I found your blog after having an unexpected conversation about Nathan Fielder with a guy I have spent probably less than 48 hours with in person. It started with an Instagram story featuring Fielder. I’m really enjoying the new season of The Rehearsal, and when I saw a photo of Fielder from a recent interview in GQ, I decided to share it with my “close friends.”
So the guy replies to this with “he’s a sociopath, 100%”. No padding, just boom - that guy sucks. This led to a convo about the ethics of Fielder’s artistic vision. In the eyes of guy, Fielder is exploiting weak and vulnerable people in a power dynamic where Fielder has ultimate control. He is making fools out of people who didn’t know what they signed up for. Somehow Fielder not speaking up vocally about the genocide in Gaza is brought up. Why hasn’t he signed anything or spoken clearly, but he has time to make a statement about Paramount’s antisemitism for removing the Summit Ice episode of Nathan for You from their platform?
My immediate response was that I can’t help what resonates with me. As an artist, I view Fielder as the jester that walks into court - or the Paramount executive office - and tries to transform that idle gaze you speak about into a type of positive chaos. Maybe it’s a little evil, but he’s also acting the fool too. And there’s a lot of fools to play with. Haven’t we all been the fool? Isn’t it better to act the fool with others and come to an understanding together instead of going through that shit alone?
How we steer our attention when confronted with our discomfort, the black hole kind that only our current media landscape can create, is so important. To break the spell, we have to inhabit and really sit with that unease. For me, what Fielder is doing is Jungian Active Imagination but with a blank check from HBO.
I really appreciate the conversation that came up with my friend because we were able to navigate through our feelings about issues that deeply affect us. I love that he had an opinion about Fielder’s work and chose to speak up about it. I do wish it happened in person though. That conversation was serious and touched on serious things, even though its genesis was The Rehearsal. It needed a physical space to work with and I even communicated that with my friend. There’s no place to land in the DMs.
I found your blog after having an unexpected conversation about Nathan Fielder with a guy I have spent probably less than 48 hours with in person. It started with an Instagram story featuring Fielder. I’m really enjoying the new season of The Rehearsal, and when I saw a photo of Fielder from a recent interview in GQ, I decided to share it with my “close friends.”
So the guy replies to this with “he’s a sociopath, 100%”. No padding, just boom - that guy sucks. This led to a convo about the ethics of Fielder’s artistic vision. In the eyes of guy, Fielder is exploiting weak and vulnerable people in a power dynamic where Fielder has ultimate control. He is making fools out of people who didn’t know what they signed up for. Somehow Fielder not speaking up vocally about the genocide in Gaza is brought up. Why hasn’t he signed anything or spoken clearly, but he has time to make a statement about Paramount’s antisemitism for removing the Summit Ice episode of Nathan for You from their platform?
My immediate response was that I can’t help what resonates with me. As an artist, I view Fielder as the jester that walks into court - or the Paramount executive office - and tries to transform that idle gaze you speak about into a type of positive chaos. Maybe it’s a little evil, but he’s also acting the fool too. And there’s a lot of fools to play with. Haven’t we all been the fool? Isn’t it better to act the fool with others and come to an understanding together instead of going through that shit alone?
How we steer our attention when confronted with our discomfort, the black hole kind that only our current media landscape can create, is so important. To break the spell, we have to inhabit and really sit with that unease. For me, what Fielder is doing is Jungian Active Imagination but with a blank check from HBO.
I really appreciate the conversation that came up with my friend because we were able to navigate through our feelings about issues that deeply affect us. I love that he had an opinion about Fielder’s work and chose to speak up about it. I do wish it happened in person though. That conversation was serious and touched on serious things, even though its genesis was The Rehearsal. It needed a physical space to work with and I even communicated that with my friend. There’s no place to land in the DMs.