don draper

I'm going to go pretty far afield here at moments, because, hey this is my blog and I write here for FREE so you know, I can do what I want. But I think you should know that this is all about Don Draper---what's that?  Did you hear that Gentle Blog Readers?  it's the collective clunk of my female readers (and a few of my male ones, perhaps) hitting the floor in dead swoon.  Now.  To head into wandering territory again.  

This article here cites Flannery O'Connor as I have before in relation to anti-heroes in literature, film, and television.  As a kind of semi-adventitious aside--can we come up with a term that includes film television and literature in one?  (And how do you like that word: adventitious.) I know book snobs persist and far be it from me to stop a division that encourages people to read more, BUT we forget that all television and film is written first (except in the case of loons like Mike Leigh who make passable films on improvisation alone--though even those have a pre-written structure to them).  To me literature, film, and television--like the Bard told us of the lover, the lunatic, and the poet--are of imagination all compact.  So what would that word be?  Cinetelelit?  How about this:  stories?  Because even something as annoyingly dense and literary as Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow (which--I'll pass my Twitter whisper on GR here: psst!  the Emperor has nothing on!) all comes from the same historic root which was an oral tradition and therefore a performance tradition:  telling stories.  

And please note: just because performance PRECEDED literature as a vehicle for telling stories and preserving history does not necessarily mean it is in inferior to the literary tradition.  It is not an earlier stage of development--rather, it's like the village elder of story telling, it's literature's grandfather. Therefore it is a progenitor not a snotty-nosed, unsophisticated kid sibling--ancient, wise, and full of information, some of which it's uppity and less mature forms (like, um, literature as in what PBS and A&E watchers like) miss in it's leap toward bettering itself from the small town of Oral Traditionville from which it broke free, like Irene Cara in Fame (the original I hear the new one stinks, anyone see it yet?). . 

ANYWAY.  

Flannery O'Connor comes up time and time again when talking about the low culture of anti-heroes, because she provides the perfect example of the via negativa in literature--a pet subject of mine in that I think we have a fundamental crisis in mainstream criticism: we can't get our head around the difference between representation and advocacy. Mad Men has come under scrutiny by moralist critics for representing the morally degenerate world of advertising in all it's glory--and again the word, "glamorize" comes up or "glorify"--these are words that popped up all the time around The Sopranos and more recently, my new pet series, Nurse Jackie.  

The thing about Don Draper is not that he is as my friend has said, a "tool" (yet an undeniably, hot tool at that, and boy do we hate to admit that his bad behavior does nothing to reduce our desire for him!) but that you believe there is something about him worth saving, (beyond his hotness) though his behaviors suggest that he is beyond the edge.  They use a device in this show exceedingly well, one that enhances this deep mystery of nobility about a man who goes through women like some men go through Altoids, and lies 13 times before he's had his morning coffee and at least 26 times before his afternoon tipple. I call it the Nick Carraway Effect--in that every character, guest star or otherwise, becomes a Nick Carraway to Don Draper's Gatsby.  We explore him through others perception of him and his reaction to other people.  

I believe that the writers have been reading some of the academic literature that came out around the turn of the century (and by that I mean 21st century--itsn't it fun to realize we live at the turn of the century?) about the post-World War II period and gender identity.  I did quite a bit of reading on gender roles during the Cold War as a grad student and among the ideas that I recognize in Mad Men is Susan Faludi's Stiffed, and David Savrans Cowboys, Communists, and Queers.  But as academics are wont to do I may be putting the theoretical cart before the practical horse--these theories of masculinity were all deeply influenced by The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, a story that showed what happened to the American male as he re-entered culture after having endured the horrors of war.  So it is possible that the cinema and literature of the time period has allowed these deft writers to come up with a character who symbolizes all these two academics (to name but two who write on the subject) theorize on.  No matter.  It all comes together in something vaguely truthful and at least interesting.  

This American Man is one who is neither militarized nor de-militarized, because he is still armed to enter the height of American Capitalism as a warrior and still on alert against the foe through the Cold War.  And one of his most dominating features is his silence.  He is silent for many, many reasons.  He is silent because he has secrets, because his identity is built on lies.  He is silent because he can't reveal the parts of himself that don't match the American ideal of the uber-male.  He is silent because if he speaks he reveals himself a hypocrite.  But most of all he is silent because he cannot speak the unspeakable things he has seen as a man of war.  You get the sense if he speaks them that he will come apart at the seams and all that will remain is a lunacy that lies seething behind the after-shaved, gimlet scented facade.   

What is so completely riveting about John Hamm's Don Draper is his silence--and they continually use his reactions to other character's as the index of what lies beneath. His reactions to other's pain is what defines the possibility of his own emotions--even the birth of one of his children, he remains opaque, except for the way in which he listens to another young father-to-be who is a foil to Don's stoicism, wearing every emotion and every fear out on his sleeve.  

And, again, our eye is drawn to all that is worth saving in Don Draper.  While I suppose that there are many who might watch Don Draper and think he is a hero worth emulating--just as there are those who would ignorantly model themselves on Tony Soprano, Nurse Jackie, or House, MD--you can't really make art for those who will always willingly or ignorantly miss the point.  The idea about Don Draper that keeps most hooked in (aside from his obvious sexual appeal) is that he may in fact find redemption---from the horrors and secrets of his past, as well as the path he is on toward his own assured self-destruction.  

Comments

[Suzy K]

Have you seen this? Hilarious. http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/clips/don-drapers-guide/787241/

See, I watch Mad Men perplexed as to why he misbehaves the way he does when he is so fundamentally decent--tolerant, compassionate, thoughtful in so many ways. Maybe he is so compassionate because he IS so flawed (see Maugham's novels, particularly Villa). He is definitely intriguing, and beyond self-destructive. And hot.

Have you read Pat Barker's WWI novels? Superb look at an anti-hero whom you really come to care for, despite unbelievable flaws.

Men definitely damaged permanently by war.

I like the Nick Carraway analogy--Draper definitely has a bit of that Gatsby universal appeal to him.

[Sean Scott Maguire]

Don Draper is interesting to me because he's a successful family man business executive who would rather be a single beachside restaurant bartender. So, the more successful he gets, the less he cares about the outcome. But the less he cares, the more success (and trapped) he gets.

Joan Holloway is a good foil. She's the other fascinating hot person (but female). She's interesting because, by talent and smarts, she should be running the company, but the culture won't let her. The difference between her and Don Draper is that she's comfortable not being in the place she by talent and temperment should be in.

Also, when my wife talks about how hot Don is, I get to talk about how hot Joan is. That doesn't have anything to do with what you wrote, but I just wanted to put that out there.

[Jen Pierce]

Suzy: that clip was perfect! I hadn't seen it--but I wish I had before I wrote this! I'm going to post it on the blog later. I think the comparison to Maugham is apt--and I think there are still some pieces missing (You know the shiny shoes, I saw him dancing?) that may explain his behavior even more.

I have not read Pat Barker--and truthfully, my knowledge of fiction is not what it could be because graduate school (which began in 1998 and is STILL not quite over) has drastically reduced my time for fiction and I tend to return to old favorites and classics when I want to relax. But I'll add that to my list. The most extreme anti-hero ever, as I've written about here before, is Humbert Humbert in Nabakov.

SSM: Christina Hendricks is a genius--are you a Firefly fan? If so. Nuff said. I'm not sure that Joan is the foil to Don though--I think she's Don on the other side of the strict gender roles of the 50s and 60s. I actually think the FOIL to both of them is Peggy--who succeeds in defying expectations. But of course, she doesn't live an entirely honest life either.

I like the relationship between Joan and Peggy--you get the sense that Joan's curves are the only thing stopping her from doing the same thing.

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BQ: who are your top three?

1. George Clooney, everyone's number 1 mancrush
2. Ray Mears, survival expert
3. Don Draper, off of Madmen