
Why We're Teaching 'The Wire' at Harvard - aditya
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/commentary/teaching-the-wire-at-harvard
======
elptacek
He left off a couple of important points. Because The Wire is drama, you get
to know the characters as people. There is a huge difference between looking
at "urban, ethnic and impoverished" on paper and getting to know and
appreciate the characters as individuals.

<insert spoiler alert here>

Season 4 follows the youngest generation and ends by showing you how each
character steps into the place vacated by a character from the older
generation. This was the most painful season for me to watch, seeing young
people being trapped and molded into another wave of failure. This cycle is a
topic dear to my heart, and one I believe would not require mountains to
break. The cycle perpetuates because we're all afraid to touch it... myself
included. The subset of our society that is undereducated and economically,
socially and emotionally depressed is a component of the whole. And if we own
the whole, we own all of the problems, including those of the subset.

This is a course I would love to take, if only because I have some very, very
strong opinions on the phenomenon. But I'll spare HN the details.

~~~
sandykory
I'm also a huge fan of the show...For the interested who want nonfiction but
also want a compelling narrative arc, there's a great documentary by Stacy
Peralta ("Lords of Dogtown," "Riding Giants") on gangs in LA, "Crips and
Bloods: Made in America." It's part history, part interviews with current and
former hardcore gangbangers.

Two great nonfiction books on similar subjects that are highly readable:

A Hope in the Unseen, Ron Suskind (based on Suskind's Pulitzer-winning
newspaper series)

Makes Me Wanna Holler, Nathan McCall (an ex-hood turned WaPost reporter)

------
jessor
The Wire was an awesome show, probably one of the best I've ever seen.

Some characters, like Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, were casted right from the
streets.

Highly recommended to get a less romanticized view of the streets.

~~~
Tangurena
Snoop's story is tragically sad, but also inspirational as she _did_ get out
of the cycle of violence.

[http://www.amazon.com/Grace-After-Midnight-Felicia-
Pearson/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Grace-After-Midnight-Felicia-
Pearson/dp/0446195189)

~~~
jessor
Yes. I actually bought and read the book because her character was so moving.
Turns out it's just her whole person.

------
sfs
Obligatory: <http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/09/85-the-wire/>

~~~
sfs
Also, since this is Harvard:
[http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/98-the-...](http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/98-the-
ivy-league/)

And because the students taking this course probably aren't physics majors:
[http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/47-arts...](http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/47-arts-
degrees/)

------
zeeg
I still can't believe how they ended it with Omar like that.

~~~
telemachos
I can't find a link right now, but I remember an interview with David Simon
where he mentioned that Omar was originally supposed to appear _only_ in a
short arc (and then be killed). The actor (Michael K. Richards) was so good
that they had to keep him. (Still can't find a link to the David Simon
interview, but here's a link to an interview with the actor. He says 7
episodes was the original number.[1])

My point being: that character had to die. As awful as I found it to watch his
last episodes, there was really no other end for him.

[1] [http://www.hobotrashcan.com/2005/08/23/one-on-one-with-
micha...](http://www.hobotrashcan.com/2005/08/23/one-on-one-with-michael-k-
williams/)

~~~
samg
Omar is Michael K Williams, not Michael K Richards.

~~~
telemachos
Stupid of me, thanks. (Michael Richards played Kramer on Seinfeld. Wow. Weird
transfer.)

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pchristensen
See also: <http://www.slate.com/id/2245788/>

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jasonkester
The article is coming up 404 now. Google has it in their cache though:

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sourceid=chrome...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=cache:www.hks.harvard.edu/news-
events/news/commentary/teaching-the-wire-at-harvard)

------
sspencer
Disclaimer: I have never seen a single episode of The Wire.

Am I alone in thinking that this is a complete waste of time? Why would I go
to Harvard to hear learned commentary on a TV show? Granted, this is a
critically acclaimed TV show, but it's still just meant to entertain.

If I paid the exorbitant Harvard tuition, I would be incensed to be made to
study a TV show.

Maybe others wouldn't? Does anyone here feel like it's a positive instead of a
negative?

EDIT: I see that I have apparently angered some people by asking this
question, judging by the downvotes. I didn't mean to offend - I just wanted to
see what made this show different from other TV, which several of you have
explained. Again, my apologies.

~~~
rauljara
First: it is a single course, and it does not appear to be a required one. No
one is being made to study it. Students are being given the option of studying
it.

Second: All manner of art is studied in college, from novels, to sculpture, to
film. TV is but another genre, and while it an unfortunate history of being a
"low art", a lot of recent tv definitely rises to level of a lot of the films
that are studied in college today.

That being said, I'm a little leery of the context in which the show is being
studied. The course is on urban inequality. Even though the wire is very well
researched, it's still fiction. If you want to talk about the realities on
which the wire is based, why not study those realities directly? Why let an
intricately plotted work of fiction serve as your primary window into that
world? I'd be fine with showing some scenes from the Wire in a course on urban
inequality, but I'd really hate to give students the impression that the Wire
is the final authority on what life in Baltimore is like.

~~~
andrewce
" I'd be fine with showing some scenes from the Wire in a course on urban
inequality, but I'd really hate to give students the impression that the Wire
is the final authority on what life in Baltimore is like."

Hopefully, students will be smart enough to realize that "The Wire" is a work
of fiction (as you and others have pointed out). However, the difficult thing
about teaching just from research and theory is that it is extremely difficult
to gain a concrete understanding without a concrete presentation.

When I was going through the teacher education program in college, we read a
lot of (what I thought were very compelling) scholarly articles explaining how
current practices (regarding instruction, assessment, and so on) were flawed
and then proposing better practices.

The discussions we had were often of the "Okay, I see what the author is
saying" variety, but ended up with very little actionable follow-through. I
remember getting in trouble for trying to heed the advice of the research ("I
don't care what the research says, we're doing it this way and that's final.")

What I am trying to say is that research and statistics are all fine and
dandy, but the students at Harvard are mostly white and mostly from reasonably
affluent families who live near other reasonably affluent families. Ideally,
we could study those realities directly via fieldwork, but that's simply not a
possibility for most. So, in lieu of giving these students a completely
abstract understanding without any lived experience (even if it is vicarious
and fictional), "The Wire" comes in.

~~~
WalterBright
Smart enough to realize it's a work of fiction? I often hear college educated
people claim "The Jungle" and "The Grapes of Wrath" are historical
documentaries.

~~~
andrewce
I've heard the same thing about "The Da Vinci Code". Doesn't necessarily mean
that a majority of people hold such a view (that said: a sizable enough
minority is not too far from being a majority).

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holychiz
Love that show! the entrepreneurs here would truly appreciate Stringer Bell
and perhaps, Marlo Stanfield, but everybody'd love Omar!

Just one course? the fans of "The Wire" know that there's enough complex
storylines and richness of characters for somebody to do a PHD thesis on the
show.

\-- Avon:"the game IS the game...Always!"

~~~
michaelbuckbee
I actually thought the kid who was selling snacks out of his backpack and
using statistics to win at dice was the most notable entrepreneur.

------
lamby
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeit.

~~~
wr1472
It's Omar Yo

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WalterBright
Why not study real life instead of fiction? Fictions are, by definition, not
even pretending to be accurate.

~~~
blhack
>Fictions are, by definition, not even pretending to be accurate.

This fiction is set in reality, it's just that the specific sequence of events
hasn't actually taken place.

~~~
WalterBright
The trouble with the specifics is since it's a work of fiction, there is no
way to tell what is real and what is made up. Hence, reputable historians and
sociologists should study reality from reputable sources.

~~~
jacobolus
One thing every historian learns early on is that there are no perfect
sources, no single narrative. (Go watch the film _Memento_ if you want to see
some fantastic philosophical musing on this topic: we can’t ever completely
trust things written in the past, especially after we’ve lost the full context
of an author’s motivation) The real world is big and complicated and messy.
One thing a show like _The Wire_ gets to do that would be nearly impossible
for an academic paper is follow dozens of characters, their relationships,
their private lives, their motivations, their interactions with public
institutions.

~~~
philwelch
_One thing a show like The Wire gets to do that would be nearly impossible for
an academic paper is follow dozens of characters, their relationships, their
private lives, their motivations, their interactions with public
institutions._

Sounds like an ethnography, actually. This is exactly what anthropologists do
in the field.

~~~
jacobolus
My parents are anthropologists, and you’re certainly sort of right. I maintain
though that tracking dozens of drug dealers, cops, high-level city officials,
newspaper reporters, unionized dockworkers letting drugs through as a side
business, junior high students, etc. etc. would be almost impossible to do to
the level of detail portrayed in The Wire – it would be difficult and
dangerous work and you couldn’t get that kind of access (public officials
don’t admit illegal activity as a rule), etc.

Of course, you’d be getting a glimpse at some real people, instead of a
complete in-depth view of fictional ones.

------
mikewilt
Terrible idea. Should do a class on "The World According to Jim" or "How I Met
Your Mother" instead. ;)

Actually, it's very cool; I love the Wire. However, I am a little surprised
it's not the Harvard English department touting a course on The Sopranos...

