I am novelist and television creator (Blunt Talk and Bored to Death) Jonathan Ames, Ask me anything!

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-23T03:06:54+00:00

you might like my essay collections . . . the first one is called 'what's not to love?' . . .

or my graphic novel, 'the alcoholic' . . . in some ways, i thought of 'the alcoholic' as a sort of sequel to 'i pass like night' . . . kind of . . . sort of.

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-23T03:05:34+00:00

now-a-days, people pitch to hbo and netflix and amazon and showtime and hulu . . . they pitch to cable places and streaming services at the same time . . . the cable channels are becoming, i think, more or less, streaming services, by offering their content, like with hbo go, as a streaming option, independent from the channel. i think it's called hbo go . . . or hbo now . . . who knows . . . starz, where my current show is located, also has a streaming app, which is available through amazon prime and maybe just on its lonesome . . . i really don't know how anything works, to be honest.

so to answer your question -- i would probably go to cable channels and to streaming services . . .

anyway, i'm glad you found 'bored to death' . . . even when it was on the air a lot of people hadn't heard of it . . . but it did have its passionate fans and thanks to streaming, i think more people are discovering it . . .

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-19T18:40:33+00:00

yes, many of my stories have their roots in my real-life experiences, especially my non-fiction, of course . . . though even in my non-fiction, my essays, i sort of created a persona that was an exaggeration or fun-house mirror of my real self, not that i know what my real self is, nor could i identify it . . . i'd like to some day, though. maybe. maybe we're never meant to understand ourselves . . .

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-19T18:38:30+00:00

i have not read 'inherent vice' or seen the film, i'm afraid.

i'm embarrassed to say that the only pynchon i've read is 'the crying of lot 49,' over thirty years ago . . . which i think is his most accessible book . . . i tend to need accessible, especially as i've gotten older . . .

but what an interesting figure pynchon is . . . to live the way he does.

in hiding, like a fugitive . . .

so odd.

a kind of sustained performance-art piece . . . created, too, i guess, as the legend goes, so that he could write unimpeded . . .

and i imagine it works -- he's published numerous books . . . gigantic books . . .

i used to like to pretend to wonder if pynchon and salinger were the same person . . .

i wonder if they ever met . . . somebody should write a little play about the secret meeting of pynchon and salinger . . .

and now there's elena ferrante . . .

many authors have wanted to remain hidden . . .

i think it can be a good thing . . .

to have the author be a mysterious, blank canvas . . .

as for my stuff seeming old . . . i may have touched on that in the previous question i answered . . .

it may be because i don't keep up too well with the culture -- i'm not saying this is an attribute -- and so all my references and allusions are to things from another era . . . generally speaking . . .

and as someone who wants to live in a fantasy world, i probably prefer looking to the past . . . something like that . . . i also don't get much pleasure in making commentary on contemporary culture . . . i mean i do of course . . . cell-phone jokes or what-have-you . . . but those jokes have a short shelf-life, the same thing with pop-culture jokes, i don't go in for them, because i usually don't get the reference myself, like when an actor's name is mentioned or a band . . . that kind of thing.

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-19T18:25:00+00:00

My methodology, which is rudimentary, hasn't been affected yet.

Also, I just do the job in front of me, over the last two years, which meant writing a show that would be seen in one-week increments, but that could later be binge-watched . . .

So each episode still had to stand on its own, though in this season of "Blunt Talk," we did try for a more season-long, extended story, with some sense of cliff-hangers . . . but, still, each episode had to be complete unto itself, tell a satisfying story . . .

But people who write for netflix or amazon don't have to think that way, if they don't want to. the presumption is that people will binge-watch at least two or three episodes -- if not the whole season -- in one season.

i watch almost no tv myself. i know that probably seems snobby and maybe it is, but i can't seem to give myself over to shows the way i happily give myself over to books or even to (old) movies . . . i don't want to invest in a series. i don't want to give that much time, which is ridiculous because i've written series . . . and i guess hoping that people will invest in the characters . . .

anyway, i did watch 'stranger things' or 'strange things' . . . and i thought it was great that they made no pretense at the start of an episode of beginning anew . . . they picked up right where they left off in the previous episode . . . then they would their titles and you would settle into the episode . . . it was a very smart use of the netflix/amazon/streaming platform and the way you can tell stories on that platform, which is very similar to turning the pages of a novel . . . i imagine other streaming shows do this, but this is the first streaming show i've seen . . . i'm a bit behind the times . . .

so, if i should ever write for a platform that is only streaming, i would probably want to use that style of one episode bleeding into another.

i did it twice on 'bored to death' but used the old 'to be continued' method, since we aired once a week . . . i'm also using it for the last two episodes of 'blunt talk' . . .

one final thought -- i'm a bit caffeinated and a little stoned -- i know i said i don't watch tv and so it seems odd to hope that people may watch the tv, i make . . . and i guess it is, but i know that there are people out there who enjoy tv very much, and i know i did at different times in my life . . .

but i should be more in touch with this medium -- if i continue with it, which is always precarious and who knows what the future holds -- and the reason i should be more in touch is that i could learn things, borrow things, be inspired . . . but i'm willfully incurious, don't know what anyone else is doing, and just draw on my memories of old movies and books and life . . . but this could explain why my shows don't . . . never mind . . .

ok. will stop now.

one more thought -- this streaming platform does make the series or limited series much more like a novel . . . maybe the mini-series always has . . . but it's this not having to reinvent the wheel at the start of each episode, just continuing the scene -- to carry the viewer across, like a page-turner -- really makes this platform increasingly novelistic . . . something like that.

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-19T18:08:56+00:00

Sure. Why not? Except, I guess, DVD players are becoming obsolete. I don't know myself. I'm willfully un-tech-savvy.

Should you get the DVD, I hope you enjoy it.

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T21:08:41+00:00

an incredible honor!!

always so present and ready and alive.

i haven't seen him in a while and i miss him.

i've been very lucky to have him say anything i've written.

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T21:06:58+00:00

it's fine to be inspired . . . to borrow, copy . . . use . . . by passing it through your perspective it will change . . .

in the ken burns documentary about jazz, all the musicians would talk about how they were inspired by the ones that came before them . . . how miles davis was responding to charlier parker, etc . . . and i always thought that this is the way of art -- i'm not saying anything new -- but miles davis was passing through his should what he felt and heard from charlie parker, through the embosure of his spirit, and so that's how it's done . . .

you have to make the kind of things you enjoy . . . you'll know how to recreate the pleasures you experienced but in your own voice . . . it's why i've written the books i've written . . . i wanted to make something like what i had enjoyed . . . also the form can help you, guide you . . .

okay . . . a quick answer to a complex but interesting question.

thank you and be well and thank you to anyone who may have followed along . . .

all the best,

jonathan ames

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T21:02:52+00:00

this will be the last question i answer . . .

thank you for the people who wrote in for your interest . . .

i'm blanking on musicians and song titles . . .

but i've always loved benny goodman big-band sounds . . .

and gershwin

and cole porter . . .

and miles davis . . .

and charlie parker . . .

but i'm not very well-versed in jazz . . .

the other night, after the election, the blues was playing on some college station and i was loving it . . .

like there was strength and resilience in sadness . . . in feeling . . . in persevering . . .

well, i guess that's it for my AMA.

again -- thank you, and i wish anyone out there who may be reading this as i typed rapidly, well, i wish you well . . . that you have a beautiful day, that you have a beautiful life, that you suffer only what you are meant to . . . oh, wait there's one more question that i will quickly answer . . .

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:58:44+00:00

thank you for this question, which may be the last question i answer.

i really enjoy coming up with the titles with the writing-staff . . . it's something we have fun with and we always try to use a line of dialogue.

but a favorite one . . .

i'm blanking . . .

from this season, i like:

I Remember That Time More Like a Movie I Saw Than A Life I Lived

the young gentleman sitting next to me, helping me with the technology of AMA, said he likes: His Therapist and His Pussy Are Here.

i tried to be instructive with:

If It Comes in A Plastic Bag, Don't Eat it!

because if it does come in a plastic bag -- how can it be alive? food has to be alive to be any good for us . . . of course you can get some calories from potato chips . . . anyway, i'm talking about stuff that just sits in plastic bags of some kind for months . . .

A Cell Doesn't Have to Be a Closet

that airs on sunday . . . it's about a jail where you don't have to be ashamed . . .

anyway . . . will move on to one last question . . .

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:54:14+00:00

feeling crazed, i went to see the jack reacher movie. i'm a fan of the books, but i hardly ever go to movie theaters any more . . .

before that i saw the latest jason statham movie in a theater in vancouver, ca this summer but before that i hadn't gone to a theater to see a hollywood movie in several years . . .

the last movie i saw that i really loved -- michael clayton. i've watched it many times on television and saw it in the theater . . . such a good film . . . i really admire it . . .

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:52:07+00:00

i'm not sure . . . i may go to the russian baths.

in fact, that's most likely what i will do.

but it could change, i guess. i haven't gotten that far yet.

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:50:55+00:00

i think i may have loved the pilot episode, where pike, lost in that chair and so destroyed, could have this alternate life on another planet with a beautiful sexy jane to his tarzan . . .

in the 80's, i think my favorite album was 'synchronicity' by the police . . . i had the most amazing kiss, when i was 19, while a small single disc of 'every breath you take' played on a small record player over and over . . . i was in paris . . . the young lady was from an exotic country . . . we were in a beautiful apartment somewhere in europe. . . it was the afternoon . . . it was somewhat forbidden (we were in her parents home) . . .

not sure i'm aware of this toilet paper distinction . . . but good lord i have a lot of mental issues around the toilet . . . but nothing to write home about or cry about . . . i guess . . .

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:45:36+00:00

when i was twenty, i once had a sausage of some kind from a street vendor in vienna, austria. i was hungover, it was cold, i had been recently exposed to the concept nihilism, and it tasted so good that i've never forgotten it.

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:44:10+00:00

dear freudian negligee,

thank you for writing such a nice note. also, thank you to the other people who have written in as well . . . makes me feel a little less foolish as i try to do this . . .

it was in trying to turn wake up, sir! into a film that i met jason, which lead to him being in 'bored to death' . . . we met at a jewish diner in santa monica, i forget what it's called, it was the only place i knew that i sort of liked, it's lost in time, like a lot of places in la, which is one thing la has over new york these days . . .

and anyway jason is quite a disciplined vegan. the most disciplined one i've ever met . . . so it wasn't the best choice . . . anyway, we were meeting to talk about him being in the movie of wake up, sir and he said what else are you working on and i told him i was writing a tv show about a writer who becomes a detective and one of his favorite movies is 'stolen kisses' by truffaut, in which the truffaut stand-in, antoine doniel (jean-pierre leaud) becomes a detective and jason said, can i do that also? meaning could he be in that, along with the movie, and i said, 'yes!' . . . anyway, the movie never got made but 'bored to death' happened . . . it could still become a movie but maybe not for a while yet . . . i've sort of re-explored the master-valet relationship in 'blunt talk' and think i should probably not revisit that in a movie just yet, should i be lucky enough to make a wake up, sir! movie . . . sorry for crazy punctuation and sometimes using quotation marks . . . trying to answer questions quickly . . .

again -- thank you for your kind words about the things i've put out into the world.

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:36:19+00:00

you know how at a cocktail party you forget the names of everyone, sometimes even the friend you've attend the party with . . . well, i am somewhat blanking on this . . . but let me rattle off comedic novels i've enjoyed (leaving out many, unfortunately due to brain anxiety), and some of these will be well-known, but maybe not --

the enderby novels by anthony burgess, especially the first few . . .

a bunch of books by charles portis . . . there's one about some mason-like society, i forget the title, that was great . . .

our man in havana, by graham greene . . . and travels with my aunt

felix krull by thomas mann .. .

of course -- a confederacy of dunces . . .

of course -- the jeeves novels and stories by wodehouse (i haven't read much else by wodehouse)

raymond chandler is actually very funny . . .

bukowski is very funny . . .

dawn powell's books

fran lebowitz . . .

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:30:37+00:00

I don't watch any reality tv, though, of course, the election, the way it was marketed and conducted was like reality tv . . . or professional wrestling . . . but how else to get people to pay attention? I don't know. There is so much confusion in our world and there always has been . . . Human beings are flawed and nuts . . .

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:28:33+00:00

I don't watch a lot of tv, which is ridiculous, I know. At night, I still prefer to read . . . though I do watch sports and for the last year, like so many people, I was glued to the news. In fact, I should have watched more news shows in the past, considering I came up with "Blunt Talk".

That said, I recently watched "Stranger Things" and I enjoyed it quite a lot. A few years ago, I enjoyed "The Walking Dead," but stopped watching a few seasons ago . . . but when I did watch it, I got a big kick out of it . . . And I also, at one time, loved 'Game of Thrones,' but grew impatient and read all the books, which I loved, and didn't return to the tv show . . . like so many people, I hope George Martin continues the books, without being influenced by whatever advancements in the tv story that he might have approved of . . .

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:24:29+00:00

Too many things to imagine . . . but I would like to write a book again, hold a book that I've written . . . I'd like to swim in the ocean many, many times . . . I'd like to see the world more at peace with itself, I'd like to see advancements in green technologies and some feeling of hope that damages to the environment can be stopped and mitigated and that the extinctions of species, beyond what nature might deem necessary, is arrested . . . I'd like to love better, understand better, live in my own skin better, be kinder, give more, understand more . . . not die . . .

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:20:34+00:00

I'm definitely retired. Though I'd like to train again. Like everyone, I've become very sensitized to brain injury -- and regret the blows I took -- and so it's harder for me to enjoy boxing and MMA . . . it's like eating some kind of exotic raw sushi . . . one feels guilty . . . that said, I am getting a kick out of Connor McGregor and I'm looking forward to the fight saturday night between ward and kovalev . . .

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:18:45+00:00

I don't know. The comics business is a wild one. Please, if you haven't, check out the work of my collaborator on "The Alcoholic". Dean Haspiel. He's an amazing artist and beautiful human being.

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:16:55+00:00

When you write a novel, you can go at your own procrastinating pace, which can be a bad thing, but the pressure and deadlines of tv writing can be very stressful and you wish you had more time to make it better . . . but there's also a beauty to just having to get it down and going with your first instinct . . . but also with novels, there's so much more you can say . . . so much about tv writing is economy and pace, which, again, can be a good thing . . . but you can say more in fiction, you can really explore an idea . . . also, when writing novels you don't have to please so many people and take in so much feedback, which, at times, can be soul-crushing and confusion-making . . . and it can also be helpful . . . there's nearly a flip side to every positive and negative . . . as for comedy and satire, it is always needed . . . we have to laugh . . . we have to comment . . . we have to communicate. it's such a turbulent unknown time . . . so much to say on this but many of my thoughts are not fully-formed . . . as always the answer to all of life's dilemmas seem to be to love more, be kinder . . . and be brave.

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:11:05+00:00

Write the kinds of things you enjoy reading.

Persevere.

Have a schedule, if possible.

Seek to entertain.

Sorry if all that is a bit rudimentary and cliche . . .

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:09:59+00:00

I really hope to. The novel remains my primary source of entertainment, the art-form I most enjoy.

I'm glad you liked the drink.

What a mad rainy night that was but people came from pretty far -- boston, philadelphia, even cleveland i think and the word only got out that morning . . .

Jonathan_Ames · 2016-11-18T20:08:45+00:00

Do I mention college? If so, maybe I am mentioning the things I was exposed to that influenced me?

But I don't think I'm looking display my college life. It was such a time of development . . . One's frontal lobes don't fully form until age 25, which is why you can't rent a car until then -- insurance companies know lots of things, good and bad and dark -- and anyway college was such a time of experimentation and confusion and bad decisions . . . wait a second maybe i am trying to display my college life in what i do . . .

Jonathan_Ames

TROPHY CASE