(Midweek) Weekend Meditation: Charlie Kaufman, 'screenwriter, as far as the IRS is concerned'

In late September 2011, Charlie Kaufman addressed British film makers and afficianados in his only public address to-date.  

Kaufman is known for his screenplays for Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Synecdoche, New York.

His talk is 70 minutes long.  He discusses his doubts, his fears, his hopes, observations and lessons he's learned through his journey.  If you have ever had an artistic inclination, his words are sure to resonate with you.


See transcript here.

Here is an excerpt:

Here’s a recent quote that I found: ‘We do not talk, we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests.’ That was actually written in 1945 by Henry Miller and I think it’s timely. I think what it says is that the world has been on its present course for a long time. People all over the world spend countless hours of their lives every week being fed entertainment in the form of movies, TV shows, newspapers, YouTube videos and the internet. And it’s ludicrous to believe that this stuff doesn’t alter our brains.

It’s also equally ludicrous to believe that – at the very least – this mass distraction and manipulation is not convenient for the people who are in charge. People are starving. They may not know it because they’re being fed mass produced garbage. The packaging is colourful and loud, but it’s produced in the same factories that make Pop Tarts and iPads, by people sitting around thinking, ‘What can we do to get people to buy more of these?’

And they’re very good at their jobs. But that’s what it is you’re getting, because that’s what they’re making. They’re selling you something. And the world is built on this now. Politics and government are built on this, corporations are built on this.

Kaufman describes what it means to be a writer and an artist, at once beholden to institutions in order to produce work and reach his audience, but ever conscious of how one may subvert the reductivism of such institutions, so as to reveal value beyond their conception.

His message is a more refined version of the late Bill Hicks' bombastic tirade against advertising and marketing. Unlike Hicks' goal of demonizing the people who serve a maligning hydra, Kaufman accepts and embraces his insecurities, and so surrounds humanity with an empathetic love. And he reminds us that we can all be poets sowing seeds, simply by being ourselves.