Are Urban Drug Dealers as Supernatural as Vampires and Aliens?

[xchrom]

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/white-noise/2012/06/13/are-urban-drug-dealers-as-supernatural-as-vampires-and-aliens/

The most studied media empire topics in the last 20 years, and arguably the most popular, lie in the fantastical realm — aliens, vampires, dual realities…and drug dealers.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Matrix, Alien, and The Wire comprise the most academically cited TV shows and films of recent times. There are, of course, a number of reasons for citation — from capitalism to feminism to fashion — but academics largely take interest based on fan devotion.

That is to say, drugs and drug culture fall in the same norm and dedicated fandom as aliens and vampires. Motifs surrounding the fantastic draw viewership, and The Wire subsists as “an example of a popular cultural form that stimulates the sociological imagination,” according to one paper.

But what about The Wire, a Baltimore-based drug and law enforcement drama with characters the creator says are “invariably mocked, marginalized, or crushed” by institutions, seems illusory? Are we as removed from urban culture and the drug trade as we are from high school vampire fighters? Stumbling on The Wire fan fiction certainly makes it seem so. Though we not be as familiar with street-level drug dealing, perhaps society could benefit by learning more about the real communities behind the show.

[JNelson6563]

1. Very interesting topic.

I read a book entitled The Corner. This was some years ago so bear with me on the fuzzy details...I believe it was by a couple of journalists who lived among the subjects of their book for about a year. They stayed in a Baltimore neighborhood I believe and heroin and life as an addict (and life around addicts) was the topic.

A very informative as well as heartbreaking read, highly recommended in regard to the topic of this OP.

Julie

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. The Corner was written by David Simon and Edward Burns...the same guys who made The Wire

It was also an HBO show before The Wire.

David Simon, of course, also created the NBC show Homicide.

[Enrique]

2. i'm confused by this article

I can't watch videos at work, is the video she posted the one where the guy is talking about naming the kid "Snot", and the scene ends with the guy saying, "...because this is America"? I didn't like that scene, and I didn't watch very much more of the series. I might give it another try.

If that's the scene, what does it have to do with what she wrote? I'm not getting it.

[xchrom]

3. that is the scene.

the wire -- in particular -- owed a lot of it's success to writing - 'capturing' - the language of 'the street'.

well, it isn't really 'captured' -- and i think the author would say that kind of colorful banter just goes a long way to mythologizing urban core citizens.

[RevStPatrick]

4. Sorry, but I was just reminded of this...

Don't mean to rip off the thread, because this is an interesting topic.
If you loved The Wire, as I do, you'll love this:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/414fa4b226/the-wire-the-musical-with-michael-kenneth-williams

[coalition_unwilling]

6. Richard Price's "Clockers" presents a very unglamorous fictional

view of a street-level drug dealer who is so stressed out he gulps down bottles of YooHoo to control his acid reflux. Don't want to be a spoiler but will say the novel is a great read. Never saw the Spike Lee film by the same title that grew out of it.

[FrodosPet]

7. 'The Wire': Young Adults See Bits of Their Past

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/10/AR2006121001034.html

When eighth-grader Namond Brice's mom seethingly orders him to "be a man" and run the family's ruthless drug-dealing business, Julian Quander is reminded of an old friend from Silver Spring.

Namond is just a character, one of the west Baltimore middle-schoolers this season on HBO's "The Wire." But like many of the characters on this no-stereotypes-allowed series, which had its season finale last night, Namond is too real. Young people in the Washington area feel they know the show's characters all too well: children who could be saved -- who want to be saved -- from the powerful forces that jettison them onto the wrong path in life.

~ snip ~

Simon has complained about the show's inability to reach a mass audience despite critical acclaim, and he said he fears that is because white viewers turn it off when they see the large emphasis on black characters. The show certainly has hooked many fans, including many white viewers. In online chats, fans call it "the best television ever." But it might say something more personal to young black viewers, judging from the active Web-based "Wire" fan clubs and chat rooms started by African American college students and young professionals.

"Even if an individual hasn't grown up in a low-income environment, they still can find some relation to 'The Wire' and its characters, whether it's the office, school or street," said Abeni Edwards, 20, a student at Hampton University in Hampton, Va. "Especially in the African American community, I think it's a hit because unlike other prime-time shows, 'The Wire' doesn't sugarcoat anything, and sometimes there are no happy endings."

~ snip ~