Link Banana

The Wire, much-loved by critics, much-ignored by the populous, is beginning it’s final season on HBO this Sunday. I’ve only recently found the show — a grim and unblinking look at Baltimore’s crime and law enforcement — and have been working through it on DVD. The Atlantic’s critique of both the show’s chief architect, David Simon, and his creation is fresh, interesting, and innovative. One of it’s many great lines:

The essential difference between writing nonfiction and writing fiction is that the artist owns his vision, while the journalist can never really claim one, or at least not a complete one—because the real world is infinitely complex and ever changing. Art frees you from the infuriating unfinishedness of the real world. For this reason, the very clarity of well-wrought fiction can sometimes make it feel more real than reality. As a film producer once told me, “It’s important not to let the facts get in the way of the truth.”

(via kottke.org)