Dread & Certitude - Notes from the Writers' Strike
In Robert Stone's majestic, Conradian novel about Americans screwing around with Central America in 1980, A Flag for Sunrise, there is an hallucinatory riff about dread. It popped into my head this morning, after a bad night's sleep. In the passage, the protagonist, an American anthropologist finds himself over his head, way south of the border. He goes diving some 120 feet off a coral reef, and down there, in the dark, he becomes preternaturally frightened, struck by an unnamed dread, and feels himself to be close to an abyss, and closer still to something terrible. A "Shadow within a shadow, a silence within a silence." In Stone's utterly black inoculation, the solitary diver ponders what it was; shark, bottomless bottom, the end of all light, desolation.
Today, I feel that we writers are on the edge of just such an abyss; a sudden drop-off that can not be seen but can sure be felt. I have only my gut and my instincts to guide me, and I pray I am wrong. However, if indeed, 'character is fate', then the actions of the studios' negotiators are very telling. They want more than just this strike. They want to break the guild. To entirely dictate the terms of remuneration to artists in all the emerging electronic and new media markets.
If that is the case, the fight and the strike is going to be long and bloody, and at the end, the CEOs of the big media companies will be left with no way to justify their hallucinatory pay-packages. Or will they? Yes. Because the write-offs in deals they can trash, in a lackluster TV season will probably more than make up for the losses from the strike. The lawyers will pick up the pieces, and maybe the collateral damage for them will be some jobless creative executives, sacrificed by over-paid bosses, whose hubris has gored an entire industry.
The studios want the strike. They are clear-eyed and mercenary about it. The hard-core realpolitik equation in the boardrooms has got to be that the numbers will work out. So what if the industry is shut down for four or six or nine weeks. Or more.
And the guild members who are striking -- we have got to insist and pray that our leaders negotiate responsibly, wisely, and bravely. And insist that they do so without blinking, now that the trigger has been pulled. And insist on cunning and resourcefulness and stamina. (Not having been in the room, I cannot account for the DVD fracas of this weekend, which seems, on the face of it, to have possibly left the writers slightly less well armed for the siege I am worried we're headed into).
The studios probably have already noted the less than sympathetic reactions from the viewers. In fact, you would not be wrong to guess that the studio folk are enjoying the spectacle of watching the writers dance around to sell the idea of unfair wages to an unimpressed populace. An unimpressed populace who are only too happy, at this point, to say "who cares" to the writers responsible for the nightly, woozy miasma of lame jokes and mewling, sentimental crap that makes up a percentage of prime-time. (By this logic, the studios are simply blameless lending libraries that innocently stock porn on the shelves of the kiddie section.)
This fight with giant corporatism is the canary-in-the-coal mine of how labor deal with big business in this country. And with each day that passes, the actors and the directors and all other interested parties are getting closer to their own show-down over the same issues with the same negotiators for the same studios and networks. Careers are about to suffer. For those of us who are not rich -- the majority of guild members, that is -- the strains will be cruel and maybe even tragic, if the thing goes on and on and on. The ripples will get bigger, and other boats will get swamped. Crews and their families. The economy that depends on the industry. And frankly, it in this hubris-laden equation that the cold-eyed calculations of the studio heads begins to corrode.
And it begins to backfire. A smart strategy can turn into a bitter mistake very quickly. As the generals will remind you, once a war starts, the only thing you can count on is being surprised by what happens next. Wars get expensive and when people lose their livelihoods, you lose their hearts and minds. An industry is shut down not by the writers (the workers), but by the men who own it and run it. Why? Because it is in their interest to clear the slate of bad and costly bets.
That decision results in people who have nothing to do with the movies and TV, other than the fact that they live in LA, to lose what they have worked a lifetime for. People who are already trying to keep ahead of a faltering economy and sub-prime lenders (more corporate greed and hubris at work). Because the studios' negotiator would not discuss a deal over paying for downloads and on-line viewings with the people who created their product.
As the days pass, the indifference on the part of the public starts to shift. The attitudes about the fat-cat rich writers starts to shift. Because the message gets through. No matter how much the Reagan revolution transformed Americans into accepting the notion that "greed is good", and that unions can be broken without consequences, there will come a point at which the worm will turn. This thing will end. The writers will be weakened, but standing. They will be more unified than ever. They will get a piece of the pie they are asking for. Some piece. Something.
And somewhere, some CEO of one of these huge companies will start to wonder if it was all worth it. All the destruction. The rancor. The mistrust. The ill-will that will develop. The lost viewers, the lost audience. All of it. The ruined relationships with the people who create the product they need. Is it worth it? Was it worth it? Did we put our best man, and our best strategy in play?
May that epiphany happen sooner rather than later. It is my sense that in this stand-off the writers are not going to budge. Too much is at stake. The writers will not budge. How can you when you are being offered nothing, not even words? Even as we head towards a shadow within a shadow and silence within a silence, circled by sharks. The writers will prevail.
Read more thoughts about the strike on the Huffington Post's writers' strike page.
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The one upshot of the Strike is so many writers post here and the beautiful prose and the unique insight each writer brings to this situation is in itself a thing of beauty.
I just wish there was a way for more of the public to be involved and have their voices heard to help end it.
What is that Howard Beel says: "Just leave, leave me alone with my white walls and my Television. That's all I ask." Well, now we don't even have that. I hope some letters and phone calls from Fans can help.
Do you think we should come join the picketers if we can?
You go guys ... there are those of us out there who can tell the difference between a great film .. invariably made with a great script ... and the trash that's "greenlighted" by the "suits."
And when you win, I might just break down and get cable so I can use my television for something other than playing DVDs.
So what's the story? Can WGA writers work on webisodes? Are any WGA writers that have been working on web only content this year stopping ALL work or will they continue with their writing for internet only projects?
Thank you for your talent, intelligence, and passion.
And yes, thanks for sharing your personal story about your health problems. I hope you are much better. Sad as your story was, it humanized you. Because your writing and your series 'Brothers and Sisters' are so damn good, that I sometimes think you must not be a mere mortal.
And to all writers--keep up the good fight, and you are appreciated!
jon, I commend your effort to inform some of the more critical commentors here. Unfortunately, I think it may be a lost cause. What I see is grossly misdirected schadenfreude. To some of the public, we are lumped in with every person in Hollywood - all of whom have enviable jobs and thus, no right to complain. No one realizes - or cares - that most of us are leading middle class lives and are cogs within an unwieldy machine.
To try and equate our lives with a blue collar job just doesn't cut it. Especially since they think writing is something everyone can do and the quality is judged so subjectively. Furthermore, they take for granted that entertainment is readily available and cheap. If Alec Baldwin's plumber analogy didn't work on some, similar efforts won't either. If we tell them the truth - that when they let their children become ruling consumers, and thus the material bought in Hollywood reflects that level - they become defensive. A large portion of our detractors are so convinced that we are to blame or are complicit. I'm just hoping someone can come up with an everyman analogy that will work. Thank you for sharing your personal story about heart surgery and how the Guild paid for that. Basic health care coverage is a huge deal in this country. The public doesn't understand the history of strikes that established health care benefits for members. If you can effectively make the analogy between Bush vetoing Congress on health care coverage and the AMPTP stonewalling on the Guild, you may have something.
howdy jon,
i'd like to think you are right about the effects of this strike, but i think that the networks will be only too happy to flood the airwaves with the cheap thrills that can be had from prime-time game shows (my idea of a reality show is frontline and/or jim lehrer)
also, are the proof-readers on strike too, or are you just being ironic?
rock on,
ritchie :-)
Solidarity forever! As a long time union member, I stand with the writers!
As we hear Reagan idolized, can we also give him the responsibility of "union breaking"? I'm not saying that he started it, but he gave it one healthy shove with the air traffic controller move. Our unions continue to dwindle as temporary worker agencies flourish. Standing on the line at Honda Manufacturing doing the same job for half the salary and none of the benefits of the person beside you is par for the course in our area. We need the unions to get stronger and flourish. Sensibility and stamina will win out....you can't outsource these people's jobs.
Well said Jonathan. I also agree that they are holding back. The actors contracts are up for renewal next year and whatever precedent the studios set for you guys, SAG will want it to be matched (or bettered) for the actors. Stay positive, keep happy and keep writing, I know its your passion (I am originally from NYC and have seen your work - gosh you and Ron Rifkin go back forever). Anyway, Robbie, do what you need to do and hopefully, the pen is mightier than the sword. Larry Weissman
I'm with the writers, hands down. THEY are the creators of the whole shebang, and should be compensated accordingly.
The heads of the companies are just money pushers, they don't actually DO anything that creates money, they just parasitize the system. They want to bleed the host dry until it dies, as do all of their ilk. You see this kind of person in many businesses; the sociopaths that don't get how things can work together.
I have profound admiration for writers. I see writers as people who have been fortunate enough to recognize what drives them, and they have had the guts to make that their life's work. AWESOME. I support them FULLY in this strike. This clearly isn't about writers being greedy. It is about calling bullshit on greed, and saying enough is enough. Rightly so.
To those people who don't support them, I would like to know why can you not wrap your head around the thought that with your support this event might actually make your life better in the long run? At the very least being a human being with well-wishes for other fellow human beings who have the guts to actually stand up against corporate greed should give you a tiny warm fuzzy feeling. Try it out.
This country needs to go to greed rehab. Sadly, since the notion of thousands of people dead, dying or wounded in Iraq doesn't seem to motivate enough people to action, perhaps losing precious television programming will actually hit close to home. GAWD what a depressing thought.
Good luck to you writers! STAY STRONG!
There's so much hypocrisy about the strike, so much self-serving puffery. Including some writers earning millions of dollars protesting for more money. My heart goes out to them.. And I wish Baitz et al woulde stop calling himself "artists." Baitz is not an artist. Tennessee Williams was an artist. Edward Albee is an artist. Picasso was an artist. Baitz is making a lot of money writing a soap opera called "Brothers and Sisters." An artist he's not. Far from it.
And when Reagan busted the air traffic controllers' union, starting the unwinding of the US labor movement --- where were you?
Way to keep up morale, Robbie. Good work.
Maybe it's time the creative people in the visual arts take the path the music business did and say goodbye to hollywood, to borrow a line from Billy Joel.
The tools exist at reasonable cost for independent producers to go over the head of the MPAA companies directly to the consumers. The big studios/media congloms are in deep denial as to the fact that their business model has changed forever.
This month, for the first time, a full-length motion picture will go straight to iTunes after Hollywood took a pass. Keep your eyes on this development.
Internet protocol TV, iTunes and other new media can change the playing field and democratize the artistic media just as it has news and political organization. Writers and the other creative types hold the keys to the quality content needed to drive this.
I really think that a protracted strike could be the event where the MPAA 'Jumps the Shark'.
Hang tough writers. Maybe I am a minority, but I understand the value or the creative arts to human life.
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