private, but still as sweet and well-meaning and almost heartbreakingly romantic as he was in his late twenties when he was suddenly catapulted into the entertainment stratosphere and all the excesses that came with it.
He's a guy who, given all he went through and how poorly he was prepared for it, could easily have crashed and burned for good. But when I look at him now I don't see the scarred and bitter old man he might well have become, but a serene and still-buoyant showbiz veteran with a job he loves and a little girl who turns his world. Somehow he seems to have left behind most of his adolescent darkness, yet kept his youthful curiosity and sense of adventure. For God's sake, he just agreed to write the script for a musical based on a Flaming Lips album. I am staggered by his audacity at times, and pray that when I'm in my mid-forties I'll be just as willing to step out onto a brand-new ledge.
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4 comments:
Sounds, I dunno - like a pretty cool guy.
A million and some odd years ago I worked for the local cable station in Arlington, TX. I ran camera for the local broadcasts and tiny budget talk shows. To my great surprise Ms. Gloria Steinem came to town to be interviewed. She made a point of meeting each person in the studio and after the show thanked me personally with a sincere smile and handshake.
Not that I disagreed with her views prior, but now Gloria can do NO wrong in my eyes.
Gloria in Excelsis Deo. I love people like that. To quote what is obviously one of my favorite poems, "If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch" then you certainly earn a place on my list of heroes. Though of course the actual end of that poem is "you'll be a Man, my son!" which probably isn't what Gloria was going for.
Run for it lads! She knows Latin!!!!
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