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Thursday, May 11, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS

Elif Batuman’s 
story is beautiful

By SOPHIA KAUFMAN

Daily Book Editor

The title of Elif Batuman’s 

new novel is a direct nod to Dos-
toyevsky, but it’s also a sly nudge 
to the narrator, Selin; or, more 
accurately, 
Selin’s 
curiously 

detached perception of herself. 
“The Idiot” follows her as the 
American teenage daughter of 
Turkish immigrants making her 
way through college. Set in 1995, 
the story winds its way down the 
path of a year, during which she 
takes Russian classes, falls in 
love, decides to travel to anoth-
er country to impress a boy and 
agonizes over every email she 
sends and receives.

“The Idiot” has no true begin-

ning and no real 
end; 
rather, 
it 

is 
a 
collection 

of the moments 
and panics and 
discoveries 
and 
revelations 

and 
mundane 

evenings 
and 

mornings 
spent 

covering up last 
night’s 
heart-

break that make 
up a freshman’s 
year. 
Through-

out her first year 
at Harvard, Selin finds herself 
obsessed with language and 
with Ivan, a boy in one of her 
classes; but she cannot speak to 
him, well, in person. The two 
find their intellectual sparks 
are at their hottest when they’re 
emailing back and forth through 
all hours of the night, revealing 
intensely personal thoughts and 
pushing each other to always be 
more precise, always be more 
probing, always look for the pro-
found.

The book itself feels profound 

(though Selin would deny that 
with all of her might) despite it’s 
often whimsical, self-deprecat-
ingly tangential nature, because 
Selin has no qualms about shar-
ing any of her thoughts, as 
cringeworthy or absurd or unre-
markable as she might think 
them. A quiet presence in most 
of her classes, relationships and 

life, Selin sometimes forgets 
that, though she is constantly 
paying attention to what’s in her 
own head, other people do notice 
her, and take note. Her philoso-
phizing is compelling and clever 
and open and droll and somehow 
never pretentious, and the fact 
that we get to be in her head with 
her is a gift.

“The 
Idiot” 
captures 
that 

which we don’t even like to admit 
to ourselves, much less to other 
people. How we derive mean-
ing, ridiculously, from example 
stories in our textbooks, apply-
ing them to our own lives against 
all reason. How we spend hours 
in universities analyzing the 
meanings of specific passages, 
right down to the phrases, words 
and punctuation, yet make fun 

of 
ourselves 

and each other 
when 
we 
do 

the same thing 
with 
messages 

from a poten-
tial 
romantic 

partner. 
How 

we 
all 
some-

times think of 
ourselves 
as 

Dumbo or Cin-
derella, despite 
all evidence that 
points 
to 
the 

fact that some-

times we are the mean kids at the 
circus or the wicked stepsisters. 
How thoughts sprawling over a 
handwritten page can be pulled 
into a tightly written email, full 
of sharp language and tantaliz-
ingly unclear threads and a time-
stamp that makes you wonder 
if they’re also up at 3:00 a.m., 
thinking about you.

How stupid it feels when 

you’re constantly awed by the 
beauty of someone’s intellect but 
scared shitless at the thought of 
being with them in person.

“The Idiot” has one of the 

most absurdly simple endings 
I’ve ever read, somehow manag-
ing to feel abrupt and seamless 
at the same time. The book feels 
almost too plain and too long 
to be called breathtaking; Selin 
would laugh at me were I to say 
that’s what it is. But I think she’d 
also get it.

Josh Brener talks tech 

By WILL STEWART

Summer Managing Arts Editor

 
 “Silicon Valley” became an instant 
success, one of television’s most well 
crafted and hilarious shows, fol-
lowing its premiere in 2014. Now, 
in its fourth season, “Silicon Valley” 
continues to thrive by satirizing the 
bizarre, though insanely lucrative, 
tech companies and their eccentric 
culture. Josh Brener (“The Intern-
ship”) stars as the show’s loveable 
goof, Nelson Bighetti, better known 
as “Big Head” among his friends and 
coworkers. In an interview with the 
Daily, Brener talked about real life 
Silicon Valley experiences, his acting 
background and the show’s talented 
cast and writers.
 Brener, with no background in 
tech, has learned a lot about the field 
through playing Big Head and previ-
ous roles, like Lyle in “The Intern-
ship.”
 “I am not really a tech person at all. 
I’m kind of a dummy when it comes 
to that stuff, but by virtue of look-
ing like someone who might know 
about tech, I have gotten exposed 
to it a fair bit through acting,” said 
Brener, who has met some of the 
most successful names in Silicon 
Valley, including Craigslist founder 
Craig Newmark. “You sort of expect 
people who are like Craig, or other 
names you would recognize, to have 
big CEO personalities and to be very 
polished. They are not that. They’re 
odd people in odd clothing choices, 
and they’re amazing — really nice 
and wonderful people.”
 “Getting to meet luminaries that 
are the people, as much as we make 
fun of them, changing the world … 
is a really unique thing. With our 
show, a lot of it is pretty accurate, 
and I think it’s what the real people 
in Silicon Valley appreciate, and 

enjoy watching themselves. We’re 
all egomaniacs: We just want to 
watch ourselves,” Brener stated.
 After transitioning from the laugh-
ingstock of the show’s fictitious tech 
startup, Pied Piper, to a multimil-
lionaire working for the rival com-
pany, Big Head has fallen back to 
his initial lousy status. When asked 
about this drastic change, Brener 
explained how his character is able 
to remain so indifferent.
 “One of my favorite things about 
the character is that he doesn’t really 
seem to care one way or another. His 
change in dynamics between being 
a multi-millionaire to some guy on a 
couch doesn’t change him. He’s just 
a guy looking to snack well and avoid 
conflict or any real responsibility,” 
Brener said.
 Beyond Brener’s talent and knack 
at playing nerds like Big Head, he 
claims luck played a huge role in 
his success. He found himself at the 
right place at the right time a few 
years after his move to Los Angeles.
 “I was in a weird theater group 
at Harvard called Hasty Pudding 
where guys dress up in tights and 
high heels … it’s really silly and crazy. 
After I was [in Los Angeles] for a few 
years, I ended up auditioning for a 
role on the show ‘House of Lies,’” 
Brener stated. This role, coinciden-
tally, was “to play a recent Harvard 
graduate talking about the Hasty 
Pudding. And, it just blew my mind. 
I went it wearing my goofy Harvard 
tie, made up stuff about the Hasty 
Pudding and ended up getting the 
role.”
 “Silicon Valley” features an ensem-
ble of hilarious and gifted actors. 
Brener expressed gratitude for 
working with such an incredible 
cast and the opportunities the show 
has provided him in future projects.
 “Going to work with some of the 
funniest people on the planet is 

equal parts inspiring, humbling 
and intimidating,” Brener said. 
“I think we’re all trying to do as 
much with the good fortune that 
‘Silicon Valley’ has given us. My 
wife and I are writing partners, so 
we’re busily trying to get projects 
started on that front as well. It’s a 
grind out here, so you take what-
ever advantages you get, and ‘Sili-
con Valley’ has had more happen 
to us than we’ve had happen to it. 
We’re really lucky.”
 Brener, in addition to his fel-
low actors, acknowledges the 
high quality of writing on the 
show, particularly in the char-
acterization of Big Head. “I have 
to give most of the credit for 
Big Head to the writers — Mike 
Judge, Alec Berg and their staff 
— because when we started the 
show, it wasn’t really clear what 
the character was,” Brener said. 
Interestingly enough, he audi-
tioned for the part of Erlich 
Bachman, played by TJ Miller 
(“Deadpool”).
 “I never auditioned for Big 
Head; I didn’t know what it was 
or where it was going. So when 
we shot the pilot, I didn’t know 
a ton, but then when they started 
writing season two, they honed 
this character. I think they nailed 
it and I’ve been incredibly lucky 
to get to be the wide eyed, con-
fused dumb-dumb,” he stated.
 Brener explained the future of 
the show and the philosophical 
change in the plot, now becom-
ing more focused on bigger ideas.
 “I’m excited about [the shift]. 
We’re going to start looking at 
big picture, big ideas, which is 
what Silicon Valley is all about: 
changing the world and revo-
lutionizing the way people live 
their day to day life.”

BOOK REVIEW

HBO

“Silicon Valley” star Josh Brener looking weary

“The Idiot” 
has no clear 
beginning or 

end; rather, it is 
a collection of 
the moments 
and panics

TV INTERVIEW

