More about Berton Roueche...

We talked about Berton Roueche and The Medical Detectives in class today, and one of the things that came up was the pacing of the stories (well, of the one we read for class, " ").  The general understanding seemed to be that an editor today would really slash the pieces to give them a faster pace.  I guess that is true, but I couldn't help but think about "House, M.D.," where the stories are, in a lot of ways, just as slow to unravel (all those false starts, dead ends, and red herrings [off-topic: where does the phrase "red herring" come from?  I will need to check]), but they just jazz up the narrative with pretty faces & bodies, and mildly salacious bits.  And generally a more dramatic opener, I guess.  But I really kind of like Roueche's understated tone.  In any case, I got a little distracted in class wondering just how much the House writers and creators were influenced by Roueche (turns out liquid forms of caffeine are not, in fact, substitutes for food - after a day of iced coffee & Coke, and some pretzels, when my head wasn't spinning, it was wandering!), and thought I would look it up when I got home.  The results of my search (God bless Google and Wikipedia, how did I waste time before?) are below, and the full entry is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_(TV_series)

Conception

In 2004, co-creators David Shore and Paul Attanasio, along with Attanasio's business partner Katie Jacobs, pitched the show (untitled at the time) to Fox as a CSI-style medical detective program,[3] a hospital whodunit in which the doctors investigated symptoms and their causes.[4] Attanasio was inspired to create a medical procedural drama by The New York Times Magazine column "Diagnosis", written by physician Lisa Sanders.[5] Fox bought the series, though the network's then-president, Gail Berman, told the creative team, "I want a medical show, but I don't want to see white coats going down the hallway".[6] Jacobs has said that this stipulation was one of the many influences that led to the show's ultimate form.[6]


After Fox picked up the show, it acquired the working title Chasing Zebras, Circling the Drain[7] ("zebra" is medical slang for an unusual or obscure diagnosis).[8] The original premise of the show was of a team of doctors working together trying to "diagnose the undiagnosable".[9] Shore felt it was important to have an interesting central character, one who could examine patients' personal characteristics and diagnose their ailments by figuring out their secrets and lies.[9] As Shore and the rest of the creative team explored the character's possibilities, the program concept became less of a procedural and more focused upon the lead role.[10] The character was named "House", which was adopted as the show's title as well.[7] Shore developed the characters further and wrote the script for the pilot episode.[3] Bryan Singer, who directed the pilot episode and had a major role in casting the primary roles, has said that the "title of the pilot was 'Everybody Lies', and that's the premise of the show".[10] Shore has said that the central storylines of several early episodes were based on the work of Berton Roueché, a staff writer for The New Yorker between 1944 and 1994, who specialized in features about unusual medical cases.[4]

Shore traced the concept for the title character to his experience as a patient at a teaching hospital.[11] Shore recalled that, "I knew, as soon as I left the room, they would be mocking me relentlessly [for my cluelessness] and I thought that it would be interesting to see a character who actually did that before they left the room".[12] A central part of the show's premise was that the main character would be disabled in some way.[13] The original idea was for House to use a wheelchair, but Fox rejected this. Jacobs later expressed her gratitude for the network's insistence that the character be reimagined—putting him on his feet added a crucial physical dimension.[10] The writers ultimately chose to give House a damaged leg arising from an incorrect diagnosis, which requires him to use a cane and causes him pain that leads to a narcotic dependency.[13]

1. ^ Mitovich, Matt (July 28, 2009). "Fox Moves Up Two Fall Premieres; Plus a Glee Video Preview". TV Guide. http://www.tvguide.com/News/FallTV-Fox-changes-1008485.aspx. Retrieved July 28, 2009.



2. ^ Challen, p. 41.


3. ^ a b c Frum, Linda (March 14, 2006). "Q&A with 'House' creator David Shore". Maclean's. Rogers Communications. http://www.macleans.ca/culture/entertainment/article.jsp?content=20060320_123370_123370. Retrieved January 2, 2007.


4. ^ a b Gibson, Stacey (March 2008). "The House That Dave Built". University of Toronto Magazine (University of Toronto). http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/cover-story/the-house-that-dave-built/. Retrieved April 5, 2008.


5. ^ Challen, p. 96.


6. ^ a b c d e f MacIntyre, April (November 17, 2008). "'House M.D.' interview: Katie Jacobs talks Cuddy, Cameron and House triangle". Monsters and Critics. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/smallscreen/features/article_1443308.php. Retrieved January 6, 2009.


7. ^ a b c d e f "House… and Holmes". Radio Times (BBC Magazines Ltd.): p. 57. January 2006. http://www.radiotimes.com/content/show-features/house/house-and-holmes-parallels/.


8. ^ a b c d e f Jensen, Jeff (April 6, 2007). "Full 'House'". Entertainment Weekly: pp. 44–47. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20016394,00.html. Retrieved April 10, 2009.


9. ^ a b c d Jacobs, Katie; Laurie, Hugh; Shore, David; Singer, Bryan. (2005). House Season One, The Concept. [DVD]. Universal Studios.


10. ^ a b c Werts, Diane (January 29, 2009). "Fox's medical marvel stays on top". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117999278.html?categoryid=3530&cs=1. Retrieved April 5, 2009.


11. ^ a b c Jensen, Jeff (April 8, 2005). "Dr. Feelbad". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1043940,00.html. Retrieved December 7, 2008.


12. ^ a b Shore, David (2006). "Developing The Concept". Hulu.com. The Paley Center for Media. http://www.hulu.com/watch/21606/house-house---developing-the-concept#s-p2-st-i1. Retrieved September 16, 2008.

procraaaaaaaaaaaastination

I should be revising my essay for class right now.  Or doing my taxes.  Or doing my dishes.
So, I will chat about the books I am reading right now.
Currently working on four books:
Started Portrait of an Unknown Woman earlier this week.  Moving through it slowly, in bits and pieces, maybe about ten to fifteen minutes a night.  It's enjoy it, and I think if I just took it and sat down to read I'd get drawn in, but it's not grabbing me all that much.  So far, it's a little predictable - smart chick, who trusts women's/folk medicine, but loves a man who is a formally trained doctor (ie, thinks Galen is a god and bleeding people is good medicine), conflicted feelings about her stepfather, More, as he's getting more and more crazy religious, etc.  Probably going to be some kind of crisis where she will need to stand up for herself, blah blah blah.  I don't know.  I thought I liked it, but the more I think about it, the less impressed I am.  Just seems, I don't know, really familiar somehow.  The silk merchant one was better.  But I am really not all that far in, so I will reserve judgement.  Not a great sign, though, that I can put it down so easily. 
What I did not want to put down, on the other hand, and was very sad to find I had left at the office Tuesday, and happy to get back today, however, was the Medical Detectives book.  Yay!  Really, the more I read of it, and the more I thought about it even when I wasn't reading the book, I was just so impressed with the quality of Roueche's writing.  It's erudite without being pedantic - an expansive vocabulary, that is mildly impressive, but not in a way that it forces itself on your attention - and he has this gift for telling a story succinctly, and moving the narrative along, but still weaving in little asides and not-super-critical moments that are great and don't disrupt the flow of the story.  Roueche is also really good at letting the "characters" in his stories tell their own with minimal authorial mucking around on his point.  Clearly he is writing and editing the pieces in a way that emphasizes the personalities and creates characters out of actual people, but it doesn't feel artificial or forced.  You read the stories and half the time you don't even think about the fact that someone wrote it - wrote, edited, re-wrote, cut and added bits - and that its not just a depiction of exactly what happened.  And then you realize the fact you didn't even really notice the author is a sign of just how impressive a writer the author is...Stephanie Barron (if that is her real name, not sure, I think maybe it's a pen name?) is kind of awesome.  I seem to recall having mixed feelings about A Flaw in the Blood (her last book about...um, something...about hemophilia and...murder?  scandal?  whatever), but I think I enjoyed it at the time, but I have loved the Jane Austen mysteries she has written since I read the first one years ago - have gobbled them up - and I started The White Garden today, and digging it.  Whoops.  Inadvertent and terrible pun.  But it's true, so I'm leaving it in.  I only took it with me this morning because the two books I was reading at the apartment were too heavy to lug around, and the Roueche was at Harvard, and I knew I might want something to read while I waited for the bus to Cambridge.  Really pleased, though - considering I only brought it because it is a slim-ish paperback, I was well-rewarded.  Took me a little while to get the rhythm of the writing and story, but once I did, I got caught right up in the story - the two stories, actually.  It's one of those tale-in-a-tales, with an unlikely duo (because when are they ever likely) who I assume are going to bone (shout out to L, even though she doesn't read this, but if she had actually come out tonight, I would be out drinking right now, not home putting off my homework) at some point, tracing a historically important manuscript...the story of which is also unfolding.  It's not high art or anything, but fun, and definitely coming from a smart person, even if it doesn't require much in the way of brainpower on the part of the reader.  But it actually makes me want to read more about the Bloosmbury crew, so if it leads to some smartening, that's a good thing. 
And smartening brings us to our fourth and final contestant for my attention of the evening,
Richard Archer's As If an Enemy's Country: The British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of Revolution.  I've been reading a little bit before bed at night, and I am liking it so far, but I have a few reservations.  I think Archer is a good writer, and the history here seems solid, but I don't know...I think maybe the editing is a bit spotty?  There's something about it just feels a little off, a little rough.  God.  Even I can't believe I am complaining about the quality of editing in a published book, when I should be doing a much-needed revision of my own work.  Or taxes.  Or dishes :)  Anyhow, I'd better head to bed, it's getting on towards midnight, so better I call this night a wash, and get up early (hey, there's always a first time) to do some writing...

Paging Dr. House...

My writing class (ha, yes, I am in one, not that you would know from this blog) teacher assigned us a piece that originally appeared in The New Yorker a few decades ago, by the "Annals of Medicine" staff writer, Berton Roueche (accent on the final E - need to figure out how to do accents in this thing).  In order to get a literal hold on a copy of the essay, "The Incurable Wound," I checked out of the library a collection of his work, The Medical Detectives.  So far I am totally loving it - I just started with the first essay last night on the bus, and have been zipping through.  Going to skip over "Incurable" when I get to it, so I can read it closer to next Tuesday's class, but I am already regretting there aren't more stories in the collection.  According to some of the stories that Prof. T referenced last week, when she was talking about the writer/book, I am pretty sure this is where some of the "House" plotlines come from - when C and I heard her say a teenager is poisoned by wearing pants that were soaked in a chemical while they were still baled, we were like "House!" simultaneously - and these are just as fun, so far.  The strictly medical stuff is a little dry, although Roueche does a great job of writing about science/medicine for a lay audienence, but the fun really is in the "detective work" that the doctors do, tracking down first what could have made their patients sick, and then how it could have happened.  Our teacher kept saying this would be a great book "to give your dad" but I already want to share it around to everyone I know who appreciates an engaging story and nice (humorous, concise, literate) writing.  Weirdly, the book is strongly reminding me of this book of ghost stories I had, and read to pieces, as a kid.  Don't remember what it was called, but I think it had a purple and black cover.  And I think maybe they weren't necessarily ghost stories, but just, like, mysterious occurrences.  I think one might have been something to do with spontaneous combustion, and I think something else was maybe a house that was haunted by Dolly Madison???  In any case, I don't know why, except for maybe the shared spare-but-active prose, but Medical Detectives kept making me think of that other book - which I probably haven't thought of in years.  I need to do some digging, because last time I felt this way I was reading Farenheit 451, and kept thinking - for weeks - of Something Wicked This Way Comes (the movie) for some reason, before I realized that the movie was based on another book by Ray Bradbury.  Ugh.  And Something Wicked This Way Comes makes me think of The Watcher in the Woods, which still scared me, even when I got
older.  Well, okay, Bette Davis, all balding and creepy, scared me.