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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