{"id":84518782,"date":"2022-12-14T13:30:42","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T13:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=84518782"},"modified":"2022-12-14T13:30:42","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T13:30:42","slug":"spoiler-free-the-white-lotus-season-finale-beautiful-locales-and-the-writing-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=84518782","title":{"rendered":"Spoiler-Free &#039;The White Lotus&#039; Season Finale: Beautiful Locales and The Writing Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;What do you have to write about? You&#8217;re not oppressed, you&#8217;re not gay! [Writers] are all poor, I can tell ya that!&#8221; &#8211; John Lithgow, &#8216;Orange County&#8217; (2002)<\/h2><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The White Lotus<\/em> season two finale aired this past Sunday, and I\u2019m going to keep this free of spoilers, don\u2019t worry. <em>The White Lotus<\/em>\u2019s first season is an incredible exploration of contemporary upstairs\/downstairs relationships, colonialism, moneyed privilege, and the quiet brutalities of all-inclusive vacations (of which, I am regrettably a huge fan. Food and drinks and pool and beach! You ever <em>been<\/em> to a swim-up bar, bro?!) <em>The White Lotus<\/em>\u2019s second season is a gorgeous, haunting, operatic bedroom farce\u2014a genre that is very good at raising my blood pressure and forcing me to watch some scenes anxiety-scrolling through my phone. Oh, and Jennifer Coolidge. <em>The White Lotus<\/em> very much features Jennifer Coolidge, and we\u2019re all better for it. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/b3c4e576-71b3-4d65-815b-973bc856251f_480x480.gif\"\/><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mike White, creator of <em>The White Lotus<\/em>, is a fascinating person and has been effusive in interviews. He sounds like a writer who\u2019s been working endlessly for 20 years, is suddenly commanding absolutely everyone\u2019s attention, and is stoked to talk about his work. I don\u2019t go for identifying with celebrities too much, but I feel a certain kinship with Mike White. There\u2019s his unpretentious name, for starters, speaking as a writer who has <em>never<\/em> had any interest in heavy-scare-quotes \u201cwriterly\u201d pen names, like \u201cChristopher Corlew\u201d or \u201cC. James Corlew\u201d or worse \u201cC.J. Corlew.\u201d The time of Ernest and William and F. Scott has passed, let us enter into a literary era of Mikes and Chrises. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019s also his eclectic credits, signifying a Dude Who Wants To Do Cool Stuff with his career. You know how Tarantino\u2019s all like, \u201cmy career\u2019s gonna be <em>defined<\/em> by <em>10 films<\/em>, man, that\u2019s like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=o345bqNmq_w\">Tarantinoverse<\/a>, ya dig?\u201d Mike White wrote <em>School of Rock<\/em> because <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paramount.com\/news\/content-and-experiences\/school-of-rock-oral-history\">Jack Black is his friend and Mike thought the scripts Jack was getting sucked<\/a>. Mike White went on <em>Survivor<\/em> and <em>The Amazing Race<\/em> because <em>wouldn\u2019t you, if you had Hollywood connects and it sounded like fun? <\/em>He\u2019s open about narrative tricks, saying of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/12\/05\/1140224760\/white-lotus-mike-white\">White Lotus<\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/12\/05\/1140224760\/white-lotus-mike-white\">\u2019s dead body prologues<\/a>: <\/p><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cif I\u2019d put a dead body at the beginning of <em>Enlightened<\/em>, maybe people would\u2019ve watched <em>Enlightened<\/em>. You realize these kinds of hooks do actually get viewers.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve never watched <em>Enlightened<\/em>. I probably will now. Be cooler if it had a dead body at the beginning. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anyway, let\u2019s talk about my favorite movie, Non-Actual Top 5 List Division: <em>Orange County!<\/em><\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Orange County (2002) Trailer #1 - Jack Black Movie HD\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rn9mwi7XKzI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mike White\u2019s first film turned 20 this year, an anniversary probably celebrated by no one but Mike White, me, and whomever cashes Phantom Planet\u2019s royalty checks. But I love this movie. The working title of this column was originally called \u201cI\u2019m Not Letting 2022 End Without Writing About <em>Orange County<\/em>.\u201d This MTV Films-ass film holds a really important place in my heart: namely, that Shaun Brumder realizing he wanted to be a writer made me realize I wanted to be a writer. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes, this film was made when Crazy Town\u2019s \u201cButterfly\u201d had enough cultural cache to command a full-on cheerleader dance break, and yes, Jack Black does pitch an idea for a hat \u201c\u2026like a fuckin\u2019 hat that goes beee-ooo-reet!\u201d There\u2019s a lot in this movie you can\u2019t defend to the Criterion Collection Board or whatever. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shaun Brumder (played by Tom Hanks\u2019s good son) is an Orange County surfer, son of a rich real estate asshole dad and drunken, gold-digging mom (the history of the state of California in that marriage, right there). He spends his days partying with his friends (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YqcCoi1JhsI\">\u201clet\u2019s get lit and go jump off the roof of my house?\u201d<\/a>), has a supportive, animal-loving girlfriend who wants to be a marine biologist, and he <em>really<\/em> likes this one book. Based on the strength of that book, he decides he wants to be a writer, which in his mind, means going to Stanford to study with Marcus Skinner, author of that book he likes. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/658f1b30-e651-48fd-9350-6259d7a38374_270x200.jpeg\"\/><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was not an OC surfer, but I was a skatepunk guitarist with college rapidly approaching and firm knowledge that neither skating nor music was going to pay my bills. Leaving my hometown meant my band was breaking up. Genuine low point in life. I knew I wanted to create, I always liked storytelling, but crucially, I <em>was<\/em> jaded with music. I knew that was always going to be a side thing. Why not, like Shaun, try writing? <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Is it silly to have your life\u2019s dreams crystalize while you\u2019re watching an MTV Films production? Yes, undeniably. But, like Shaun, I wanted to get the hell out of my hometown, with its ridiculous people, and go to a Named University and study with Serious People. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shaun eventually decides <em>not<\/em> to go to Stanford\u2014good call\u2014because all he needs to write are the people who inspire him. <a href=\"https:\/\/getyarn.io\/yarn-clip\/db8a6f77-c679-4fb6-a64a-d30e0638a823\">What if James Joyce had left Ireland<\/a>, you know? Me, <a href=\"https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/p\/friday-links-the-majesty-of-the-great\">I\u2019ve adopted a new hometown<\/a>, but I still write about Tennessee. I went to a Named University\u2014Loyola University Chicago\u2014and it did a lot of good for my writing. Introduced me to the contemporary writing scene, allowed me to take a ton of workshops, and featured various writers\u2019 hallmarks like a massive library, an adjacent large body of water, and numerous neighborhood dive bars. But was <em>Loyola<\/em> specifically necessary to my writing development?<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/f6546313-c5f0-4551-838b-f7372ced26a3_300x157.webp\"\/><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not the institution that makes the writer. Loyola\u2019s Creative Writing faculty was like 2-3 profs plus a few adjuncts. It felt like an accident. I lucked into being able to study with <a href=\"https:\/\/joshuamariewilkinson.com\/\">Joshua Marie Wilkinson<\/a>, passionate educator and author of a million books, and David Michael Kaplan, a guy who literally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Revision-Creative-Approach-Writing-Rewriting\/dp\/188491019X\">wrote a book called <\/a><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Revision-Creative-Approach-Writing-Rewriting\/dp\/188491019X\">Revision<\/a><\/em>. So yes, Loyola was a very good place for me, but it doesn\u2019t feel like that\u2019s the University\u2019s doing? Maybe a writing lesson is take advantage of the good situations when you luck into them. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shaun Brumder decides to stay in Orange County at the end of <em>Orange County<\/em>. The end sees him rescuing his dead friend\u2019s surfboard from a \u201cIn Memorium (feat. So Many M-80s, Dude, Like the 4th of July)\u201d and going surfing with his friends. Presumably, he finishes his novel and goes on to write more (never a guarantee with writers, to be fair). He\u2019s maybe not found his bliss in life, but he\u2019s realized how to reconcile his lived experience with his ambitions. In Shaun\u2019s mind, writers are not surfers. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Hzx8KHjQD6c\">Writers exist with many leather-bound books in rooms that smell of rich mahogany<\/a>. But that\u2019s not true, you can write just as well in a swimsuit as you can in a tweed jacket with elbow patches. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Something I\u2019ve learned about myself is I actually write better in the summer. It\u2019s easier to think when you\u2019re not shivering, and a good morning kayaking session really gets the fountain pen flowing. Yet I live in a city where the beach is unusable nine months out of the year, because no other city in the world inspires me quite like Chicago. It\u2019s a weird combination, I acknowledge, but I genuinely think a good city and a good body of water are my ideal places to write. Something I learned about myself a long time ago is I\u2019m probably never getting an MFA, because packing up my family to spend two years in Boise or Boulder or Syracuse doesn\u2019t sound appealing to me. Chasing adjunct gigs in the woodchipper of academia doesn\u2019t sound appealing to me. Compromising my quality of life for any kind of prestige-chasing doesn\u2019t sound appealing to me. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019s lessons to take from Mike White\u2019s circuitous route to fame\/professional respect. There\u2019s lessons to take from the ending of <em>Orange County<\/em>, the \u201clife tenuously goes on\u201d wrap-up to the Harper\/Ethan\/Cameron\/Daphne storyline in <em>The White Lotus<\/em>, and even the \u201cmake art at all costs\u201d lesson of <em>School of Rock<\/em>. Chase your bliss as a writer. Find personal happiness even if you\u2019re writing about pain. Sit near a large body of water while you empty your arteries into a college-ruled notebook. And if, like Mike White, you have to smash-cut to crashing waves to make it all seem profound, do it. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/thecorlew\/status\/1599881512262176768?s=20&#038;t=rtXwUwQ0nmSYsn5R98t3AA\n<\/div><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sorry you got an email, <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chris<\/p><div class=\"subscription-widget-wrap-editor\" data-attrs=\"{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}\" data-component-name=\"SubscribeWidgetToDOM\"><div class=\"subscription-widget show-subscribe\"><div class=\"preamble\"><p class=\"cta-caption\">Thanks for reading shipwrecked sailor! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.<\/p><\/div><form class=\"subscription-widget-subscribe\"><input type=\"email\" class=\"email-input\" name=\"email\" placeholder=\"Type your email\u2026\" tabindex=\"-1\"\/><input type=\"submit\" class=\"button primary\" value=\"Subscribe\"\/><div class=\"fake-input-wrapper\"><div class=\"fake-input\"\/><div class=\"fake-button\"\/><\/div><\/form><\/div><\/div><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>LINKS!<\/strong><\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wmagazine.com\/culture\/jennifer-coolidge-white-lotus-finale-shotgun-wedding-interview\">W Magazine<\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wmagazine.com\/culture\/jennifer-coolidge-white-lotus-finale-shotgun-wedding-interview\"> profiled Jennifer Coolidge<\/a>, almost didn\u2019t play Tanya because she spent the pandemic eating pizza and once pretended to have an identical twin so she could date two guys at the same time in Hawaii. <\/p><\/li><li><p>Loved this <em>The Ringer<\/em> piece on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theringer.com\/tv\/2022\/12\/9\/23500604\/daphne-white-lotus-season-2-finale\">Daphne as <\/a><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theringer.com\/tv\/2022\/12\/9\/23500604\/daphne-white-lotus-season-2-finale\">White Lotus<\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theringer.com\/tv\/2022\/12\/9\/23500604\/daphne-white-lotus-season-2-finale\">\u2019s hidden depth<\/a><\/p><\/li><li><p>Remember that movie <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Descendants\">The Descendants<\/a><\/em>? Your parents probably saw it. Well that screenplay, adapted from Kaui Hart Hemmings\u2019s novel, won an Oscar! The writing credits are: the director of the film, the dean from <em>Community<\/em>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/getyarn.io\/yarn-clip\/379f6474-b860-4c92-a4d7-22f9f112ca3e\/gif\">Kip from <\/a><em><a href=\"https:\/\/getyarn.io\/yarn-clip\/379f6474-b860-4c92-a4d7-22f9f112ca3e\/gif\">Orange County<\/a><\/em>, who must\u2019ve abandoned his TV show that\u2019s about vampires, ostensibly, but underneath is really about the reunification of Germany. <\/p><\/li><li><p>While Twitter still exists, please read <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TBQuarterly\">Taco Bell Quarterly\u2019s feed<\/a> for more \u201cLive Mas\u201d writer inspiration. Genuinely good advice for living under the capitalist climate apocalypse. Oh, and make sure to read <a href=\"https:\/\/tacobellquarterly.org\/\">Taco Bell Quarterly<\/a>, too. <\/p><\/li><li><p>We didn\u2019t have enough time to talk about how wonderful Catherine O\u2019Hara is, how anyone who doesn\u2019t appreciate Jack Black is a bore, the fact that Shaun and I are the same height and that is neat, or how Brian Wilson is the jewel of a star-studded soundtrack in <em>Orange County<\/em>. So here\u2019s Jack Black taking off his socks: <br\/><\/p><div id=\"youtube2-3lqnLRBvvjk\" class=\"youtube-wrap\" data-attrs=\"{&quot;videoId&quot;:&quot;3lqnLRBvvjk&quot;,&quot;startTime&quot;:null,&quot;endTime&quot;:null}\" data-component-name=\"Youtube2ToDOM\"><div class=\"youtube-inner\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/3lqnLRBvvjk?rel=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;enablejsapi=0\" frameborder=\"0\" loading=\"lazy\" gesture=\"media\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowautoplay=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"728\" height=\"409\"\/><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;What do you have to write about? You&#8217;re not oppressed, you&#8217;re not gay! [Writers] are all poor, I can tell ya that!&#8221; &#8211; John Lithgow, &#8216;Orange County&#8217; (2002)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84518782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84518782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84518782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84518782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84518782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84518782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84518782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}